Summary and Key Points: A fire broke out on the former Soviet Navy Kiev-class aircraft carrier Minsk, now located in China, leading to significant damage. The carrier, which has been deteriorating in a man-made lagoon off the Yangtze River, was previously turned into a failed theme park before being largely forgotten.

-The fire's cause is under investigation, and the incident underscores the troubled history of Soviet-era carriers. Minsk is one of three Soviet carriers in China, with its fate likely now leaning towards scrapping.

-The fire highlights ongoing issues with aging Soviet naval vessels, similar to past incidents involving the Russian Navy's Admiral Kuznetsov and others.

A Former Soviet Aircraft is Burning – Not the Admiral Kuznetsov

When news circulated this weekend that a former Soviet aircraft carrier was on fire and the blaze was reported to be out of control, readers would be forgiven for thinking it must have been Admiral Kuznetsov, the "flagship" of the Russian Navy. The warship has been undergoing an odyssey of a repair, during which time fires have broken out.

However, the carrier in question was actually the former Soviet Navy Kiev-class aircraft carrier Minsk, and the incident occurred far from Russia – as the carrier has been "rotting away" in a man-made lagoon off the Yangtze River in China. Images of the blaze had been shared on social media.

The fire, which broke out on Saturday afternoon local time, is currently under investigation. The early reports are that it seriously damaged the former warship that had already been in rough shape. The plans for the carrier had been in question before the incident, but scraping might be the only option now.

Just One of the Forgotten Soviet Carriers Now in China

Minsk is also just one of three former Soviet-built carriers to end up in China, and its condition may have been so bad when it arrived that previous plans to refurbish it were canceled. That explains why it has been largely forgotten for nearly a decade.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Navy built four Kiev-class aircraft cruisers between 1970 and 1987. After being retired from service following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the lead vessel Kiev along with the Minsk were sold to China – where they were converted into "tourist attractions," while the third vessel Novorossiysk was sold for scrap and broken up in South Korea in 1997.

Kiev was successfully turned into a theme park and luxury hotel, located at the Binhai Aircraft Park in Tianjin, but the same didn't happen for Minsk, which was originally slated to be a naval museum/theme park. According to an exposé from TheWarZone, a Chinese firm that made its money via video game arcades bought the ship "with the express purpose of building a theme park around it."

It opened in 2000 as the "aptly titled Minsk World," and featured an assortment of Cold War aircraft that TheWarZone further reported included Soviet Mig-23 and MiG-27 fighters, and a Mi-24 Hind helicopter. However, the park was far from a success and it went bankrupt in 2006, with the park and carrier auctioned off.

There had been some speculation that the retired aircraft cruiser was purchased to help aid the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) develop its own carrier program – as had been the case with Admiral Kuznetsov's sister vessel Varag, which was bought from Ukraine under the guise of being turned into a hotel and casino. Instead, the Varag was refurbished by Beijing, becoming the Type 001 Liaoning, becoming the PLAN's first carrier.

If the PLAN ever had considered refurbishing Minsk the plans certainly changed – likely due to its poor condition.

As for the fourth of the Soviet aircraft cruisers, the Admiral Gorshkov, built as the subclass Baku in the 1980s, was sold to India in 2004 and is now in service as the INS Vikramaditya. It has had numerous "troubles" during its two decades of service with the Indian Navy, likely to the point that some in New Delhi almost certainly wish it had never bought the carrier.

Fireships!

Fires on any warship are considered very serious, as noted by the 2020 blaze on the U.S. Navy's Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6). The damage from that fire was so significant that the decision was made to scrap the warship.

It was also more than five decades ago that the U.S. Navy's USS Forrestal (CV-59) suffered a fire that resulted in the deaths of 134, while another 161 were injured. It was one of the largest blazes on a U.S. warship since World War II, and it took a full day to be contained. Repairs cost about $72 million (more than $601 million in 2022 dollars), while some 175 feet of the aft flight deck was removed and replaced along with about 200 compartments on six decks. The disaster prompted the U.S. Navy to revise and improve its firefighting practices and also to modify the procedures for handling weapons – as mishandling of ordnance caused the blaze.

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].

Image Credit: Creative Commons.