Recently, a fire broke out on the retired Soviet aircraft carrier “Minsk” owned by a Chinese company and moored in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China. The “Minsk” has changed hands several times and faced multiple fires, with the latest blaze raising concerns about its future.
After burning for an afternoon and a whole night, the fire on the “Minsk” was finally extinguished on the morning of August 17. Photos and videos circulating online showed the carrier’s bridge, masts, and some smokestacks collapsed and charred, indicating potential difficulties in repair.
During the night of the 16th, the fire on the carrier was fierce, with billowing smoke. As the fire spread upwards, it burned through 4-5 decks.
According to a notification from the Nantong Municipal Fire Department, on the afternoon of August 16, the “Minsk” suddenly caught fire near the Sutong Changjiang Highway Bridge and emitted thick smoke. The carrier caught fire during the dismantling process, without causing any casualties.
Chinese military blogger “Korolev” suggested in a post on his WeChat account that preliminary analysis indicated the fire could have been caused by welding sparks or welding slag during construction operations, or possibly due to operational errors when using cutting or welding equipment.
The “Minsk” aircraft carrier, the second of the Kiev-class carriers, was named after Minsk, the capital of Belarus, a Soviet republic. The vessel was laid down in 1972, launched in 1975, and commissioned in 1978 until its retirement in 1993.
The Kiev-class aircraft carrier was the first fixed-wing aircraft carrier of the Soviet Union, positioned as an “aviation cruiser” to bypass legal restrictions related to passing through the Istanbul Strait.
Public data shows that the “Minsk” has a displacement of 42,000 tons, a length of 273 meters, width of 49.2 meters, flight deck area equivalent to three standard football fields, and a total volume equivalent to an 18-story residential-commercial building, with over 2,000 independent compartments. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Kiev-class carrier was the largest tonnage warship in service in the Soviet Navy.
The “Minsk” was equipped with weapon systems for anti-ship, air defense, all-around anti-submarine capabilities, and powerful firepower striking capabilities.
Despite not being a naval power, the Soviet Navy’s aircraft were largely operated from land-based facilities. While the Soviet Navy showed interest in aircraft carriers for maritime operations, at the political level, carriers were deemed unsuitable for future major wars with the focus shifting to carrier-based platforms capable of carrying nuclear missile-armed aircraft.
Due to this operational concept, the flight deck area of the “Minsk,” compared to carriers of similar tonnage from other countries, was significantly smaller, only capable of launching and recovering vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) jet aircraft or helicopters, instead of conventional jet aircraft.
In 1979, the “Minsk” was transferred to the Soviet Pacific Fleet as its flagship with its homeport in Vladivostok. The ship was deployed in the South China Sea in 1980 to support the Vietnamese government during the Sino-Vietnamese War.
In 1982, the “Minsk” and its sister ship “Novorossiysk,” freshly commissioned that year, formed two carrier battlegroups, serving as the primary deterrent force in the western Pacific waters for the Soviet Union. These carriers conducted long patrols in the waters near
the Japanese archipelago, including the Tsushima Strait, and participated in numerous large-scale military exercises, sparking concerns in Japan known as the “Soviet threat theory.”
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the “Minsk” and “Novorossiysk” came under the ownership of the Russian Navy, being part of the Russian Pacific Fleet.
However, due to the economic and financial difficulties in post-Soviet Russia, the “Minsk” suffered from a lack of necessary maintenance, leading to multiple mechanical accidents and fires in succession. The repair facilities in Vladivostok were suitable for minor repairs but lacked the capabilities for a complete overhaul, which were only available in Ukrainian shipyards on the Black Sea. Consequently, the “Minsk” was left idle in Vladivostok without undergoing
major repairs until its retirement in 1993.
At the end of 1995, both the “Minsk” and “Novorossiysk” were sold as scrap to the South Korean Daewoo Group. While “Novorossiysk” was dismantled in 1997 in Korea, the “Minsk” faced a similar fate until a Chinese company acquired it for $5.3 million just before it was to enter the scrapyard.
Despite the removal of its primary military equipment, the “Minsk” still held some reference value for the Chinese government’s urgent need for an aircraft carrier.
When the carrier arrived in China, Chinese military personnel reportedly conducted detailed inspections and studies inside the carrier. The “Minsk” also hosted military visitors over the following years.
It was claimed that after being towed to Guangdong, the “Minsk” underwent extensive changes. According to Wang Dayong, the head of the engineering and electrical department in Xinmingke Investment Company, it took three months for designers to fully understand the carrier’s basic structure. He mentioned that there were thousands of kilometers of damaged cables dragged out of the carrier, enough to stretch from Shenzhen to Beijing.
In 1999, a fire broke out in the deck machinery room of the “Minsk” during renovation at the Wenchong Shipyard in Guangzhou, suspected to be caused by sparks during welding operations.
Following refurbishment, the “Minsk” was transformed into a military theme park, known as “Minsk Carrier World,” placed on the coast of Shatoujiao, Yantian, Shenzhen, in 2000.
The carrier world attracted numerous tourists from Shenzhen daily, becoming a platform for shows and a filming location for films and television dramas. However, due to mismanagement, after enduring 16 years of ups and downs, “Minsk Carrier World” closed its doors in 2016. Subsequently, it was moved to Nantong, Jiangsu, where it remained moored along the Yangtze River.
Over the past two decades, ownership of the “Minsk” has changed hands multiple times in China, with its last buyer being the Dalian Yongjia Group.
In 2013, after acquiring the “Minsk,” the Dalian Yongjia Group signed an investment agreement with the Nantong Sutong Technological Industrial Park for a carrier tourism resort. The group reportedly planned to invest 10 billion Chinese Yuan (approximately $1.4 billion) in building a carrier-themed park in Nantong. However, investors complained that the approval process was too complicated, causing the project to be shelved.
Earlier this year, the Nantong Industrial Park announced plans to refurbish the “Minsk” into a national defense education site starting from March and intended to open to the public on October 1. However, the recent fire has once again cast doubt on the future of the “Minsk.”
Due to technological limitations, economic factors, and various other reasons, China had long lacked its own aircraft carriers before acquiring the “Minsk.” Apart from the “Minsk,” China has purchased three other carriers.
1. Varyag (later known as Liaoning)
Originally a “Kuznetsov-class” carrier built by the Soviet Union, the Varyag was unfinished at the time of the Soviet Union’s dissolution. Ukraine inherited the carrier and sold it to a Hong Kong businessman on behalf of the Chinese military in 1998. After extensive modifications by China, it was commissioned as its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, in 2012.
2. Kiev
The Kiev, the first ship of the Kiev-class carriers, originally belonged to the Soviet Navy, named after the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. Launched in 1972 and retired in 1993, it was sold to a Chinese company in 1996 and stored in Tianjin to become the Tianjin Binhai Aircraft Carrier Theme Park. In May 2011, it was converted into an aircraft carrier hotel, making it China’s first aircraft carrier hotel.
3. Melbourne
The Melbourne, originally from the UK, was an aircraft carrier of the Australian Navy with a 30,000-ton displacement, decommissioned in 1985. China purchased the carrier in 1985 and dismantled it for research purposes.
The “Minsk” incident serves as a reminder of the many challenges and uncertainties surrounding retired military vessels and their subsequent use, showcasing the complex history of these iconic symbols of naval power throughout the years.