Kreml

Kremlin in World of Warships is a fictional amalgamation of various aspects of Project 24, a post-war battleship design developed in the mid-to-late 1940s as a followup to the Project 23 Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleships. Specifically, she is a combination of Variant XIII’s hull, armed with fictional 457 mm guns.

History

In 1939 several faults were found with the design of the Sovetsky Soyuz-class. Although some Project 23 variants corrected these faults, in December of 1940 it was decided to instead develop a completely new project, taking into account desired characteristics and the fact that slipways would become available only in 1943. Thus, Project 24 was born.

In May 1941, preliminary Operational-Tactical Requirements (OTZ) were outlined for the newly-designated project. While the main battery and secondary battery were to remain the same as the Sovetsky Soyuz-class, the outline sought improvements to the battleship’s AA, armor scheme, speed, range and torpedo protection. Work on Project 24 was assigned to TsKB-4, which had worked on the Sovetsky Soyuz-class. However, with Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, work on the project temporarily ceased until the bureau was evacuated to Moscow in August 1941, where work continued. Initial studies of Project 24 bore a strong resemblance to Project 23, though with refined individual aspects. The first outline design had the following specifications:

• Displacement: 65,530 tons, full load
• Armament:
  • 9 x 406mm/50 main battery guns
  • 12 (6x2) 150 mm, 16 (8x2) 100 mm secondary guns
  • 44 x 37 mm AA guns
• Armor:
  • Belt: 390 mm
  • Decks: 150 mm + 50 mm
  • Transverse bulkheads: 250 mm and 380 mm
  • Turrets: 230-495 mm
  • Conning tower: 425 mm sides
  • Machinery: 6 boilers, 3 shafts
  • Speed: 28-29 knots

This design was likely an exploratory one, as it did not fully meet the requirements, particularly the speed. It most likely showed that Project 24 would have to significantly exceed the dimensions of Project 23 to fully meet the requirements. In July of 1944 the requirements were revised, combining the 150 mm and 100 mm guns into a dual-purpose 24-gun 130 mm battery. The light AA was replaced by 45 mm guns as well.

Throughout 1944 and 1945, the navy’s Scientific-Technical Committee (NTK) and the Naval Academy carried out numerous studies on the battleship. These designs varied in size (from 75,000 to upwards of 130,000 tons), armament (12 406 mm to 9 457 mm guns). These designs were significantly larger than those of TsKB-4, due to information about the American Montana-class. Although the class was canceled in 1943, the Soviet Union expected construction on battleships by Western nations to resume. Indeed, several Western nations immediately following World War II continued to work on their battleships, such as the British Vanguard and French Jean Bart. However, it soon became apparent that there would be no new battleships laid down, and so the Soviet Union reverted its design efforts to countering the Iowa-class with 75,000 ton battleships. In August 1945 the navy drew up construction plans for a post-war navy that envisioned at least 10 75,000 ton battleships throughout the next decade. However, Navy Minister Nikolai Kuznetsov proposed a limit of four battleships. In a conference with Stalin on September 27 1945, the Soviet Union leader proposed a further reduction on the number of battleships — with one Project 23 battleships completed, and two more battleships laid down in the next few years. In November the planned battleships were delayed to 1955 for them to be laid down. Admiral Kuznetsov approved a revised OTZ on December 19, 1945, which had the following specifications:

• Displacement: 70,000 - 75,000 tons
• Armament:
  • 9 x 406 mm main battery guns
  • 24 x 130 mm dual-purpose secondary guns
  • 48 x 45 mm, 60 x 25 mm AA guns
• Armor:
  • Immunity zone from 406 mm shells from about 16,000 to 36,000 yards.
  • Immunitzy zone from one ton AP bombs dropped from 3,000 meters. Underwater protection able to withstand 900-kg TNT equivalent explosion.
• Speed: 30 knots
• Range: 8,000 NM at 18 knots

It was planned for the tactical-technical requirements (TTZ) to be finished in 1949, the sketch design in 1951, and the technical design in 1952. Work on Project 24 was handed over to TsKB-17, as TsKB-4 was "reoriented" to "standardization", and the former was selected for future work on the battleship. In 1948 a new design bureau, TsKB-L (redesignated TsKB-16 in October 1949), took over work of Project 24, as well as work on Project 82 (the Stalingrad-class battlecruisers), which was also previously worked on by TsKB-4. However, Project 82 received a higher priority, as Stalin became more interested in it than Project 24, and as a result work on the latter proceeded slowly. Despite this, by 1950 at least 14 outline designs were developed for Project 24, in part thanks to TsKB-16’s cooperation with the navy’s Central Scientific-Experimental Institute for Warship Construction (TsNIIVK), established in 1946. The design process of Project 24 at the time was driven by exaggerated claims of the Iowa-class’s capabilities — it was believed the class had an armor belt up to 19-inches thick, and exceeded speeds of up to 35 knots during trials. Due to this, Project 24 was designed with a massive displacement, ranging from 80,000 to 100,000 tons, and — despite the requirement of 406 mm guns — armed with 457 mm guns in some variants.

In late 1950 design work of Project 24 was handed over to the Shipbuilding Ministry's warship research institute (TsNII-45), to allow TsKB-16 to concentrate on Project 82. However, Stalin still paid intermittent attention to the battleship, and became displeased with its pace of work and increasing size. He rejected any design with guns larger than 406 mm, and on April 18, 1950, a revised TTZ was approved, reducing the maximum size to 73,000 tons. Variant XIII, developed by TsKB-16, was selected for further development. The variant had several weight-saving features, such as reduced magazine capacity, as well as a reduction of the 130 mm battery to 16 guns. However, when the Ministry of Shipbuilding sent a copy of the TTZ to TsNII-45 for analysis, TsNII-45 criticized the design as one suitable for a World War II battleship, but not taking into account recent developments. TsNII-45 instead put forth a counterproposal for "small battleships" — universal ships that, operating in groups, could overwhelm a single target greater their size. After further study, the Ministry of Shipbuilding came to favor the small battleship over the revised TTZ for Project 24, but the Ministry of the Navy did not. A meeting was ordered for both the Ministry and the Navy to jointly study both concepts, but none took place. And with Stalin’s death in 1953, both Project 24 and the small battleship concept would cease development.

Historical Accuracy Errata

• No warship in the Soviet Navy was ever named Kremlin.
• Kremlin is depicted in a hypothetical 1953 condition.
• The 457 mm/48 B-45 guns mounted on Kremlin are entirely fictional. The guns considered on the 457 mm variants of Project 24 were the 457 mm/55, which in-game are found on Admiral Ushakov.

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  The first Project 24 variant, which still resembled Project 23 at this stage.

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  Project 24 Variant XIII, the variant seen as suitable for further development.

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  Armor scheme of Project 24 Variant XIII.

See here for links to Update notes.

• Available for testing by supertesters in the game starting from Update 0.8.1.

• Introduced in Update 0.8.4.
• Update 0.8.9:
  • AP shell damage decreased from 15,500 to 14,500, and the parameters of the projectile accompanying this were also changed.
  • HE shell damage decreased from 6600 to 6500, and the fire chance decreased from 48% to 45%. The parameters of the projectile accompanying this change were also changed.
• Update 0.9.0:
  • The HP of AA mounts was decreased by 50%.
• Update 0.9.1:
  • Sigma parameter decreased from 1.9 to 1.85.
  • Fixed the names of the fire control system module.
• Update 0.9.2:
  • Sigma parameter decreased from 1.85 to 1.80.
• Update 0.9.3:
  • Continuous damage caused by AA mounts was decreasd from 433 to 412.
  • The number of flak bursts was decreased from 10 to 9.
  • Damage within the explosion radius was decreased from 1,820 to 1,750.
  • Minor fixes to textures and ship model.
• Update 0.9.5:
  • Continuous damage caused by AA mounts was decreased from 413 to 395.
  • The number of flak bursts was decreased from 9 to 8.
• Update 0.9.7:
  • "Automated Main Battery Loading Mechanism" unique upgrade added to the Research Bureau for 19,200 Research Points (6th slot):
    • -18% to main battery reload time.
    • -12% to main battery firing range.
    • -1 charge for all consumables.
• Update 0.10.0:
  • The firing range of the secondary battery was increased to 7.3 km.
• Update 12.1:
  • Changes to the "Automated Main Battery Loading Mechanism" unique upgrade:
    • Removed the penalty applied to the number of ship consumable charges.