In today's video, we return to the Cold War. In this case, to the very tail end of it with one of the last ships built for the Soviet Union. And one of the largest, at that.
Not a combat warship, though. SSV-33 Ural was various things, depending on source, but direct combat wasn't one of them. A communications ship. Or a ship called a comms ship, but actually a spy ship. Used to track missile launches and intercept western communications.
Or so the plan went. As it turned out, this ship came too late. Her fancy electronics and massive hull rotted away as the Soviet Union collapsed around her. A sad, but not unexpected end, really.
I should note, for the following bit: I far and away prefer well-reputed print sources on this kind of topic. That is...not exactly easy to come by for this ship, so online it is. I tried to cross-reference as much as possible, but fundamentally, there's not a lot of material on this ship.
So, keep that in mind. I do my best, I never intend on putting any inaccurate information in, but there are limits with things like this.
Further Reading:
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/ssv-33.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20101130062309/http://russian-ships.info/eng/intelligence/project_1941.htm
https://www.rbth.com/economics/2014/03/18/the_rise_and_fall_of_ssv-33_ural_33805