What You Need to Know: The Russian Navy’s decision not to modernize the Pyotr Veliky, one of two remaining Kirov-class nuclear-powered battlecruisers, underscores the vessel's diminishing value.

A Soviet Kirov-class battlecruiser, attempting to intercept a U.S. Navy carrier battle group, is intercepted by the battleship USS Iowa. The biggest ship-against-ship battle since the World War ...