Admiral Apraksin (22nd Century and On)

The Admiral Flota Rossiyskaya Imperiya Fyodor Apraksin (Russian: Адмирал флота Российской империи Федор Апраксин), originally the Ulyanovsk (Russian: Улья́новск) and also more commonly known as the Admiral Apraksin is a Russian supercarrier. It is currently the leading of its class in the Russian Navy, and is Russia's first nuclear-powered supercarrier. At the time it first entered service, it broke the world record for being the world's fastest aircraft carrier.

The ship's construction began during the Cold War, and was originally to be named the Ulyanovsk, after Vladimir Lenin's hometown. It was begun as the first of a class of Soviet nuclear-powered supercarriers, but was abandoned before completion. It was intended for the first time to offer true blue water aviation capability for the Soviet Navy. The construction of the Ulyanovsk was cancelled in 1991 due to the expenses, and huge problems occuring in the Soviet Union, let alone the fact that the Soviet Union was experiencing the climax of its rode to complete collapse.

The construction of the Ulyanovsk, or what would begin its modern-day counterpart, the Fyodor Apraksin, continued construction in 2020, as a result of Vladimir Putin initiating the Second Great Purge (which recovered over $50 billion USD that was supposed to be defense money), and pulling out fundings for the Russian Ground Forces and into the Russian Navy and Air Force. The ship was built in two parts, and the two parts were assembled together at the Sevmash shipyard, since Russia lacked the necessarry shipyards to build one supercarrier.

The ship instead, was re-named the Admiral Apraksin, after the historical Imperial Russian Navy admiral Fyodor Apraksin.

At the time of its completion, the Admiral Apraksin was still dwarfed by the size of the Gerald Ford and Nimitz carriers of the U.S. Navy, however with a speed of 60 mph, it surpassed the speed of both the Gerald Ford and Nimitz-class carriers of the U.S. Navy.

India and Brazil also purchased Apraksin carriers, designating them as the INS Shah Jahan and NAe Tiradentes respectively. Originally, the INS Shah Jahan served as part of the Arabian Sea Fleet, until the construction of the INS Chandragupta Maurya, India's first indigenous carrier, in which the INS Shah Jahan was sent to the South China Sea, later accompanied by the INS Chandragupta Maurya's sister carrier, the INS Rajendra Chola. Indonesia also has expressed interesting in purchasing Apraksin carriers

History
In 1991, after the scrapping of the original Ulyanovsk, Russia's navy, although still remaining a global navy with conisderable power projection, lagged behind other navies when it came to aircraft carrier technology.

Its only aircraft carrier remaining in service as the Admiral Kuzsnetsov, its other carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, fell out of use due to the lack of fundings and sold to the Indian Navy. Both carriers were Soviet-built.

At the time, the Russian Navy was falling behind China and the United States, with the United States by-far leading in naval might, and China taking Russia's place as second, having already built two carriers.

In 2018, Vladimir Putin decided to make budget cuts on the Russian Army, and started investing in the Russian Navy. Putin finally inked the deal in 2020. Many criticized that the Russian government would not have the money to pay for such a thing.

However, Putin, knowin that trying to build a supercarrier to surpass the Gerald Ford of the U.S. Navy on Russia's current budget, was unrealistic. Therefore, he settled on continuing the Ulyanovsk, but with modern features.

However on January 2, 2019, a year after New Years Day, Putin announced the initiation of what people would refer to as the "Second Great Purge", in which the Russian military hunted down political pocketers, who pocketed money that was supposed to be used on defense. The Russian military was able to recover approximately $51.4 billion USD worth of defense money.

After the Second Great Purge, much of Russia's defense money was recovered - which initially increased the Russian military expidenture to $102.4 billion, although some reported it was as high as $115.3 billion USD. This thereby, earned Russia enough to money to pay for such a large super carrier.

In 2022, North Korea invaded Russia's Far Eastern Republic. This resulted in World War III's largest artillery and rocket battle, with Russia destroying most of North Korea's capable rocket and artillery forces. Within less than a year, the Russians pushed the North Koreans all the way back south, which by then, had for the most part, been under Chinese occupation.

However, the war did not do too much damage, but did cause some slight delays.

One big event did happen: after Arabia became under Persian control, Arabia refused to sell anymore oil to the United States. President Ammon Bundy did what no other American president had done, buy oil from Russia. This made Russia ever richer, now that the nation with one of the highest GDPs was now buying oil from a rival power. Russia was able to increase its expidenture to as much as $140.8 billion.

The ship was completed around 2030, since World War III delayed work on it by at least two years. At the time of completion, it was Russia's largest carrier, and finally provided the Russian Navy with true much-needed maritime power. Testing took a year, and it finally entered service with the Russian Navy in 2031, sailing next to the Admiral Kusznetsov.

In 2034, Russia began building the Shtorm, a super carrier which would dwarf both the Apraksin and the Gerald Ford class supercarriers of the United States. It would, until 2118, reign as the world's largest, fastest and most advanced supercarrier.

In 2036, Russia's detonation of the GOAB made it the new global power. Ukraine, having felt the sense of NATO's betrayal and downfall, abandoned the NATO sphere of influence, but refused to enter the Russian zone of influence. This only caused further damage to Ukraine's society and economy. In addition, Ukraine fell into total civil and political conflict, with pro-Russia, anti-Russia and isolationist forces clashing.

Many Ukrainian politicians had behind-closed-door discussions with Moscow about a re-annexation of Ukraine into Russia. President Julius Doroshenko told his advisors, "If the Russians can provide us protection, bread and butter, so be it, let us be a constituent republic of the Russian Federation."

Julius Doroshenko, in a secret message to President Mariya Putina said, "Ukraine is bleeding. Do it, we are ripe. For the survival of the Ukrainian people. Long love Ukrainians and Russians. I am very confident that Russian leadership can help bring the Ukrainians out of their suffering."

In 2038, Russia finally invaded Ukraine - although it was a bloodless invasion, as the political  and economic limbo in Ukraine made it more-than prone to a Russian annexation. Russian troops entered Ukraine with food and supplies for many impoverished Ukrainians, and carried both the flags of Russia and Ukraine to show respect for the Ukrainian people and culture. At this point, Russia finally re-gained its old shipyards that it lost after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Russian government also invested billions of dollars into rebuilding and re-annexing the Black Sea Shipyard.

Many Eastern Europeans and Central Asians began flocking to Russia rather than the United States, not to find new opportunities, but to build new opportunities. People from Poland, Finland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Manchuria and Mongolia would flock to Russia to help rebuild it as the "power of the East". This paved the way for an increase in Russia's GDP. This increase allowed for the completion of the Shtorm faster than expected, despite having to be built in two parts in two different shipyards, until finally assembled as the Sevmash shipyard. While many expected the Shtorm to be completed in 20 years, it was completed in just 8 years, by 2044, though testing took two years and it did not enter service or see maritime activity until 2046.

It thus, allowed for not only for the building of another Apraksin-class carrier (known as the Admiral Makarov after Imperial Russian Admiral Stepan Makarov) in the Black Sea Shipyard, but also for the renovating and updating to the Admiral Kuzsnetsov.

In 2051, India and Brazil also purchased Apraksin/Ulyanovsk carriers. They were named the INS Shah Jahan for the Indian Navy and the NAe Tiradentes for the Brazilian Navy. The Dixie Republic, specifically the Navy of Texas and the Navy of Virginia had expressed interest in purchasing an Apraksin carrier, but held back since it already inherited some of the the Nimitz class carriers of the U.S. Navy.

The Admiral Apraksin's first major combat role was during Operation Swift Justice in Somalia, to aid the Russian Air Force in their aerial bombing campaigns. It was accompanied by the Arabian carrier the AWS Sharif Hussein and the Persian carrier the PNS Xerxes.

The Admiral Apraksin also paid several goodwill trips to the English Channel, where Russian troops performed joint anti-terrorism drills with British troops. During this time, Britain was under a Russia-neutral regime that admired Russia for its anti-terrorist capabilities.