The class earned its heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser label by retaining large missile installations under the forward flight-deck area. Aircraft operated over those weapons, which made protection against a failed launch or landing especially demanding. Liaoning's reconstruction removed the missile spaces, and Shandong never received them, trading the Soviet weapons fit for more aircraft capacity. The label was more than treaty language: the missiles reflected the ships' original bastion-defence role.
Chapter · 11:43-13:30
The heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser compromise
The Kuznetsov design combines a near-full flight deck with missile batteries beneath it, showing why Soviet terminology and carrier design did not follow Western practice.