The Slava-class cruisers served as insurance against the risk that the Kirov programme might go wrong. A second large missile-cruiser design kept the Soviet Navy from concentrating every status and surface-strike role in Project 1144. That hedge mattered because a technically ambitious nuclear ship could be delayed, under repair, or otherwise unavailable even when the fleet still needed a conspicuous combatant. The two cruiser classes distributed technical and readiness risk across separate designs.
Notable Point · 38:18-38:27
Why the Slava class insured the Kirov program
The Slava-class missile cruisers provided a fallback source of large status and combat units if the complex Kirov program failed or became unavailable.