Few signs of the growing power and diversity of the Soviet armed forces are more striking than the U.S.S.R.'s development of aircraft carriers. Though the Soviets built two helicopter-carrying warships in the 1960s, it was not until 1976 that they produced their first true carrier, the 38,000-ton Kiev. Last February came her sister ship, the Minsk, and two more of the same class are being built.
While the Minsk was cruising off Japan last summer, Japanese photographer Mitsuo Shibata, flying in a rented plane, spotted Moscow's newest carrier and took this revealing set of aerial pictures near Miyako Island in the Ryukyus....
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