I don't know much about the Soviets refitting their ships, we know they always developed newer versions of missiles and fire control etc, but they never seemed to do any major upgrades to modernize ships once they were built. For example, you'd expect that the Kara and Kresta II ships would have their SA-N-3's replaced with SA-N-7's when they entered service to improve their anti-air capabilities, or replacing the SA-N-4 with the SA-N-9 for the same role. But the Soviets didn't really do this. They did it on two classes, the Kiev and Kirov, with the last Kirov replacing their SA-N-4's with 9's and changing their gun systems, but this was never done on a larger scale. I would assume they had a reason for it, probably something along keeping the ships ready in case war breaks out. If war breaks out, you will need everything you've got and its no good if a cruisers in the yard for half a year getting her missile system replaced, by the time she's ready, the war will be over.
It has more to do with their industries unable to keep up with everything, especially on higher end stuff:
Conway's all the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995 said:Industrial productivity has never been altogether satisfactory, particularly in such new fields as electronics. By the early 1980s many new warships were going to sea without key electronic systems, and sometimes even without portions of their armament. The Soviets did continue to develop innovative prototypes, and sometimes they were able to acquire electronic components from the West. Overall, however, it seems unlikely that the system could compete with the Western powers in the ongoing electronic revolution. Unfortunately, the Soviets had no Khrushchev who could envisage some radical military reaction comparable to the 'revolution in military affairs'. The post-Khrushchev settlement, in which all segments of the Soviet system were allowed to develop much as they liked, precluded that. In effect, the costs of maintaining standing forces and building the sort of forces already in production, could not be sustained.
In this economic context I suspect upgrading old ships might just be on the lower priority... which meant it was not gonna happen. The bigass ships that did get the refits was probably because they're bigass and important, so they warrant the upgrades.
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