«Alas, the will of Beria and his basement “academics” proved stronger than common sense. Nevertheless, in 1954, the design of the Project 84 light cruiser began. The cruiser was to have a displacement of 14–15 thousand tons, a speed of 32–33 knots, and a cruising range of 5000 miles. The cruiser's armament was to consist of eight 180-mm universal guns in four twin turret mounts SM-45, twelve 100-mm universal guns in six twin turret mounts SM-52, and twenty-four 50-mm automatic guns in six quadruple gun mounts ZIF-75. In addition, the cruiser was to base two helicopters.New 180/65.5-mm SM-45 guns in twin SM-48 turret mounts were developed for the Project 84 cruiser at TsKB-34. Their firing range with a 97.5-kg shell at an initial velocity of 900 m/s was 36,234 m (198 cables). Unlike the old guns of the Project 26 cruisers, the SM-45 gun had separate-cased loading rather than bag loading. The elevation angle of the SM-45 ranged from -3° to +76°.Let us note that on Project 26 cruisers, the loading angle was +6°30', on Project 68 and 68bis cruisers it was -8° and 8°30', etc. Therefore, for the B-38 guns of Project 68bis cruisers, the rate of fire at elevation angles of 0°–16° (i.e., close to the loading angle) was about 7 rounds/min (what can you do, bag loading!), whereas at angles of +30° and +45° it dropped to 4.2 rounds/min, because after the shot, the gun had to be lowered to the loading angle.But in the SM-48 turrets, the loading angle was from -3° to +76°, meaning that loading was performed at any elevation angle. As a result, according to the project, the rate of fire was supposed to be 9–10 rounds/min. The ceiling capability (altitude ceiling) of the mount was 23 km. All this combined made the SM-48 a universal weapon capable of engaging aircraft at altitudes up to 23 km; that is, such guns could easily shoot down even the elusive Lockheed U-2.The SM-48 turrets had a fire control radar. The frontal armor of the turret was 155 mm, the side armor was 60 mm, and the roof armor was 75 mm. The weight of the oscillating part of one barrel was 75 tons, of the rotating part of the turret — 253.5 tons, and the total weight of the twin SM-48 mount was 276 tons.In 1954, TsKB-34 developed a preliminary design for the 180-mm twin turret mount, but soon work on it slowed down due to the lack of a tactical-technical requirement coordinated with the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry. By the way, the design of the cruiser itself was also delayed. The preliminary design of Project 84 was supposed to be finished in the second quarter of 1958, and the technical project — in the first quarter of 1959.Five Project 84 light cruisers were planned to be laid down at Shipyards No. 184 and No. 444, with commissioning scheduled for 1964–1965. However, the matter never reached the point of laying down the cruisers; by a decree of the Council of Ministers dated August 25, 1956, work on the Project 84 design was terminated at the preliminary design stage. By the same decree, work on the 180-mm SM-48 mount was terminated.
