 The top deck hatches of these launchers would open to allow the missiles to be fired, however, when open they prevented the simultaneous launch of aircraft.The heavy surface armament makes "Kuznetsov" different from other countries' aircraft carriers, which carry only defensive armament and rely on their aircraft for strike power.For long-range air defense, "Kuznetsov" carries 24 vertical launchers for Tor missile system (SA-N-9 "Gauntlet") surface-to-air missiles with 192 missiles.