The "Kuznetsov"-class aircraft carrier (Russian: Авиано́сцы ти́па «Кузнецо́в»), Soviet designation Project 11435, is a class of fixed-wing aircraft carriers operated by the Russian and Chinese navies. Originally designed for the Soviet Navy, the "Kuznetsov"-class ships use a ski-jump to launch high-performance conventional aircraft in a STOBAR configuration. The design represented a major advance in Soviet fleet aviation over the carriers, which could only launch VSTOL aircraft. The Soviet Union's classification for the class was as a heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser, which permits the ships to transit the Turkish Straits without violating the Montreux Convention, however the Chinese variants are classified as aircraft carriers.