Between August and October 1976, Admiral Isakov escorted the aircraft cruiser Kiev during tests of the latter's main missile systems off Kolguyev Island.[13] In difficult weather, Isakov sailed to the Lofoten Islands with the Kashin-class destroyer Smyshleny and the oiler Genrikh Gasanov during the April 1977 Exercise Sever-77. Between June 1977 and April 1980, she underwent repairs and modernization at the SRZ-35 shipyard in Murmansk, which included the addition of jet blast deflectors under the barrels of the V-611 missiles of the Shtorm system.[14]