Russian Aircraft Carrier Admiral KuznetsovDavid Axe, National Interest: Russia's Only Aircraft Carrier Might Be Headed for the Scrapper
The Russian navy might decommission its only aircraft without directly replacing the vessel, leaving Moscow’s fleet without any prospect of at-sea air cover for the first time in decades.
The Russian navy might decommission its only aircraft without directly replacing the vessel, leaving Moscow’s fleet without any prospect of at-sea air cover for the first time in decades.
Admiral Kuznetsov, the Russian navy’s sole flattop, in October 2018 suffered serious damage at the 82nd Repair Shipyard in Roslyakovo, a northern port city, when the PD-50 dry-dock sank while Kuznetsov was aboard for repairs.
Dry-docks lift ships out of the water, allowing workers to access their lower hulls for deep maintenance.
Swedish-built PD-50 was the only large dry-dock capable of supporting the Russian northern fleet’s largest warships. Russia's other large dry-docks are thousands of miles from the fleet's main northern bases.
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WNU Editor: The trend in the Russian navy is to build small and heavily armed ships. The aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov just does not not fit in their plans anymore.
3 comments:
Like Dov Sar commented, in the era of hypersonic missiles these carriers are only useful against the less technologically advanced nations. Not only that, but the Kuznetsov's embarrassing 2016 trip to Syria showed how deficient the ship is even when it's in tip-top shape. It had to be TOWED all the way from the English channel, through the Med, and to the coast of Latakia, all the while it's engines belched vicious plumes of black smoke.
Maybe these carriers DO have a role to play in the next big war for all I know, but I can pretty confidently say that the Kuznetsov doesn't.
A casualty of their dry dock collapse.
You could always track the Kuznetsov on open source. Because it required the full time escort of a civilian ocean going tug.
Russia never really "got" the aircraft carrier thing.
Let's disregard their screens nothing easy about locating them in real time let alone hitting it.
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