Russia's Aircraft Carrier Is In Bad Shape

Reuters

National Interest: Russia's Only Aircraft Carrier Is in Pretty Bad Shape

Time to scrap it?

Key point: Moscow's carrier is limping along and it might be better for Russia if it was just replaced

The Russian navy plans to dry-dock its only aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in 2020 and conduct extensive repairs on the aging, unreliable vessel.

The plan makes a perverse kind of sense from Moscow’s point of view. But it’s still a bad idea, two experts explained in Proceedings, the professional journal of the U.S. Naval Institute.

“As Russia’s only aircraft carrier and its flagship, the Kuznetsov’s main mission is projecting national prestige,” wrote Richard Moss and Ryan Vest, both instructors at the U.S. Naval War College. “From that perspective, Russia must overhaul her and get her back into service as quickly as possible.”

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WNU Editor: It is time to scrap her. And to think that decades ago the Soviet Navy had high hopes for this aircraft carrier .... This Russian Aircraft Carrier Had One Mission: Kill U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers (National Interest).