New Russian Aircraft Carrier - Russia's sole aircraft carrier is finally on the move after spending roughly 10 months squatting at the Sevmorput Naval Shipyard in the country's northwest. Known for its bleak and disastrous history, Admiral Kuznetsov has suffered from a series of unfortunate events since its reintroduction to service in 2017.
On March 1, Jamestown Foundation President Glen Howard was quoted by Newsweek regarding his insights into the possible downing of a Russian spy plane by... MORE The quite radical Varan proposal—a new class of several ships all built on top of a similar hull (including potentially a carrier, landing helicopter dock, hospital ship and/or Arctic support craft), which the Russian designers are calling a "universal sea
New Russian Aircraft Carrier
complex" (UMK)—is clearly a response to that criticism. Still, any aircraft carrier emerging from it—and estimates are that one will not be built sooner than in ten years—will carry fewer planes and thus be less useful than even the Kuznetsov has been.
Author Expertise And Experience
Despite the enthusiasm now surrounding the idea, it is clear that the Russian shipbuilders and their Kremlin backers have not considered how to overcome not only the old problems but also three new and potentially even larger obstacles that Moscow has no obvious answers for.
The widespread enthusiasm, captured in the title of one article, "Russia Is Returning to the Oceans" (Stoletie, March 6), would seem to suggest that President Vladimir Putin's call, at the end of 2019, for a new Russian carrier to replace
the Kuznetsov is on the verge of being realized (Kremlin, December 3, 2019). However—in addition to the obvious fact that the projected new aircraft carrier will be smaller and less capable than its counterparts in other navies—the same problems that have plagued the Kuznetsov remain unresolved.
That strongly suggests Moscow is engaging in yet another propaganda bluff rather than announcing something it can achieve, at least anytime soon. Indeed, the problems that the Kuznetsov has faced have been joined by new ones that make the prospects for success on the Varan project far dimmer.
Russia’s Sole Carrier Has A Bleak History
And third, even if Russia is able to build the ships, it might not have enough sailors to operate them unless they are automated far more than any Russian vessel up to now. Because of Russia's demographic decline, which over the past year was greater than at any time in more than a decade, Moscow is now being forced to use military personnel not for their intended mission but to work on economic projects (Kriziz Kopilka, March 6)
. That makes the impact of sanctions on labor-saving technologies (robotics, sensors, artificial intelligence, etc.) even greater. A floating crane came crashing down on the ship's deck in 2018, killing one worker and injuring several others.
One year later, 14 employees were sent to the hospital after a welding accident in the ship's engine room broke out. "The UAV is to be used in conjunction with a fighter as part of the 'faithful wingman' concept.
Its functions are either refueling or joint strikes," the source added. The interlocutor specified that the apparatus will also use the developments of the "Scat" unmanned aerial vehicle. The October 2021 issue of Militant Leadership Monitor features a piece on the confirmed death of jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar and his legacy of spreading influence of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) throughout the Sahel;
The Admiral Kuznetsov Has Had Zero “Wins” Since
the leadership of Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund as the inaugurated Prime Minister of the... MORE Historically, Russia has been a continental power whose strength is its massive army (as has China). The Soviets built aircraft-carrying ships, but their role was different from that of US Navy carriers.
Russia's challenge now isn't projecting naval airpower into the Mediterranean or the Pacific. It's defeating Ukraine — or at least holding off fierce Ukrainian counterattacks. One of the carrier's main limiting factors is its power source.
Mazut- the extremely thick and tarry substance that appears to engulf the Kuznetsov when it travels is not very efficient. Since a black hue of smoke surrounds the carrier in the water, the ship is detectable from miles away.
Back in December, Russian outlets first reported that the carrier had begun the process of withdrawing from the dry dock. Just a few weeks prior to this, a "minor" fire erupted onboard the vessel, and Ukraine's defense ministry indicated that Admiral Kuznetsov was incapable of moving under its own power.
The Jamestown Foundation cohosted an event with the Hudson Institute on... MORE The Admiral Kuznetsov has never been lucky. Launched in 1985, the 60,000-ton vessel has suffered engine breakdowns, multiple fires, and bizarre shipyard accidents. In 2012, it had to be towed to port by a tugboat after losing propulsion off the French coast.
At the MAKS-2021 air show, MiG presented a scale model of the fifth generation carrier-born fighter was shown. According to the mock-up, the aircraft will be twin-engine with reduced radar visibility. The machine will be made under the aerodynamic scheme "duck".
A mock-up of the UAV was also shown. A characteristic feature of the future UAV is an inverted "V" shape tail fins. Russia's air and naval power has been remarkably unhelpful amid the war in Ukraine.
Its jets have mostly been confined to long-range attacks, and its warships have been less active since the sinking of Moskva, the Black Sea Fleet flagship. Varyag, a sister ship to the Admiral Kuznetsov, was still under construction when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. When the ships of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet were split between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainians took possession of the Varyag.
Ukraine then sold the unfinished vessel for $20 million to a Chinese buyer who claimed it would be converted into a floating casino. Maya Carlin is a Defense Editor with 19FortyFive. She is also an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel.
She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. First of all, not only have the problems of corruption and confusion in Russia's shipyards not been overcome, but the yards themselves are facing increasing difficulty in obtaining even basic construction supplies like steel, according to a new report by the East Russia news agency (East
Russia, March 5). Consequently, even if the new class of ships is ordered, the most determined Russian yards may not have the raw materials to begin constructing them. "The company is working on a promising fifth-generation fighter, which will be made using stealth technology.
Now there is a stage of computer modeling, the first prototypes of the machine are planned to be released in the next few years." Initially developed in the early 1990's, Admiral Kuznetsov was the only aircraft carrier to survive the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
A sister ship was constructed alongside the Kuznetsov, however, it was not completed when the USSR and was ultimately repossessed by Ukraine. "The overhaul and upgrade of the Admiral Kuznetsov will be completed in the first half of 2023. The avionics, flight deck with the ski jump, electrical equipment, the power plant will be replaced.
The carrier will receive a new fully domestic takeoff and landing control system. The airpower will remain the same. The carrier will have no attack weapons, it will be armed with Pantsir-M antiaircraft complex." This combination of old problems and new ones is already forcing Russia to postpone other key projects, including another Putin-boosted one, "the Polar Trans-Sib" railway (Ritm Eurasia, March 7) just as it did three years ago with its last
aircraft carrier project (see EDM, May 7, 2018). Observers now being swept up in the hype about a new kind of Russian capital ship that will supposedly transform naval operations need to remember that when Moscow announces a plan, it does not always have the ability to implement it.
A 40-year-old aircraft carrier in the Black Sea won't provide much value. The money would be better spent on new missiles and drones, which have proven effective in bombarding Ukrainian infrastructure. It's a little late for Russia to become a carrier power.
"The ship was supposed to become one of the main ones in the USSR," Karginov said, according to a translation of his remarks. "After the collapse of the country, Ukraine preferred to sell it for a few bottles of vodka, at the price of scrap metal."
The Kuznetsov's lackluster construction is accompanied by constant mistakes on board. In 2016, the carrier deployed to combat in Syria for the first time. Unfortunately, two airframes were lost due to a faulty arresting wire, forcing the rest of the carrier-based platforms to relocate to shore.
A Russian-state-run media outlet revealed footage depicting the large vessel being pulled by a tugboat this week. Although officials with Russia's Shipbuilding Corporation claim that all the underwater work necessary to revive the carrier is complete, a long and fruitful future for Admiral Kuznetsov is not a likely prospect.
"When the diving teams examined the ship's hull, it was found that the metal structures below the third deck were subjected to significant corrosion," RBC-Ukraine said, according to a translation. "The holds are completely filled with muddy water, which makes it impossible to examine the ship from the inside in detail."
The Defense Ministry signed a contract with the USC in April 2018 for a medium overhaul and limited modernization of the Admiral Kuznetsov up to 2022. However, the carrier caught fire on December 12, 2019. Officials said the damage to a space of 500 square meters
was not critical. The decrepit state of Russia's only aircraft carrier has only been magnified amid the Kremlin's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Strapped monetarily by Western-imposed economic sanctions and facing a great weapons shortage, the current outlook of the Russian military does not look too promising.
The fighter will be created as part of a complex – a carrier-born aircraft plus an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) weighing more than ten tons, which will be made according to the "flying wing" aerodynamic scheme.
Second, Western sanctions mean that the yards will not be able to source the specialized equipment they need for a modern ship, because they can no longer import them or find analogues produced by Russian firms.
The most recent hit Russia has taken in this regard comes from a decision by Norway's government not to sell Norwegian naval engines to the Russian fleet (Finanz.ru, March 9). Additionally, new Alexei Navalny-related sanctions now going into effect will impose tight controls on the kind of monitoring technologies that the Russian navy, like any modern military, needs to operate (Fontanka, March 5).
"The possibility of creating a version of the fighter with vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) is also considered within the framework of the project. It is expected that the aircraft will be as big as the MiG-35."
Sidelined for overhaul since 2017, the Kuznetsov was damaged in 2018 by a falling dockyard crane that left a 200-square-foot hole in its flight deck. This was followed in December 2019 by a major fire that killed at least one person while the ship was under refit in Murmansk.
Most recently, a fire last month caused what the Russian government called "minor" damage. Following the Kuznetsov's short stint in Syria, the vessel was sent home to undergo repairs meant to extend its lifespan. In October 2018, Russia's largest floating dock- the PD-50- sank, ripping a 200-square-foot hole in the center of the carrier's deck.
new russian aircraft carrier design, us vs russia aircraft carrier, current russian aircraft carriers, where is russian aircraft carrier, new russian military aircraft, new russian aircraft carrier pics, russia building new aircraft carrier, kuznetsov aircraft carrier