Ivan Papanin-Class Combat Icebreaker (Infographics, Video)

Their USS Zumwalt isn’t any better. The Kuznetsov is ongoing some modifications to turn it more in a combined missile + aircraft + drone carrier because pure carrier are total outdated ’40s technology.

That’s right. There were supposed to be 20+ Zumwalts but the U.S halted production at 3. They were to sport fearsome long range gunnery, just below railgun technology but swapped out for point defense guns because the ammunition costs came in at more than $1 million a round. The Zumwalts look fearsome yet have fewer vertical launch cells than Arleigh Burke class destroyers and way fewer than China’s type 055. This goes along with other Western naval tech failures such as British destroyers failing engines, The American LCS’s with tech problems and limited firepower from their “mission modules” and most importantly the failure to update their anti-ship missiles from the limited range and subsonic harpoon and harpoon copycats deployed throughout Western navies. A single Admiral Gorshkov class frigate from Russia’s navy could sink most of an American carrier battle group with supersonic missiles at ranges the American surface ships would have no weapon to retaliate with, outside of the aircraft from the carrier itself. Who then is really escorting whom?

The Brits HMS Queen Elizabeth [R08] isn’t really a success story either.