IMAGE: 82srz.com
Repairs and modernization of the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft carrying missile cruiser will be finished in 2021, President of Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation Alexey Rakhmanov told media on Marh 19.
“We have a plan that will provide repair and modernization of the ship in 2021. Maybe there will be a 2-4 month delay. The plan is that capacities will be modernized at shipyard No. 35 in Murmansk. The first part of this process is dry docks,” he stressed.
The problem with the dry docking appeared in October 2018, when the PD-50 floating dock sunk at a shipyard in Roslyakovo. This led to apparent delays in the repairs and modernization plans set up for Admiral Kuznetsov.
ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: Russian Defense Ministry / RIA Novosti
However, even the end of the formal part of the modernization, Admiral Kuznetsov will have to undergo a series of trials. After this, the heavy aircraft carrying missile cruiser will be able to return to the service with the Russian Navy.
Click to see the full-size image
This ship makes me recall the end of the Shogun by James Clavell
Haven’t read that novel, alas.
What this story does remind me is of what happened to the Royal Navy’s old CATOBAR carriers after WW2. They had quite a number of them, but gradually one after the other they were either retired, scrapped or sold off, until by the time there was only one left, HMS Ark Royal, she could barely function anymore, even with parts of her sister ship HMS Eagle being cannibalized. The Royal Navy wanted to maintain a strong carrier force after WW2, but due to Britain’s economic woes after the war no new ships were being built. It’s entire carrier force consisted of WW2 carriers or carriers whose construction had started during the war. As each ship got too old there were no replacements, and by 1965 the Wilson Labour government basically said carriers were a thing of the past for the Royal Navy, like the days of Empire, and they should concentrate on frigates and sub hunting in the North Atlantic from now on, in case WW3 would happen. The last CATOBAR design, CVA-65, was cancelled and the drawdown began, until ten years later only Ark Royal remained. By the end of the decade there were no real carriers left, and the only thing the Royal Navy still had was HMS Hermes, a helicopter carrier, and the new Invincible class of STOVL carriers. Which the Royal Navy had to sneak by the politicians by calling them through deck cruisers. Just like Kuznetsov is officially called a heavy aircraft carrying missile cruiser.
The Royal Navy would have lost even those assets if it weren’t for the Falklands War because the Thatcher government was in the process of trying to sell HMS Invincible to Australia. And HMS Hermes was going to be sold to India. Who knows, if the Argentine Junta had waited a year before invading the Falklands the Royal Navy would be without the ships that made the reconquest possible.
As for Kuznetsov, it doesn’t appear that her refit will be anything more then a service life update. So I doubt that she will become a true aircraft carrier. So no catapults so her aircraft can take off with greater payloads and more fuel. Which in my view renders the ship useless for any role other then sink US aircraft carriers with her heavy missiles. A role which any Russian navy ship equipped with similar missiles could do.
I remember being on Ark Royal when very very young, I think I was three.
Kuznetsov seems like a potential embarrassment, especially when even a floating bathtub can lauch cruise or hypersonic missiles capable of sinking a capital ship. Same goes for the US ‘super’ carriers, which are only good for asymmetrical warfare (and mopping up taxpayer dollars which would otherwise be wasted on useless stuff like medicine and education)
Armed embassy with aircraft.