Military Russia: Why do you only have a dilapidated aircraft carrier?

Mohamed Benkassim

Although Russia is the second largest military power in the world after the United States and the second largest arms exporter in the world, it only has a dilapidated aircraft carrier that has suffered for years from technical problems and consecutive glitches, so why has the Russian military power not been reflected in the area of ​​aircraft carriers, despite what this represents Giant pieces of naval supremacy and unforgettable prestige?

Historically, the Soviet Union was a land-based strike force, given the requirements of the country's vast geographical area, and the Soviets had the ambition to build a maritime arsenal that was the largest in their history, but these plans collapsed with the dissolution of the Union at the end of 1991, to inherit Russia as a single aircraft carrier from the Cold War period and still In service, despite the many problems encountered.

Among the most prominent reasons that hindered the implementation of the Soviet plans to develop aircraft carriers was the lack of available resources, as well as the priority given to the land military arsenal, and during the cold war between the eastern and western camps, the helicopter carriers "Muskava" and "Leningrad" entered service in 1967 and 1967 on Respectively, their mission was mainly to fight submarines.

The Soviets also made four other aircraft carriers before the end of the cold war, but all these naval warships came out of service after the end of the war, and some of them turned into scrap and others turned into a museum, and another category was rehabilitated and sold to India such as "Vitramadita".

Kuznetsov tired
Russia currently has a single aircraft carrier, "Admiral Kuznetsov", which sailed for the first time in 1985, and has a weight of 60 thousand tons, and can carry 40 helicopters and combat aircraft, and this marine segment has been suffering from technical problems, especially in its engines, due to the weak allocations Maintenance since the end of the Cold War.

The Russian aircraft carrier was involved in 2016 for two months in the framework of Moscow's military intervention in the Syrian war, which is the only combat operation of the aircraft carrier, and "Admiral Kuznetsov" lost two planes during this operation, one of the MiG-29K and the second Sukhoi 33 when they were about to Landing on the Kuznetsov Amphitheater.

Due to the successive faults, the aircraft carrier has stopped working, and since 2017 it has been undergoing maintenance work in a marine workshop in northern Russia, and in October 2018 a giant crane fell aboard the Kornetsov while it was inside a floating dry dock, causing the accident to sink the dock and create a gap in the hull that flowed Including water.

On December 13, a fire broke out on the aircraft carrier while it was undergoing maintenance work in the shipyard in the Zvizdoch region in the Arctic.

Long before that, in 2009 a fire caused by an electrical fault aboard the Russian naval vessel during joint maneuvers in the Mediterranean, which killed a sailor.

The aircraft carrier has not undergone maintenance since 1997, and its multiple problems have sparked a debate within Russia about the necessity of building a second aircraft carrier, which was postponed due to financial considerations, knowing that the construction of the aircraft carrier is very expensive, for example the United States spent $ 13 billion to build the USS carrier. S-Gerard Ford, which is roughly equivalent to Iran's annual military spending.

The British Economist newspaper quoted the expert in Russian military affairs Michael Kaufman as saying that the only Russian aircraft carrier is a "white elephant without any real mission", and he adds that Moscow maintains this huge marine piece despite its multiple problems in order to preserve its appearance as a major navy In the world.

A failed deal
In order to support the aircraft carrier combat group, Moscow sought to purchase two French combat aircraft carriers, but Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea in March 2014 pushed Paris to cancel the potential deal and deprived the Russians of strengthening their naval capabilities.

The Russians removed aircraft carriers from service more than any other military force, including the Ulyanovsk aircraft carrier that it began manufacturing in 1988, before it was turned into scrap and not yet built, when the Cold War ended.

When Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev held the position of President of Russia a few years ago, he laid plans to build and operate six aircraft carriers by 2025, but these plans did not see the light, and the only scheme currently being talked about in Russia is a project to build a new aircraft carrier, weighing 100 One thousand tons, and contains advanced military technology.

Another priority
The American National Interest writer and lecturer at the Peterson School of Diplomacy and International Trade Robert Farley says that building warships has not received much attention in Russia's latest plans to modernize its armed forces, and some military observers believe that the Russian leadership attaches great importance to building naval capabilities to confront US aircraft carriers (such as frigates) Nuclear submarines and cruisers) more than building aircraft carriers.

In return for a stalemate in Russia’s plans to build aircraft carriers, the rest of the world's major naval forces are developing their capabilities in this field. Reconnaissance anywhere in the world without the need for military bases.

The rest of the navy is also making more aircraft carriers, Britain is making two of them, and India is working to manufacture three, and China has a plan to own six by 2035, and even Japan has joined the senior club as it announced at the end of 2018 that it will transfer two of its destroyed ships to two aircraft carriers .