In August 2018, the head of the shipbuilding department of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Tryabechnikov, said in televised statements that the Russian Navy(1) had already begun searching for engine designs for a giant nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and the following year some sources indicated that the Russian Ministry of Defense had begun work on the formation of a tactical-technical mission for a "promising Russian aircraft carrier", which would undoubtedly be nuclear(2).
The most powerful in history
Since then there hasn't been much news about the carrier, but we know that it has not yet passed the design stage, but the first landmarks announced about this aircraft carrier were very interesting, simply because we are in front of a piece of technology that may be close to the tycoons of the world of the sea and the vast oceans such as the USS Nimitz and USS Gerald Ford carriers, although Russia is now one of the countries that lags behind in the manufacture of aircraft carriers, as it made the most powerful special carrier In 1981 at the time of the Soviet Union with very modest capabilities, it is the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov.
The length of the new aircraft carrier, which has so far been named "Shturm", meaning "storm" in Russian, or "Project 23000-Z", is expected to reach about 330 meters, with a width of 40 meters, and is likely to displace 100,4 tons of water (the amount of displacement refers specifically to the power of the ships, the higher the stronger the ship), and with this number it directly competes with the most powerful aircraft carriers in the world, in addition to that, the carrier will have 3 platforms for launching aircraft, divided to two electromagnetic catapult launch systems that increase sorties and occupy a smaller space than an aircraft carrier, as well as two ramps for conventional "ski and jump" takeoff(<>).
(Al Jazeera)
It is simply an entire city that can travel in the ocean for 120 days independently carrying 5,3 personnel within it, with more than 90,57 missiles and bombs, advanced radar and electronic warfare systems that put Sturm higher than competitors all over the world, but besides the above there is an additional technological leap, Sturm will probably be able to carry <> active aircraft, and it is specifically designed to carry the Sukhoi heavy multipurpose aircraft of the fifth generation Su-<>.
Amazing extras
Basically, the Sukhoi Su-4 (57) has two main advantages over fourth-generation aircraft, namely the high stealth capability, the precise technical ability to sense its surroundings and sense the commands of the pilot inside it very accurately, which is greatly easy to maneuver, in addition to advanced computing capabilities in which artificial intelligence mechanisms intervene. In a head-on showdown, the Su-57 is highly likely to triumph over any of its fourth-generation companions, which is of course a flying nightmare for naval and land targets.
(Wikipedia)
In addition, in 2020, some Russian sources had reported(5) that the Russian aircraft carrier Sturm would be equipped with the S-500 Prometheus anti-aircraft missile system, which has a range of 600 kilometers and engages at the same moment with up to 10 targets with constant effectiveness, with the ability to destroy ballistic targets using interceptor missiles operating at an altitude above 185 kilometers.
In fact, the S-500 is not just a conventional air and missile defense system, but a hypersonic system capable of destroying low-orbit satellites, space-launched weapons, conventional aircraft, hypersonic drones, and orbital platforms above the Earth's atmosphere.
Besides Sturm, the Russian Navy is also planning a smaller class of aircraft carriers called "Lamantin" (6), with a displacement of 80-90 thousand tons and of course less portable aircraft and personnel numbers, perhaps to be an alternative to Sturm if Russia cannot accomplish it, and this is undoubtedly a possibility, as the engineering expertise of the Russians in the range of aircraft carriers is weak, obsolete and largely stalled in the Soviet era.
(Wikipedia)
In addition, the cost of Sturm will reach the equivalent of $ 9 billion, which is a difficult figure, especially in light of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, especially in the scope of raw materials and technologies, with voices from within the Russian army confirming that it prefers to push development more towards the development of communications technology and artificial intelligence, and not conventional weapons, no matter how important and large they are.
New Maritime Doctrine
But in the end, the Russians urgently need a large (and scary) weapon at the level of Sturm, especially after the severe malfunctions that affected "Admiral Kuznetsov" recently and stopped working, and with Finland's official accession to NATO and the approach of Sweden's accession, the Russian navy is undoubtedly facing exceptional challenges, as it is now unable to use the Baltic Sea as it used to, in addition to that with the accession of the two countries, NATO became close to Russian military bases in the Arctic, which is dangerous.
Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. (Reuters)
So far, Moscow has continued its long-term naval approach,[7] which focuses on two main objectives: the first is to maintain and develop nuclear-powered submarine forces to maintain strategic parity with the United States, and the Russians already have a formidable nuclear and non-nuclear submarine fleet that is the most powerful in the world and represents in its entirety half of the Russian navy's combined force, along with a new goal of developing conventional naval forces.
On July 31, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an updated version of the Russian Federation's Maritime Doctrine,8 which included significant changes compared to the previous version of 2015, including the Kremlin's intention to strengthen its naval combat capabilities around the world and the announcement of its willingness to use military means to further its interests in international waters, including its intention to increase its naval presence on the high seas, with a greater shift towards Arctic waters.
The new doctrine focuses on Russia's overall confrontation with the United States and NATO, and emphasizes a more central position for the use of force in defense of Russian global interests. But for that to happen, the new version of the Russian naval doctrine is heading towards a complete restructuring of the shipbuilding industry, with a qualitative development in its technological and production capabilities.
Terrifying Caliber
In more than one place in the New Doctrine document, it is stated that Russia is a "great naval power" with interests in all seas and oceans, but will the Russians be able to achieve those aspirations? Sturm is an attempt to get to that point, no doubt, but it's not the only attempt. For example, last March,9 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the future Lada Kronstadt-class submarine, currently under construction, would be equipped with modernized high-precision Kalibr cruise missiles.
(Wikipedia)
It seems that the Russian Navy aspires to develop most of its naval fleet with various categories in range, power and length of high-precision Kalibr missiles in hitting the target, all of which carry a warhead weighing about 450 kilograms (or a nuclear warhead), these missiles have recently evolved (10) to double their range of work from 1500-2500 kilometers, reaching in the latest and most accurate version to 4500,<> kilometers, extending the arm of Russian strikes beyond ever.
The advantage in this context is that in an era when missiles are evolving to be spectacularly lethal and have an increasingly longer range, one clever plan is to deploy the firepower of these missiles in too many small platforms (warships of all kinds), and this is precisely what worries Russian enemies about its plan to distribute the most advanced versions of the Kalibr to many Russian army pieces.
Russia currently has(11) about 150 cruisers, patrol boats, and small warships in its navy, each displacing a few hundred or perhaps thousands of tons of water, while the Russian navy operates fewer than 30 frigates, a large destroyer, and, of course, one aircraft carrier still in the repair shop. By contrast, the U.S. Navy has a few dozen of these small surface fighters, and more than 100 large fighters.
In light of this, the Russian Navy is currently planning to build a new class of multipurpose vehicles that includes a destroyer, a nuclear-powered cruiser and a large anti-submarine warship. With a potential length of about 200 meters, the new class called Lidar12 can sail autonomously without outside support for up to 90 days with a speed of 59 kilometers per hour, and is estimated to displace about 17500,<> tons of water.
Admiral Gorshkov's frigate is currently one of the most powerful naval vessels in its class (Reuters)
Other than that, there are still many projects in development, many of which are upgrades to existing naval vessels, such as the frigates "Boyan-N", "Admiral Gorshkov", "Admiral Grigorovich", "Germanyachy" and "Admiral Kasatonov", some of these projects have very high stealth capabilities, in addition to arming them all with high-precision Kalibr missiles and hypersonic missiles, making some of these categories more dangerous in combat than many destroyers around the world.
Russia's problem
Despite this, Russia still faces major problems with its navy modernization plans, and the main reason mentioned earlier is the high cost of these upgrades in light of an ongoing war, Western sanctions, and a scarce supply of resources required to complete the work, so that Russia, once China's main supplier of military technology, is now one of the importers from China.
By the end of 2022, the Russian United Shipbuilding Company had completed the annual work cycle with a net loss of tens of billions of rubles, and suffered further delays in supplying the Navy with new and repaired ships, as well as postponing the completion of the repair and modernization of the nuclear-powered cruiser Admiral Nakhimov until 13, which was originally planned for 2024, and postponing the date of completion of the repair and modernization of the only Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov to 2022.
It seems that these problems were not only related to the war, but had previous roots in Russia, for example, in 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expected Russia to have 14 or 5 aircraft carriers by the late twenties of the current century, but this did not happen, one carrier is still under planning, the "Sturm", and has not even entered the scope of construction yet, and it is believed that it will not be ready for operation before the next decade.
Russia is trying to adapt to all these obstacles by producing a large number of small vehicles loaded with truly dangerous missiles, but the Kremlin's eyes are still fixed on a futuristic dream that will move the Russian Navy, which is already the third naval power on Earth after the United States and China with a total displacement of 1.3 million tons of ships capable of long-range combat, to a terrifying level for its enemies, a dream of a superaircraft carrier sailing snobbery in oceans. The earth is unstoppable.
(Wikipedia)
Since Soviet times, Moscow's navy has been building the legend Ulyanovsk15, a superaircraft carrier that was to be 300 meters long, powered by four nuclear reactors, at speeds of up to 56 kilometers per hour, with a displacement of 85,70 tons, a payload of 3 aircraft and 1991,40 personnel. But by 1992 the Soviet Union had collapsed, and Ulyanovsk was only <>% complete, the project was cancelled by the end of <>, but the dream persists, and it haunts the Kremlin's imagination today.
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Sources
1- Russia Kicks Off Work on Engine for Nuclear-Powered Supercarrier
2- Krylov State Research Center – 23000E Shtorm
3- Russia wants to build the 'biggest aircraft carrier in the world' to compete with the US
4- Sukhoi Su-57 Felon Fighter Jet, Russia
5- Russian Shtorm aircraft carrier to potentially be fitted with S-500 anti-aircraft systems
6- Russian Designers Display 'Budget Option' for Future Aircraft Carrier Design – Introducing the Project 11430E Lamantin
7- Russia's Questionable Naval Modernization During Wartime
8- Russia's New Naval Doctrine: A 'Pivot to Asia'?
9- Russian Navy to upgrade vessels with Kalibr cruise missiles
10- Russia's Dangerous "Kalibr" Cruise Missile Could See Range Doubled: Report
11- How Russia Is Slowly, but Surely, Modernizing Its Entire Navy
12- Project 23560E Shkval
13- Russia's Questionable Naval Modernization During Wartime
14- Global Maritime Power? Russia's Navy faces an uncertain future
15- The Soviets tried and failed to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to match US flattops