The Kremlin ambition symbol. The pathetic history of the Russian aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov"
Weikhert about the infamous history of the Soviet aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov". The Russian aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov" became the object of ridicule of modern naval fleets of the world, the eternal shame of the Russian military, and a constant reminder that the end of the Soviet Union was truly glossy. However, despite all this, Moscow insists on the preservation of this catastrophe.
Many people wonder: why? Why do Russians so seek to keep this floating reminder of the misery and failure of the last thirty years? The reasons are rooted in the last decade of the Cold War. The Navy of the Soviet Union has always been a powerful force when it came to the underwater war. But in addition, the Soviet fleet was famous as a regional force. Without aircraft carriers, the Soviet fleet dreamed of developing a forces with the US Navy and their huge fleet of aircraft carriers.
Not having the opportunity to compare with the Americans for aircraft carrier power, the Soviet military did not dare to spend their limited resources on what is likely to be a barren plan. But by the 1980s, changes in the strategic thinking of the Soviet fleet took place. The aircraft carrier was first laid in 1982, but its roots can be detected at least a decade earlier. At that time, the Soviet Union was in general.
It was an era of Leonid Brezhnev, and the world seemed to a Soviet geopolitical oyster, while Americans were stuck in deep depression after Vietnam and Waterheite. Against the backdrop of these scandals, the unsuccessful leadership of President Jimmy Carter and the various socio-economic crises that struck the United States, few people in Moscow believed that in decades their empire would crumble into gunpowder.
After the Soviet Union refused to create aircraft carrier for many years, he finally decided to build a real aircraft carrier. The goal was to increase the potential and eventually challenge Americans in the area where, according to the US, they reached domination. Given the geopolitical context of the time when Admiral Kuznetsov was conceived, it can be said that the Soviet Union believed that he could overcome Americans over time.
But let it be a lesson for other great powers that believe that their current geopolitical reality will remain the same decade later. Almost immediately after laying a large ship had to compromise in its design. Soviet technologies were unable to meet the technical requirements of the Admiral Kuznetsov's initial plan. There were real technological restrictions that developers encountered, trying to create an aircraft carrier that could compete with the US Navy ships.
The USSR wanted the aircraft carrier to protrude Soviet air power, as well as provide an additional level of protection for nuclear submarines with ballistic missiles. In the context of rivalry between the USSR and NATO, the NATO NATO NATO united forces could pursue and destroy many Soviet atomic submarines through modern anti-aircraft defense aircraft.
Moscow hoped to negate these opportunities by unfolding near the aircraft carriers that could intercepite these NATO submarines with deck aviation. But even deck aviation did not help! By the way, the aircraft carrier bases, which were developed for operation on board "Admiral Kuznetsov", such as as 38 OKB Yakolev, were extremely unsuccessful. They did not justify their hopes and created much more problems for the USSR than they solved.
Soviet engineers and pilots recognized as 38 "completely unreliable in battle. " Thus, even if Admiral Kuznetsov worked perfectly within his project parameters (what he could not do), even his own air wing would be interfered with for his strategic benefit. Moreover, the Soviet Union had to make radical changes in the aircraft carrier project because it intended to use this ship in the Black Sea.
According to the Montre Convention concluded between Russia and Turkey, Russians have no right to conduct aircraft carriers through the Bosphorus. Therefore, the Soviet developers reduced the initial plans of Admiral Kuznetsov and selected it in "heavy aircraft carrier". As the compromises on the project and its classification began, the potential of the aircraft carrier has come to naught. When the Soviet Union began to fall apart, it turned into a huge unnecessary asset.
However, the government of the Russian Federation, which was replaced by the Soviet Union, did not want to preserve the ship-catastrophe. Russia continued to invest good money in bad investments. And the reason is simple. This is the same reason that initially prompted the Soviet fleet to build an unsuccessful ship: Russians dream of becoming a truly global naval state. Russia still has excellent underwater forces, and the Russian fleet is a constant threat to the near abroad.
But at the same time, it is difficult for the Russians to projected a comprehensive naval power to the whole world as the Americans and their allies do. Theoretically, while maintaining even an old aircraft carrier, the Russian fleet can work out decent operations with aircraft carriers. It was by this logic that the Chinese purchased the old Soviet aircraft carrier "Varang" (the Admiral Kuznetsov ship "Admiral).
However, unlike the Russian Navy, the Navy of the People's Liberation Army of China (NVAK) was able to transform the old Soviet aircraft carrier they purchased into a real training ship to modernize their fleet and create viable aircraft carrier forces. Admiral Kuznetsov is so old and poorly built (and served) that Russians cannot even constantly use it as a training ship. Admiral Kuznetsov is a symbol of those ambitions that have long stirred up the minds of Soviet and Russian military planners.
And this is a constant reminder that Russia has not been able to fully realize these ambitions. It would be possible to think that in Moscow had already understood the mistake and just focused on dominance in the near abroad with the help of their wonderful submarines, and not on attempts to build aircraft carriers, which will never be equal to American and soon in any case can be obsolete 'The emergence of objections/denial systems (A2/AD). Brandon J.
Weikhert is a national security analyst, a former Congress employee and a geopolitical analyst who writes for The Washington Times, Asia Times and The-Pipeline. Author of the books "Winning Space: How America Remains a SuperPower", "Biohacked: China's Race to Control Life" and "The Shadow War: Iran's Quest for Supremacy". His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How The West Lost Ukraine will be released on October 22 at Encounter Books. Wayerrt can be monitored on Twitter: @wethebrandon.