The latest photos of the Russian Navy’s only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov indicate
that for a pretty long time possibly for more than a year, not much work has been done on
the warship.
Viewers may note that the warship was supposed to undergo a repair & refit and expected to
reenter service this year.
The Center for Analysis of Strategy and Technologies, or CAST, a Moscow-based defense think-tank
has analyzed recently published photos of the Admiral Kuznetsov during its refit and
concluded that “there has been no particular work done on the ship in the last year.”
The latest pictures were posted to Instagram earlier this month by user Lana Sator.
The images, show the warship's superstructure is snow-covered and importantly no workers
seem to be working on the ship nor are there any machines lying around for repairs.
The Admiral Kuznetsov has been docked at the Zvezdochka ship repair yard in Murmansk, on
the Barents Sea in Russia’s far northwest, ever since completing its campaign over Syria
that began in late 2016 and ended the following year.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes why it may be the end of the road for Russia’s
only aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov? Let's get started.
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Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier was serving as the flagship of the Russian Navy. The ship
was named after Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov
who served in the Soviet Navy during The Second World War.
She was built by the Black Sea Shipyard and displaces around 55,000 tons.
Admiral Kuznetsov was launched in 1985 and commissioned on 25 December 1990. The ship
has been deployed in many operations and was recently involved in the Syrian campaign.
Admiral Kuznetsov’s has an air wing of 30 fighters and carry MiG-29K
and Su-33 fighter planes.
Admiral Kuznetsov is equipped with a 3D air-surface search radar over the main mast and four multifunctional
APAR (active phased array radar) panels.
The warship is equipped with multiple weapon systems
6 × AK-630 AA guns 8 × CADS-N-1 Kashtan CIWS
12 × P-700 Granit SSM 24 × 8-cell 3K95 Kinzhal SAM Vertical Launch
System & RBU-12000 UDAV-1 ASW rocket launchers
The warship has been facing major issue since 2016 when black smoke was seen coming out
from it, during its engagement in the Syrian conflict.
Admiral Kuznetsov has been suffering from propulsion issues for some time and was always
accompanied by tug boats.
To mitigate these and upgrade the warship, an overhaul was planned at Zvezdochka ship
repair yard in Murmansk and was initially slated to finish in 2020.
The Kuznetsov was stationed inside floating dock PD-50. The dock capable of handling vessels
up to 80,000 tons is the biggest one Russia has and one of the largest in the world.
On 30 Oct 2018, the dock's tank started to take in water and led to the tilting of the
dock on one side. One of the PD-50’s two cranes which were 70-ton each fell on the
deck of the Kuznetsov. This resulted in a hole of 4 by 5 meters. The second crane also
got imbalanced and as per some reports fell in the sea.
Somehow PD-50 did not capsize and as the water filled the dock, Kuznetsov floated and was
tugged out. In about 4 hours, PD 50 went down and sank.
This incident caused a lot of damage but this was not the end.
In December 2019, a major fire broke out on board Admiral Kuznetsov as work continued
on the ship's refit.
The fire on the Admiral Kuznetsov broke out during welding work at a shipyard in the Arctic
port of Murmansk and spread quickly through the carrier’s internal compartments.
Reports indicate that the ship’s crew and emergency teams spent the day battling the
blaze.
This resulted in the several injuries and death of personnel who bravely risked their
lives in order to prevent the fire from spreading.
Russia’s state-owned shipbuilding monopoly, United Shipbuilding Corporation CEO, Alexey
Rakhmanov, “We have calculated the cost of repairs.
The total budget is in the limits of 300-350 million rubles (about $4.7 million USD). We
are lucky that the fire had not damaged anything important. There are no grounds to believe
that the accident will in anyway affect the completion of the overhaul of the Admiral
Kuznetsov” But this assertion has been questioned by
analysts in Russia as well as outside.
As per reports, Project 23900 amphibious assault ships now being built for the Russian Navy
will reportedly displace around 44,000 tons.
Confirmation of the Project 23900 class’s size was provided by Russia’s Deputy Minister
of Defense Alexei Krivoruchko, in a recent interview with Krasnaya Zvezda, the Russian
military's official news outlet.
Though these warships can't be used to launch conventional carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft
and Russia has no short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) fighter jet, the ships represents
a considerable investment.
So, it is clear that funds are being dedicated to a different purpose.
Russia has many Soviet-era military platforms and support equipment that are 3-4 decades
old and are outdated by today’s standards. Many of these are having lingering issues
and Admiral Kuznetsov is one of the prime examples.
A 'deep refit' will have to include an upgrade to most major components like turbines and
boiler systems, electronics and communications systems as well as weapons suite. So, basically,
almost everything except the hull may need to be changed.
Then the carrier can be outfitted with Kalibr-NK class cruise missiles, Onyx supersonic anti-ship
cruise missiles, and the Zircon advanced hypersonic missiles.
Especially the Zircon missile integration will provide Admiral Kuznetsov with excellent
offensive capability.
But the issue is with funding. Most analysts believe that there is a very
limited possibility that Kuznetsov can be overhauled in a cost-effective manner.
The 'no progress' seems to suggest that Russian leadership has decided against the repair
and upgrade of the ailing aircraft carrier.