Russia's only aircraft carrier - Admiral Kuznetsov has burst into flames while undergoing repairs.
TASS reported that "Ten people were injured: they were mostly poisoned by combustion products".
Six people are in intensive care.
As per TASS, the fire started in the engine room on the second deck, then has spread to
the size of 120 square meters.
According to the news agencies, firefighters are battling the blaze with limited success.
Aleksey Rakhmanov, head of the state-run United Shipbuilding Corporation, told Interfax that
"a human factor" may have caused the fire.
The vessel has been facing major issues since 2016 and black smoke was seen coming out from
it during its engagement in the Syrian conflict.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes why Russia’s aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov
is rightly said to be the most troubled warship in the world?
Let's get started.
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Admiral KUZNETSOV aircraft carrier is 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.
It was launched in 1985 and commissioned on 25 December 1990.
The Kuznetsov-class aircraft carriers were the last class of aircraft carriers designed
for the Soviet Navy.
She was built by the Black Sea Shipyard, the sole manufacturer of Soviet aircraft carriers,
in Mykolaiv within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Two hulls were laid down in the Ukrainia before the Soviet Union collapsed.
Kuznetsov serves today in the Russian Navy.
It has a displacement of around 55,000 tonnes and a length of around 304 m
To give viewers a perspective, American Nimitz class carriers have a displacement of around
100,000 tonnes and is 30 meters longer.
Kuznetsov is powered by 6 diesel generators.
Admiral Kuznetsov can accommodate an air wind with 30 fighters which is significantly lower
than Nimitz class's capability which can hold over 70 aircraft.
It carries MiG-29K and Su-33 fighter planes.
These are 4th generation aircraft and very capable once.
Admiral Kuznetsov uses ski ramp to assist aircraft takeoffs, unlike the steam-powered
catapult system to launch aircraft.
It is fitted with several kinds of weapons which includes
6 × AK-630 AA guns 8 × CADS-N-1 Kashtan CIWS (Close In Weapon
System) 12 × P-700 Granit SSM
Reports indicate that there are plans to upgrade the armament and outfit it with Kalibr-NK
class cruise missiles, Onyx supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles and the Zircon advanced hypersonic
missiles, which reached a speed of 8 Mach in a recent test.
Admiral Kuznetsov is known to produce a lot of smoke and it can be identified from long
distances because of this.
One of the main reason is because of the use of Mazut.
Mazut is a heavy petrochemical fuel and if not properly utilized, produces a lot of smoke.
Reports in Russian media indicate that the workmanship and quality of the material used
in the carrier are not up to the mark.
Admiral Valentin Selivanov had said, “From the very beginning, poor quality pipes were
installed in her boilers.”
He also described the problems faced during Kuznetsov's 1990s sea trials.
According to him, due to the problems with the pipes, not all boilers could run at full
capacity all the time, they would often break down and sometimes the ship was reduced to
operating on one boiler, giving it a speed of around 4 knots
So, it is not surprising that Admiral Kuznetsov has seen many embarrassing malfunctions in
recent years.
During the Syrian campaign, a tugboat accompanied Admiral Kuznetsov in case the carrier broke down.
On 30 October 2018, Admiral Kuznetsov suffered a major mishap while undergoing overhaul work
at a dockyard in Roslyakovo, near Murmansk.
The aircraft carrier nearly sank.
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 had
and one of the largest in the world.
On 30 Oct, 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 are 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.
The PD-50 was built in Sweden in the late 1970s and was delivered to the Soviet navy
in 1980.
The disaster could be have been even more catastrophic if Kuznetsov was not moved out.
Currently, the carrier is being repaired in Russia's Arctic port in Murmansk, also known
as the Barents Sea port.
This is where the latest accident took place.
The PD-50 loss was a big blow since it had no easy replacement.
Most of Russia’s big surface ships were built in Soviet times which includes the Kuznetsov.
The constructions of these vessels were carried out in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv which
is now in Ukraine.
Currently, Mykolaiv’s large shipbuilding docks are unavailable to Russia because of
its conflict with Ukraine.
The PD-50 was the only floating dock in northern Russia that can handle Kuznetsov or the nuclear
battlecruiser Pyotr Veliki.
Pyotr Veliki is also scheduled for an overhaul.
Russia’s state-owned shipbuilding monopoly, the United Shipbuilding Corporation had made
a statement that damage to Kuznetsov was manageable and would “not undermine plans to return
the vessel back to active service in 2021.”
In May 2019, it was reveled that the replacement of PD-50 will be accomplished by merging and
enlarging two dry docks.
The overhaul program even before the PD-50 disaster was a point of major speculations.
Hit by western sanctions, the Russian economy is not in good shape.
Many important military programs have been delayed.
This includes the serial production of T 14 Arrmata Tank and Su 57 5th generation stealth
fighter.
With PD-50 disaster the cost of Admiral Kuznetsov repair increased significantly and with the
new incident, the cost will rise further.
Most analysts believe that there is a very limited possibility that Kuznetsov can be
overhauled in a cost-effective manner.
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.
As clear, Admiral Kuznetsov seems to have one problem after the other.
Every time the situation seems to improve, a new disaster strikes.
Same as the carrier, Russia has many Soviet era military platforms and support equipment
that are 3-4 decades old and are outdated by today’s standards.
Several of these are having lingering issues.
Maintaining and operating an aircraft carrier is not an easy task.
It is to be noted that Russia’s Defense Budget is around 10% of the American defense
budget.
It could be a more sensible decision to go for an entirely new aircraft carrier.
Some reports in Russian state media indicate the possibility of the Russian building a
new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier by 2030 though there is no clear roadmap in the public
domain as of now.
It remains to be seen how Russian decision makers handle the issue going forward.