In today’s episode we are going to highlight the question “do you know why the decks of Russian
ships are red?” to find out the answer, keep watching the video till the end!
It can be seen that the decks of the Russian ships are painted with a “red lead” rustproofing
or anti-corrosive paint. In fact, in most of the cases the war ships are generally painted grey.
Grey paint is a particular method of keeping a warship from being spotted in a wide variety of
situations. Many nations do the same thing but then covering the red lead paint with
grey paint for a uniform colour. Nevertheless, the Russians just leave the red lead exposed.
The reason of implementing anti-corrosion coatings is because it provides additional protection for
metal surfaces by acting as a barrier between chemical compounds and corrosive materials. As
we know that corrosion is a significant issue that lessens the life of any steel or iron component.
Corrosion-resistant coatings shield metal components against corrosion caused by moisture,
salt spray, oxidation, or exposure to a variety of substances in the environment.
Therefore, by preventing the direct access of air and water to the metal,
anticorrosive paints hinder or obstruct corrosion.
Another question that might come to our mind is “does the coating participate in
ship performance levels?” It is known that certain paint
systems have specific military purposes such as radar reflection or absorption,
conductive, anti-static or even non-slip on the flight decks.
The coating of an aircraft carrier flight deck must, in addition to its stringent anti-corrosion
characteristics, absorb particularly significant impacts without being abrasive
so as not to damage the aircraft arresting cables. Additionally, other paint methods applied
inside the ships contribute to the vessel’s fire safety, such as the intumescent paints. However,
the most widely known function on a boat, and perhaps the oldest, is the anti-fouling function
which guarantee the cleanliness of the skin and consequently its hydrodynamic performances.
But then why are warships universally grey? It will be difficult to spot a light grey war
ship even on the sunniest day. The same thing happen in a foggy or cloudy weather, a ship can
be much more difficult to notice. Even if a ship can be spotted at long ranges visually, a uniform
grey may delay a ship from being positively identified unless the rival are very close to it.
Unfortunately, in an era where several ship designs appear alike, this can be a problem.
whether painting a battleship grey is still necessary or not,
it is important to keep in mind that even with radar and electronic support measures, a
warship can stay relatively "hidden" until it's in visual range if it turns off its electronics and
is designed to decrease its radar cross-section, until someone can identify it. In many situations,
not being easily identified until close is an advantage. If your ship was painted so brightly,
then it will be easier that your adversary could notice you before you could spot them!
It cannot be denied that anti-ship weapons will catch a designated target regardless of
its paint job, but unless in a situation where every ship around us is hostile,
we're not going to launch a missile at every blip on the screen.
That’s all from today, thank you for watching!