Russian Carrier Plans Part One

On Nov 19, 2:07 pm, Fred J. McCall wrote:

Oh, I don't doubt they can design and engineer a carrier. The
Kutnetzov isn't a good starting point, though. Russian design
preference up to now has been to try to build 'battle group in a
single hull' ships (like Kutnetzov). This leads to some serious
compromises in virtually all areas of capability when compared to
specialized ships.

The first casualty of getting real carrier strike groups needs to be
that design philosophy.

Indeed. One thing that astonished me when specifications for the
Kuznetsov became available in the West was how little they seemed to
be getting for their tonnage. Kuznetsov is around 65,000 tons
displacement, which is about the same as the Midway class at the time
of their retirement- yet the most optimistic size I've seen quoted for
her airwing is one squadron of Flankers and another of Yak-141s, which
never entered service. Supposedly they were working on a carrier
variant of the Su-25 as well, but she would only have been able to
carry about a half dozen of those. So you end up with a Coral Sea
sized hull that can carry one VF and a few helicopters- sweet. (For
comparison, USS Coral Sea's air wing in 1986 was four squadrons of
Hornets, one of Intruders, plus one each of Hawkeyes, Prowlers, and
helicopters.)

Sure, it's great to say that your carrier also totes heavy
antishipping missiles and SAMs, but what are you going to do with only
one squadron of fighters?

As for the schedule mentioned: even the author of the original article
seems to think they don't have a chance, and he's right. Ever since
the Cold War ended the Russian defense establishment has been notably
bad at distinguishing fantasy from reality in its public
pronouncements, and this appears to be just another episode in that
long and distinguished history.

-JTD