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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russian Navy: Problems with Soviet Ship Upgrades |
| 2018-03-21 |
| Unusually candid analysis coming from a pro Russian news outlet by Alexandr Shishkin Originally appeared at Vzglyad; Translated by AlexD exclusively for SouthFront A few years ago, the Navy actively pushed the concept of “new ship in the old body”, a radical reconstruction of Soviet-built ships with new armaments and electronics. A whole group of ships was sent for upgrades, but now we can say that all these plans failed completely. How did it happen and who should be held accountable? At the beginning of the 2010s advances in the Russian military steel construction caused a kind of euphoria. Its typical manifestations were, for example, ideas of resuming the production of missile trains, ekranoplans, hovercrafts and an almost universal deep modernisation of the main ship composition, inherited from the USSR. A technical project was approved in 2012, providing for the tripling of ammunition of the nuclear submarines of Project 949A for the replacement of the complex “Granit” for “Onyx” and “Kalibr”. According to some reports, all five ships of the Pacific Fleet were to be upgraded. In 2013, in the “Star” shipyard work began on the nuclear submarine “Irkutsk”, the following year “Chelyabinks” was pulled up, third, “Tver” was next. It would seem that the process had begun. With regard to the cruising submarines of Project 971, the plans were even broader; it was about the whole series of 10 boats. In 2011, the “Leopard”, set to become the leading ship of Project 971M, came to the “Little Star” shipyard. The planned terms of modernisation were about three years, and although at the end of 2013 there were already delays on the “Leopard”, it was believed to be all good, especially since in 2014 the boats “Wolf”, “Samara” and “Bratsk” arrived at the “Little Star” shipyard. With surface ships, the situation was no less rosy. “Little Star” received for intermediate repairs the missile cruiser “Marshal Ustinov” of Project 1164, which was supposed to return to duty in 2014, treading a path for same class “Moscow” and “Variag”. In 2013, a state contract was signed with Sevmash for intermediate repairs and modernisation of the heavy battlecruiser “Admiral Nakhimov” of Project 11442M, the first of two maintainable “Eagles”, with the completion date in 2018. In the same 2013, the Murmansk 35th shipyard received for intermediate repairs (until 2016) the large anti-submarine ship “Admiral Chabanenko” of Project 11551. It was presumed that all seven destroyers of Project 956 were to be repaired and all eight large anti-submarine ships of Project 1155 were to be modernised. Collapse of an attractive Concept By the end of last year it was crystal clear that the concept of “new ship in the old body”, the essence of which is the rapid and inexpensive renewal of the main ship’s structure through intermediate repairs with the modernisation of Soviet projects, was a total failure. The serial submarines of Project 949AM, after some hesitation, settled at 4 units. The term of transfer of “Irkutsk” to the fleet (and subsequently “Chelyabinsk”) increased by 4 years, from 2017 to 2021, and the duration of the repair increased to 8 years (despite the fact that it was built twice as fast). In this regard, the Deputy Minister of Defense’s statement that 2021 is a real timeframe for when the Fleet can get the four ships back (while on the “Tver” and “Tomsk” work has not even begun) raises questions. The situation develops miserably with the nuclear-powered submarines of Project 971M, the series from which “the whole series” was cut to six, and then to four units. The deadline to return “Leopard” was moved from 2016 to 2019; however, a source at the “Star” considers even a four-year delay too optimistic. In case of unexpected work acceleration by 1.5 to twice faster on the other three boats, the Navy will receive the latest 971M around 2023-2024 – simultaneously with the latest “Yasens” or even after them, making the modernisation programme of “Pike-B” if not meaningless, then highly questionable. More at the link |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #3 As long as they keep their tug boats in tip top shape. |
| Posted by: Penguin_of_the Desert 2018-03-21 13:41 |
| #2 The Typhoons were marvels of engineering. It was a marvel they could make it to sea at all. Like the Foxbat was to the air force, the Typhoon was a monster under the bed that kept admirals awake at night... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2018-03-21 11:45 |
| #1 all these plans failed completely. Ahhh, the universal constant of bureaucracy. Could have been Zero's motto. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2018-03-21 07:42 |