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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian Media Outlet Lenta.ru Tells Story Of Russia's Lone Aircraft Carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov
2016-11-23
"On October 27, the Russian media outlet Lenta.ru published a lengthy report on the history of the Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, titled "Fire In The Sky, Why Admiral Kuznetsov Is Smoking."
As I noted before when we talked about this ship, the 2010 refit now allows it to burn wood and peat...
The article's author, Ilya Kramnik, explains that the Russian aircraft carrier's creation was the result of many compromises and palliative decisions. After departing Severomorsk on October 15, the Admiral Kuznetsov reached Syria on November 12. Russia's aircraft carrier has already been involved in large-scale operations to deliver strikes in the Syrian provinces of Idlib and Homs.
Posted by:Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

#4  Most excellent link, although the current air wing is 10 plus 3 Mig-29, it was designed for more. At best a training carrier, but how how they training?
Posted by: Shipman   2016-11-23 20:38  

#3  Thank you Mike!
Posted by: Secret Master   2016-11-23 09:38  

#2  Secret Master,

There is a school of thought - growing in recent years - that the Kuznetsov was designed not to go up against the USN's supercarriers but rather to protect the USSR's missile sub bastions against NATO patrol planes. That idea does make sense when you remember that a single squadron of F-14s would have sliced and diced the Kuznetsov's 10-plane air group without even working up a sweat, and although there was a lot of talk at the time about the carriers going north (something that scared the hell out of the Soviets) the Navy regarded that as a scare tactic more than anything else.

There was never any realistic chance that the projected Soviet carriers could take on the old Cold War carrier force (the USN plus the 2 French carriers), so there's the likelihood that the only reason they were built in the first place was so the USSR could say, "We have carriers too, fear us!!"

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2016-11-23 04:51  

#1  The Russian navy still needs planes capable of providing cover for its deployment off the coast – primarily in order to defend its own sea borders in the Arctic and in the Pacific Ocean.

Hold on, hold on: I know I'm not a Navy guy, but isn't this exactly *not* why you go to all the expense and trouble of building and maintaining aircraft carriers? I though they were to project power far afield, not for defense close to home. That's how we, the Brits, and French do it. That's how the Indians and Chinese are going to do it. Or am I missing something here?
Posted by: Secret Master   2016-11-23 00:22  

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