Putin's Only Aircraft Carrier May Be Scrapped
- 11.07.2025, 9:57
It had been repaired for seven years.
The Russian Defense Ministry may refuse to restore the only aircraft carrier in the Russian Navy - the cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov, which has been under repair since 2018, an informed source told Izvestia. According to him, the ship's repair and modernization are currently suspended, and the issue of its further future should be decided in the near future. Representatives of the Navy Chief Committee and the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), which was engaged in the cruiser's restoration, are now discussing whether it makes sense to return the aircraft carrier to the fleet, the source said.
The former commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sergei Avakyants, called the refusal to continue repair work "absolutely correct." In his opinion, the Russian Navy does not need the Admiral Kuznetsov even modernized. "An aircraft carrier is already a bygone era. '....' It is a very expensive and ineffective naval weapon. The future lies with carriers of robotic systems and unmanned aviation. And the Admiral Kuznetsov, if it is decided not to continue repairs, the only thing left to do is to take it, cut it into scrap metal and dispose of it," Avakyants said.
At the same time, the current strategic documents, including the "Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Naval Activity until 2030," provide for the presence of an aircraft carrier formation both in the Northern and Pacific fleets, recalled Rear Admiral of the Reserve Mikhail Chekmasov. "The question is different - in financing given that a special military operation is underway. The main thing now is victory in the SSO, and there it will be clear what we need to build next," Chekmasov noted.
Despite the development of unmanned systems, including surface and underwater, we cannot do without air cover in long-range campaigns, says military expert, Captain 1st Rank Vasily Dandykin. "Of course, the case of the Admiral Kuznetsov is a hard one: they are repairing it for a long time, there were problems, there was a fire. But the fact that now many countries, including India and China, are developing aircraft carrier fleets, shows that such ships are needed," Dandykin said.
Analogous position is held by Ilya Kramnik of the Center for Strategic Planning Studies of IMEMO RAN. In his opinion, the fleet needs its own airfield at sea, and this requires aircraft carriers. At the same time, Kramnik noted that Russia's only aircraft carrier, which was launched in 1985 and commissioned in 1991, is badly outdated. "Therefore, it is necessary to build another ship taking into account the experience accumulated during the operation of the Admiral Kuznetsov. We can do it, we have shipyards that allow building ships of such sizes," Kramnik added.
The Admiral Kuznetsov cruiser is designed to defeat large surface targets, protect naval formations from enemy attacks and support amphibious operations. The ship can base 28 airplanes and 24 helicopters. The aircraft carrier was undergoing repairs after returning from a campaign in the Mediterranean Sea, where it carried out strikes against militant targets in Syria. Initially, the reconstruction was estimated at 20 billion rubles. In December 2019, a fire broke out on the ship, killing two people and injuring 14 others. The cruiser was expected to return to the Navy in 2022, but the deadline for the completion of repairs was postponed several times. A TASS source earlier reported that the service life of aircraft carriers may be extended by 20 years.