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Speaking of Russian technology, after the Russian Navy floating drydock sank last year while their only aircraft carrier was in it the admiralty had to take a stark assessment of their ugly reality. Either tow the sucker halfway around the world to the only other Naval drydock near Vladivostok or junk the thing. While the Russians continue to agonize over the decision the world awaits with a big yawn.
Because in order to reach the Far East dry dock from where the carrier currently rots, er, sits, it would need to sail out of the Kola Bay and through the Norwegian Sea, the North and South Atlantic, around the southern tip of Africa, across the Indian Ocean and then through both the North and South Pacific. Only then could the massive ship be hoisted back up out of the water where repairs could once again commence. There’s just one problem: the carrier’s propellers were removed before the last dry dock sank, meaning the ship cannot travel anywhere under its own power.
Russia may scrap its only aircraft carrier to avoid the embarrassment of towing it around the globe
2 days ago
Pictured in this file image dated August 7, 2010, is the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov at the PD-50 floating dry dock of Shipyard 82. The PD-50 floating dry dock of the shipyard sank while the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov was leaving it on the night of October 29 to 30, 2018. Several people were injured in the accident. (Photo by Lev Fedoseyev\TASS via Getty Images)
Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, the long-troubled Admiral Kuznetsov, has long been seen as a bit of an embarrassment for the Kremlin, which fancies itself the world’s alternative to America’s brand of Western geopolitical leadership.
Last October, the dry dock holding the Admiral Kuznetsov caught fire, eventually sinking into the sea and leaving the immobile carrier stranded where it was floating. A large crane that had been attached to the dry dock collapsed onto the carrier’s flight deck during the fire, tearing a large hole and adding to the extensive list of updates and repairs that had already seen repeated delays, thanks to Russia’s struggling economy and recent emphasis on the development of new missile technologies.
Russian Floating Smoke Bomb
The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov passes through the English Channel on October 21, 2016 near Dover, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Doing so would mean Russia, a nation that purports to be a global military power, would have no aircraft carriers to speak of. While this would dramatically limit the nation’s theoretical force projection capabilities, the truth is, losing the carrier would do little in terms of changing what Russia is actually capable of doing.
The carrier last saw action in 2016 in support of Pro-Assad forces in Syria. That deployment proved embarrassing for the Russian military, with its support mission marred by losing two aircraft as they attempted to land on the ship’s flight deck. When its rotation was over, the Admiral skulked back to Russian waters, spewing black smoke and accompanied by an ocean-going tugboat — just in case the old carrier couldn’t manage the trip under its own power.
So the question really boils down to this — which would be more embarrassing to the Russian government: parading their zombie carrier around the globe for repairs, or putting it down for good and losing their status among nations with formidable sea-based force projection capabilities?
Russia may scrap its only aircraft carrier to avoid the embarrassment of towing it around the globe | NEWSREP
I myself neither underestimate Russian military capacity and capability nor do I overestimate it. What I do do is to present a counter weight to the unrelenting and unbelievable Kremlin propaganda that only presents the Russian military as invincible under all conditions and circumstances while simultaneously trying absolutely and unsuccessfully to denegrate US military capacity and capability. Only fools would try to present the Russian armed forces as superior to the US armed forces while simultaneously trying against all hope and reality to say the US military are a bunch of incompetent bunglers who imagine they are superior in all things. And when the trashtalk comes from a guy who's way in above his pay grade it becomes a joke, sad and sorry as the joke is.
Because in order to reach the Far East dry dock from where the carrier currently rots, er, sits, it would need to sail out of the Kola Bay and through the Norwegian Sea, the North and South Atlantic, around the southern tip of Africa, across the Indian Ocean and then through both the North and South Pacific. Only then could the massive ship be hoisted back up out of the water where repairs could once again commence. There’s just one problem: the carrier’s propellers were removed before the last dry dock sank, meaning the ship cannot travel anywhere under its own power.
Russia may scrap its only aircraft carrier to avoid the embarrassment of towing it around the globe
2 days ago
Pictured in this file image dated August 7, 2010, is the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov at the PD-50 floating dry dock of Shipyard 82. The PD-50 floating dry dock of the shipyard sank while the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov was leaving it on the night of October 29 to 30, 2018. Several people were injured in the accident. (Photo by Lev Fedoseyev\TASS via Getty Images)
Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, the long-troubled Admiral Kuznetsov, has long been seen as a bit of an embarrassment for the Kremlin, which fancies itself the world’s alternative to America’s brand of Western geopolitical leadership.
Last October, the dry dock holding the Admiral Kuznetsov caught fire, eventually sinking into the sea and leaving the immobile carrier stranded where it was floating. A large crane that had been attached to the dry dock collapsed onto the carrier’s flight deck during the fire, tearing a large hole and adding to the extensive list of updates and repairs that had already seen repeated delays, thanks to Russia’s struggling economy and recent emphasis on the development of new missile technologies.
Russian Floating Smoke Bomb
The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov passes through the English Channel on October 21, 2016 near Dover, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Doing so would mean Russia, a nation that purports to be a global military power, would have no aircraft carriers to speak of. While this would dramatically limit the nation’s theoretical force projection capabilities, the truth is, losing the carrier would do little in terms of changing what Russia is actually capable of doing.
The carrier last saw action in 2016 in support of Pro-Assad forces in Syria. That deployment proved embarrassing for the Russian military, with its support mission marred by losing two aircraft as they attempted to land on the ship’s flight deck. When its rotation was over, the Admiral skulked back to Russian waters, spewing black smoke and accompanied by an ocean-going tugboat — just in case the old carrier couldn’t manage the trip under its own power.
So the question really boils down to this — which would be more embarrassing to the Russian government: parading their zombie carrier around the globe for repairs, or putting it down for good and losing their status among nations with formidable sea-based force projection capabilities?
Russia may scrap its only aircraft carrier to avoid the embarrassment of towing it around the globe | NEWSREP
I myself neither underestimate Russian military capacity and capability nor do I overestimate it. What I do do is to present a counter weight to the unrelenting and unbelievable Kremlin propaganda that only presents the Russian military as invincible under all conditions and circumstances while simultaneously trying absolutely and unsuccessfully to denegrate US military capacity and capability. Only fools would try to present the Russian armed forces as superior to the US armed forces while simultaneously trying against all hope and reality to say the US military are a bunch of incompetent bunglers who imagine they are superior in all things. And when the trashtalk comes from a guy who's way in above his pay grade it becomes a joke, sad and sorry as the joke is.
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