Posted on 12/13/2019 8:08:35 AM PST by tlozo
Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, is on fire and might well never sail again. The trouble-stricken ship, which has seen fires, plane crashes, and narrowly escaped the loss of its drydock, is in flames. The fire reportedly covers the majority of the ship, and at this point it seems distinctly possible Russia’s largest ship will never sail again.
The incident took place this morning, while the big ship was dockside at the 35th Ship Repair Plant in Murmansk. According to Russian state media, the fire broke out during “repair works in the first power unit” by workers of the Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center. A large plume of black smoke was visible from the upper deck.
RIA Novosti reports, “the cause of the fire was that the spark fell into the hold during welding, and the remains of fuel oil caught fire there.” The fire then spread to an area of 120 square meters. As of nine hours ago, the fire had reportedly spread to 600 meters, with the ship’s diesel fuel on fire.
The fire had largely been put out by mid-afternoon local time, with “open flames” doused. The extent of damage to the ship is unknown. The Russian Northern Fleet stated there were no weapons or ammunition onboard the carrier at the time of the incident.
TASS reports that 12 people were injured, “mostly poisoned by combustion products.” Six of the injured are in intensive care, with “just one in satisfactory condition.” Several of the injured are reportedly firefighters that responded to the fire. RIA Novosti reports the body of a service member was found, and two other persons are reported missing.
Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, or Admiral Kuznetsov for short, is approximately 1,000 feet long and displaces up to 58,000 tons fully loaded. The ship is built to accommodate an air wing of up to 24 fighters, including Su-33 Flanker D and MiG-29K fighter jets, plus an additional six helicopters. In reality it generally sorties with fewer aircraft than that—in 2016 it sortied with just 10 Su-33s and 5 MiG-29s. By comparison, an American Nimitz-class aircraft carrier goes to sea with 44 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.
The tragic saga of Admiral Kuznetsov started in 1981, when the ship began construction in what is now Ukraine. After an unusually long construction period, the ship was commissioned in 1990, days before the breakup of the Soviet Union. The ship was inherited by Russia, but the poor state of the Russian economy meant it was rarely used. Between 1991 and 2015, it completed just six patrols at sea and underwent just one refit.
In 2009, off the coast of Turkey, a problem with the electrical system resulted in a fire that killed one crewman. In 2012 Kuznetsov broke down off the coast of France and had to be towed by the Russian Navy tug Nikolay Chiker. In 2016, while conducting air operations off the coast of Syria, Kuznetsov lost two airplanes in two weeks, both reportedly due to faulty arresting wires during the aircraft recovery process.
In October 2018, Kuznetsov was at the PD-50 drydock undergoing an overhaul when the drydock began flooding with water. The massive PD-50 drydock sank to the bottom of the ocean, but not before a heavy lift crane smashed a 16-foot hole into the side of the ship. The incident injured four shipyard workers and killed a fifth. The ship was towed to the nearby 35th Ship Repair Plant, where this morning’s fire took place.
It’s not clear how badly today’s fire hurt the big ship. The fire is out, but it did burn for hours, Furthermore reports suggest the fire took place near the ship’s propulsion systems. The ship's upgrade was supposed to involve replacing four of the eight turbo-pressurized boilers and refurbishing the remainder. If those were damaged or destroyed the ship’s in-service date could be pushed back even further.
If the damage is bad enough, the ship may never sail again.
is the filthiest gas turbine ship, You can find cleaner coal burners.
Russian boilers
4 x shaft boiler-turbine
4 x GTZA TV-12-4
8 x boilers KVG-4
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%B4%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BB_%D0%A4%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D1%8E%D0%B7%D0%B0_%D0%9A%D1%83%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%86%D0%BE%D0%B2
heavy oil + diesel.
Kerosene heats the water in a boiler to make steam which is injected into the turbine.
This carrier does not go to sea without an ocean-going tug in the flotilla.
The Type KVG-4 high-pressure vertical water-tube boiler with natural circulation and turbocharged blast into furnace was designed by JSC Special Design Bureau for Boiler Engineering in St. Petersburg. In 2011, the company offered the Navy an upgraded version of boilers for the aircraft carrier, KVG-6M-1, however, the military showed no interest.
https://www.familienrat-bb.de/st/petersburg/russia/boilers/company/27610.html
It will be on crazy Vaclav’s used car lot in no time. Put it in H.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lfkdM-WraiY
What do they expect when they name the ship “Cuts Nuts Off”?
I saw that movie! Kevin Costner threw a lit flare into the fuel storage!
Wait. This is real?
Is that the one that has to be towed everywhere?
Aw, c’mon!
Is just new Russian way of annealing ship, making it tougher!
</sarc>
Looks like they’re burning coal in that thing.
Some admiral just lost his command.
Loss of confidence.
5.56mm
Just a few seconds long:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39vuoeI1DVQ&feature=emb_logo
More smoke than other news pics of the carrier. Looks much worse than so-and-so many square meters.
Thanks, have you heard that they had replaced the boiler, fueled it and it failed.
They were removing the failed replacement boiler without emptying the kerosene tanks and that is what contributed to the fire.
There is a report that the 2nd replacement boiler is done but has not been delivered.
Thank you gigantically.
Will hunt it down.
Perhaps, like that idiot in Kittery a few years ago that wanted to leave work early, a Russian worker set a small fire that got out of control?
200 150 HP Mercury Outboards.
One of designers involved in development of the boilers for Admiral Kuznetsov said that use of sea water for boilers instead of distilled water was a significant problem.
However, Russian Navy’s ships are not equipped properly enough to generate sufficient amount of desalinated water.
The deep-state, Neo-con lie that Russia is going to march through Europe is once again proven to be complete rubbish.
IIRC, in "Blind Man's Bluff", during the Six Day War, the Soviets sent a Northern Fleet nuclear missile boat to the Med to potentially nuke Israel.
It arrived too late, much to the captain's relief.
Meeting up with the Black Sea fleet off Israel, the BSF said they were short on both fuel oil and water to spare any.
The missile boat captain told them that they didn't require fuel oil, and just generated a fresh batch of water, if the fleet needed it.
I agree. A gas turbine/combustion turbine is the same as a jet engine except much larger. They do not need boilers.
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