Posted on 12/24/2010 9:23:32 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
France wins tender to build warships for Russia (Update 1)
Topic: Russia's purchase of French Mistral-class warship
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy over the phone that France has won a tender to build amphibious assault ships for Russia.
The winner is a consortium comprised of French DCNS and Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), the Kremlin press service said.
At the initial stage, two Mistral-class helicopter carriers will be built jointly by France and Russia with another two to be constructed later in Russia.
Russia will perform 20% of the construction work at the STX shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, USC spokesman Igor Ryabov said.
"Subsequently the share of the project's localization in Russia will increase," he said.
Russia has been in talks with France on the purchase of Mistral-class warships on a 2+2 scheme whereby Russia will buy one or two French-built Mistrals and build another two under license at home.
A Mistral-class ship is capable of transporting and deploying 16 helicopters, four landing vessels, up to 70 armored vehicles including 13 battle tanks, and 450 personnel.
The Russian military has said it plans to use Mistral ships in its Northern and Pacific fleets.
Many Russian military and industry experts have questioned the financial and military sense of the purchase, and some believe that Russia simply wants to gain access to advanced naval technology that could be used in the future in potential conflicts with NATO and its allies.
MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
Back to the future -
The old Imperial Russian Navy bought several warships from France in the 19th century, and copied French battleship designs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Tsesarevich
I always note with the french that they send back the problematic immigrants - they do whatever is needed to protect themselves.
And they can, because they ARE the left. So the left doesn’t screw them up.
But if that’s the case, what does the left really care about?
The answer is: nothing. The left has evolved into nothing more than a TRIBE. It supports its own TRIBE, and the issues it pontificates about are a sideshow.
You guys beat me to it. The French-influenced Borodino class regularly make everyone’s list of worst battleship designs. All five were sunk or captured in battle.
What are the US Navies version of this ship? The USS New York class? Can you tell us whether the Frogs are happy with their own Mistral class ships if any? Merry Christmas!
We are scraping our weapons, mothballing the fleet and adding practicing of sodomites into our ranks of soldiers. Whats wrong with this picture people?
We are scraping our weapons, mothballing the fleet while adding openly gay practioners of sodomy to our ranks. Whats wrong with this picture people?
French warship designs from the turn of the century were bizarre. I think their chief designer was a 6 year old boy.
A few questions: Do the Russians have the ability/equipment to refuel helos in flight. Absent that, it would seem that the effectiveness of the ship, its ability to project power is considerably limited. Also, without a carrier able to launch fixed winged jets, there's NO real CAP for these ships..they'd seem to be highly vulnerable...how do they plan to configure the battle group?
We build and maintain Super-carriers, and the Russians have to have the French (of all people) help them build baby-carriers........
Russian cruiser Varyag (1899) Builder: William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia
Thank you very much-Blessed Seasons Greetings to you too. About a ping list, I’ve been too lazy to make one until now!!
I’ve not seen anything in the public domain about Soviet/Russian aerial refuelling capabilities. I guess it’s got to do with the larger Russian philosophy which emphasizes territorial operations as opposed to expeditionary capabilities rather than technical issues.
The issue of air cover cannot be seen as a hindering factor given that these ships will most certainly operate within the reach of naval aviation units esp in the Pacific. Besides how much air power do you want if you want to bully Georgia. I don’t think they’ve decided on how amphibious assault capabilities they want, but they plan to buy up to 100 helicopters (KA-52 attack and KA-27 utility).
helicopter refuelling capabilities, not aerial refuelling!!
Don’t forget the battleship Retvizen, also a Cramp product, which stood up quite well to torpedoes and shellfire. A rarity for vessels of that vintage. IIRC she was contracted similarly to Tsesarevitch, but came out costing much less for a more solid design.
Our kommisar, 0bama, is more of a communist than theirs - Putin.
Who do they need to amphibiously assault in the Pacific?
Australia rejected the Mistral class in favour of the Spanish Juan Carlos I class LHD. The French ship has some important problems that just could not be fixed without a major redesign.
That ships are not fit for Russian doctrine of massive amphibious assault.
I bet an idea is to get a technology to build and operate a vessel like that.
Mistral is of little military value but it represents a top edge technology used in civilain ship building.
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