Russian navy to scrap one-fifth of its ships

AP ^ | January 5, 2003

[Black Powder]

MOSCOW (AP) - The Russian navy has decided to scrap about one-fifth of its ships because of a lack of funds to maintain them, its commander said in an interview published Sunday.

"The navy will decommission those ships that to keep results in unreasonable expenses," Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov told the military official daily Krasnaya Zvezda, or Red Star. "I regret to say that it will reduce the number of navy ships by about one-fifth of their current number."

Kuroyedov did not say how many ships the navy currently has, but Western experts have put their number at about 300.

Kuroyedov said the ships that were in worst shape were selected to be decommissioned.

The Russian fleet is second only to the U.S. Navy in sheer numbers, but few ships have remained fully combat-ready and most have languished at port due to a lack of fuel, batteries and other necessities.

Kuroyedov said the "catastrophic" shortage of funds had left the navy with just 10-12 per cent of what it needed to adequately maintain its ships since 1996, forcing it to start scrapping relatively modern ships that otherwise could have remained operational.

Kuroyedov said the new cuts would free resources for saving its best ships. "We must preserve the ships which are still 'alive' and use their potential to survive until better times," he said.

Despite the shortage of funds, the navy has continued to commission new ships. Kuroyedov said it would receive new nuclear and diesel submarines and surface ships in the coming years.

The Russian navy suffered a severe blow in August 2000 when one of its most modern and powerful nuclear submarines, the Kursk, exploded and sank in the Barents sea, killing its entire crew of 118. Prosecutors said no one was to blame for the accidental explosion of a practice torpedo, which triggered the disaster.

[LibKill]

Lo, how the mighty Soviets have fallen!

Thank you, Ronald Reagan. The world is a better place because of what you did.

[Husker24]

In other news the Chinese navy has just doubled.

[ffusco]

how much for the kiev class carrier? does it come with hind attack helos and sams?

[The Duke]

I find it interesting that the same navy fielded the Kursk submarine.

[FreedomFarmer]

Somebody needs to tell the Ruskies about eBay...

[Question_Assumptions]

I hear Taiwan is looking for some subs.

[PokeyJoe]

The PRC is trying to buy the new Russian super carrier hull - unfinished.

[PokeyJoe]

Russian Super Carrier Project.

[Recon by Fire]

They were junk prior to the announcement that they were officialy headed for the landfill.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

What's the tonnage on that monster? I assume it's not in the Nimitz class, ie, not in the 90,000 tons displacement range.

Anyone can look at a map and see that Russia is not a natural sea power (esp. after losing territory after the breakup of the USSR). Maintaining a large navy is a ridiculous and unnecssary expense. If I were in charge of Russia, I'd reduce the navy to a small coast defence force, scrap the nuclear submarine program entirely, and work on making sure Russia's land and air forces were properly equiped, fed, trained, and paid regularly.

[Paul Ross]

Their super carrier, with the canted landing deck, does not appear to be in the class of ours, you're right. They continue to adhere to the British-pioneered 'jump deck' for rolling launches off the bow. We still of course are sticking with catapults, (also a British-pioneered concept, but sadly neglected by our allies due to some bean-counters in Whitehall) and indeed if our bean-counters don't get in the way, we will soon be launching electro-dynamic rail-launch catapults on our next generation CVNs.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

As you can see by the angled deck, though, they do land contentional tail-hook equiped aircraft, rather than using VSTOL aircraft like the Harrier. The ski jump does have the advantage of extreme mechanical simplicity (ie, no moving parts to break down). I hear that the Brits are going to build a pair of conventional angled deck carriers, probably with ski jumps, to replace the existing, small, Invincible class carriers which can only carry Harriers and helicopters.

[PokeyJoe]

It's a NIMITZ class type carrier, but for the bow which has a slight English innovation (the sloped deck) and lack of catapults.

China is the buyer.

[green team 1999]

brits need bigger carriers to make room for the F-35 fighter-bomber

[green team 1999]

the empire strikes back

[Lockbox]

They were junk prior to the announcement that they were officialy headed for the landfill.

I'm with you, over 1/5 of the Russian navy ships are junk. Guess they are just trying to get credit for the 'downsizing' by rust.

[csvset]

ping