Russia wants to build new aircraft carrier
The Russian Navy has this year started to plan the construction of a new aircraft carrier. Navy head commander Vladimir Kuroyedov says the construction of the vessel is planned to start up after 2010 and that the vessel will be finished by 2017. Experts do however express scepticism about the project. They stress that Russia does not have adequat expericences from construction of this kind of vessels.
Russia today has one aricraft carrier, the "Admiral Kuznetsov", which is
part of the Northern Fleet. This year the "Admiral Kuznetsov" is to participate
in navy training in international waters. The experts do however argue that
Russia's capacity on aircraft carriers is limited. The country does for instance
only have a small number of pilots trained for operating on aircraft carriers.
The also say that "Admiral Kuznetsov" is not sufficiently modernized.
It is also reason to doubt that the time frame for the construction of a new aircraft carrier can be kept. For example, Russia has still not completed the "Yuri Dolgorukii" nuclear submarine, the first vessel in a new Russian sub generation, although construction has been going on for 12 years. The construction of an aircraft carrier is bound to take even more time.
Photo: "Admiral Kuznetsov" (www.sevastopol-adm.gov.ua)
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