Russian Kuznetsov CSG News, Pics, Videos, & Views

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

Yesterday I'm sure I made a post in this thread and today I find it gone. Curious..Oh well..

The Russian are putting on a good "show" with the ADM "K" and it's limited ablities. Never the less it is a good show of force.

As some who actually served on aircraft carriers I can tell you first hand that CVs need to be at sea to learn to operate in a proficent manner. A ships crew cannot be trained sitting in port.

I sure would like to know the Russian operational tempo during this at sea period. Any ideas??

What the Russians need to do to improve it's CV ops is;

1) Spend more time at sea operating the lone Russian CV!
2) Learn how to land at night on a CV. Right now they are not capable of night ops..
3) Consider installing a catapult on thst ship. Perferably on the angle deck.
4) Spend more time at sea operating the lone Russian CV!
5) Spend more time at sea operating the lone Russian CV!
6) Spend more time at sea operating the lone Russian CV!

Just my opinion.

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

Jeff Head said:

Those are the best pics I have ever found and actually show ops with armed and loaded flankers, as opposed to what we almost always see...flankers taking off empty.

I counted 10 fixed-wing aircraft on deck and a couple of helos. One or two SU-25 Frogfoots and the rest Flankers for the fixed wing. I do not know how many aircraft and helos are in the hanger.

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They are certainly the best I have seen and the first I have seen of a Russian carrier with armed, operational aircraft.

Is the Russian practice of restricting the number of embarked aircraft to those that can be stowed in the hangar a result of extreme weather conditions or the fact that the number of aircraft available is limited?

Avoiding the use of a permanent deck park would certainly increase the service life of naval aircraft but it also limits the potential of these ships. A compromise would be to carry a limited airgroup most of the time but to embark a full size group by using a deck park during major exercises.

Tas

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

bd popeye said:

Spend more time at sea operating the lone Russian CV!

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Amen Popeye! The carrier looks better than I have seen it in a long time...but they Russians will not be served well if, after this exercise, they button her up for 2-3 years before any other major exercises. They should take her out 2-3 times a year. And in order to really make it pay off, they need another vessel so when this one goes into refit they can continue training and exercises unabated.

Tasman said:

They are certainly the best I have seen and the first I have seen of a Russian carrier with armed, operational aircraft.

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Me too Tasman. It is nice to finally see them training in full. I do not believe I have ever seen pictures of them with armed aircraft...though that certainly does not mean they haven't done it.

Tasman said:

Is the Russian practice of restricting the number of embarked aircraft to those that can be stowed in the hangar a result of extreme weather conditions or the fact that the number of aircraft available is limited?

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I do not know. There may be more in the hanger spaces in these pics. I just can not tell/ I would be surprised if the total embarked airwing was 14 fixed wing and two helos. Those helos look like SAR. I would think they had a few more aircraft and helos in the hanger spaces. Maybe 20 aircraft, 2-4 SAR/ASW helos and three AEW helos. But do not know.

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

bd popeye said:

Yesterday I'm sure I made a post in this thread and today I find it gone. Curious..Oh well...

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i have been experiencing the same thing several times on this forum. I do like this forum and some of the post are of big interest, but I am giving up soon. There is something seriously wrong with the forum. That or someone is deleting my posts..

Been loking for information about the Kuznetsov airwing since the deployment startet. Seems like they only have 12-15 Flanker-D operative, so those pics are probably showing mostly all. Should be no problem storing alot more Helix in the hangar though, but all pictures i have seen from the deployment is showing only 2-3 on deck. Probably one or two for Search and Rescue, maybe one fitted for ASW, and one for early warning.
Not so impressed about the paintjob on the ships They have been on a long voyage, but cant say that I have seen other nations surface-ships looking so bad during a deployment..

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

bd popeye said:

Yesterday I'm sure I made a post in this thread and today I find it gone. Curious..Oh well..

1) Spend more time at sea operating the lone Russian CV!
2) Learn how to land at night on a CV. Right now they are not capable of night ops..
3) Consider installing a catapult on thst ship. Perferably on the angle deck.
4) Spend more time at sea operating the lone Russian CV!
5) Spend more time at sea operating the lone Russian CV!
6) Spend more time at sea operating the lone Russian CV!

Just my opinion.

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And as soon as resources permit, get another one! That would give their pilots and shipcrews more experience. With the way relations between Russia and the West are going there's certainly going to be a lot of money going into the Russian Navy in the next decade. Has there been any word about a Kuznetsov replacement? Maybe something like a larger version of India's new carriers would suit Russia's needs?

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Russian/Soviet Aircraft carriers were all built at the Black Sea Shipyard in Ukraine, right? The largest Soviet ships built in actual Russian shipyards, such as the one at St. Petersburg, was the Kirov class battle cruiser?

Would it be correct to say that Russian shipyards today have zero experience in building aircraft carriers?

That's not to say that they couldn't do it. The Indians don't have that kind of experience, but they're building the Project 71 carriers at Cochin shipyard anyway.

If I were the Russians, I'd look to doing what the British and French are doing, and getting together with India for joint R&D on carrier related developments. It's getting very expensive for non-superpowers to afford these ships. The Indian Navy is expected to float the first new carrier in 2012, and the second around 2017. The Russians can observe (let someone else fix all the problems first!) and follow, to deploy 2 new carriers of their own in 2017-2020 time frame.

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

I think the largest capacity to build warships today in Russia is the Sevmass in Severodvinsk which should be able to build at least Kiev size carriers (similar size ships have actually been laid down there)

But the cap alone in time is enough to loose alot of experties in the actual building (designing was always done in Russia anyway) so even if the Nikolayev would be under russian control they pretty much have to start from the sratchs.

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

Something like an improved Ulyanovsk class CVN would be an excellent addition to the Russian surface fleet.

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

montyp165 said:

Something like an improved Ulyanovsk class CVN would be an excellent addition to the Russian surface fleet.

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Improved?? They never finished the first one. What ever happen to that ships hull??

If the Russians started today building an CVn from the original Ulyanovsk plans it would take them a minimum of 7-10 years.

Re: Russian Carrier Strike Group conducting manuevers in med and Atlantic (many pics)

bd popeye said:

Improved?? They never finished the first one. What ever happen to that ships hull??

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I think they started scrapping the 40% finished hull on feb 4th '92. So I guess there's not much left of it.