Russian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

gelgoog

Brigadier
Registered Member
And just to point out how crucial other funding will be - Russia lost Su-35S over Ukraine. The N035 radar has been captured. Now the entire modernization program for ~90 Su-30SM as well as all radars on ~128 Su-35s have to be changed at a time when Russia was struggling with production of complex electronics even before the current sanctions. Navy (apart from SSBNs) simply isn't the priority anymore and priority treatment was what was needed to resuscitate it.
With tanks/artillery/missiles and aircraft/SAMs Russia at least has something to work with under duress because a lot has been prepared and bought in recent 10+ years. Navy was lagging and it was waiting for the leap ahead that was promised.
First point. I saw the photos of the wreck of the single Su-35S the Ukrainians claim to have shot down. It has been turned into mush so good luck reverse engineering the radar from that. Also this isn't the 1980s anymore. You can likely change the N035 radar profile with little more than a software update. The factory which makes the N035 radar tubes is working on three shifts and is planning an expansion of their facilities. So clearly they do not think they need to stop production of it.

With regards to the Russian Navy there were major show stoppers because of dependence on foreign imports. Most have been solved but some of them have not. The nuclear submarine program was not dependent on imports and that is why it is the naval program in best shape. They still have problems with producing high speed diesel engines for their smaller corvettes. But they have small naval turbine engine designs, designed to replace the Ukrainian ones used in the Zubr, that they could use if they wanted to. However it would require a new small corvette design. I am sure there will be lots of production hiccups with these sanctions. In particular the Russian civilian fishing fleet and merchant fleet will be affected. To solve those issues might require diverting manpower resources which would be used in the military programs. There might also be some additional hiccups for the military part of naval construction. But I doubt there will be anything major. As is the Russians had already developed a new generation of civilian diesel engines for smaller ships. They will need to expand on that.

Right now the major issue the Russian navy faces is the reorganization of the MIC in the naval sector is still ongoing. The Russian state is still pushing companies into United Shipbuilding Corporation. For example they have been in a protracted lawsuit against Zvezda. Which is the private company which manufactures the high speed diesel engines for the small corvettes and the gearboxes for the Admiral Gorshkov class. The company which manufactures the other large diesels used in the larger corvettes is another private company which makes engines for diesel trains and has some foreign capital. That mess will take some time to untangle. And there is also lack of governance, upgrades, and other issues at the shipyards. Some of it has been fixed. Some of it has not. But I think it is a matter of time until the issues are solved. The Amur shipyard in the Far East for example used to be an historic basket case and now is the best performing shipyard they have for the surface fleet. The Zvezda shipyard might face issues with their cooperation with South Korea in building LNG tankers. But if it does I suspect they will just replace the South Koreans with Chinese. I doubt the problems there would last more than, say, 2 years.

So yes the Russians still have issues with diesels. Marine diesels and other diesel engines. There was a lack of investment by the state and an over reliance on imports. But there are people with experience in designing diesels in Russia. A good example of this is if you look at their tank program. So I doubt they wouldn't solve the issues in the long term.
 

gelgoog

Brigadier
Registered Member
Today Russia carried out a test of a Sarmat ICBM from Pletesk
Better quality video.
Sarmat is a replacement for yet another weapon system which used to be made in Ukraine. The R36M.
It is supposed to have improved ascent time vs R36M thanks to that small first stage booster. Also supposed to have improved accuracy.
It is supposed to replace old UR100N missiles as the launch platform of choice for Avangard HGV in addition to R36M.
 
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FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
Better quality video.
Sarmat is a replacement for yet another weapon system which used to be made in Ukraine. The R36M.
It is supposed to have improved ascent time vs R36M thanks to that small first stage booster. Also supposed to have improved accuracy.
It is supposed to replace old UR100N missiles as the launch platform of choice for Avangard HGV in addition to R36M.
Geeze, reading about Yuzhnoye Design Bureau made me realize why Putin took the threat of Zelensky getting WMD seriously.

They built half the Soviet strategic arsenal and even still had a space program up until the beginning of the war with the Zenit and Dnepr rockets.
 

RottenPanzer

Junior Member
Registered Member
First point. I saw the photos of the wreck of the single Su-35S the Ukrainians claim to have shot down. It has been turned into mush so good luck reverse engineering the radar from that. Also this isn't the 1980s anymore. You can likely change the N035 radar profile with little more than a software update. The factory which makes the N035 radar tubes is working on three shifts and is planning an expansion of their facilities. So clearly they do not think they need to stop production of it.
Was it even downed by a SAM?
From what i could see much of the airframe is still intact and not spreading out like how a downed aircraft by a SAM usually did.
I think technical failure like the ones at SU-30SM which was downed in Kherson to be more probable instead of the result of SAM...
 

Kich

Junior Member
Registered Member
Very excellent discussions about the state of Russian navy especially from @gelgoog and @MarKoz81.

There is one factor I very much like to point to which when you think about it, will make you realize that Russia really doesn't need a Blue Water Navy like the US or China so although they will be set backs, their Navy modernization will be fine in the long-run.

This will be going slightly off-topic.

For Russia, it's main geopolitically issue that it had to deal with this past 2 decades and even the present decade was NATO's expansion into former soviet satellites. Ukraine was their red line and the West crossed it and now we have a war. However this war turns out, I believe Russia at minimum will capture the East or major parts of it and then the south to turn Ukraine into a landlocked state. That would be a victory because unlike East Germany, Russia WILL NEVER returned annex territories back to an independent Ukraine...ever. Ukraine will be ruin economically and the unsettled borders will prevent members like Germany and others from fully accepting it into NATO.

Russia doesn't need their Navy to deal with Ukraine. It doesn't require a powerful Navy to blockade a non-naval threat from Ukraine. It's possibly that hubris was what got their Moskva sunk. Russia just need their Army and Air Force to deal with their main and greatest geopolitically threat for this half century which was preventing Ukraine from falling into NATO's orbit. The Naval engagement was just a luxury and a chance to test new tactics and equipment like the Caliber cruise missiles or their new green water ships.

For most users here, compare to this China's main and greatest geopolitically issue; re-uniting with Taiwan. If this issue boils to a military confrontation, China needs all three main branches, Air, Army, and Naval forces to achieve this goal. The Naval and Air forces will have the hardest task of taking control of Taiwan air and naval space but also keeping potential third parties from coming to Taiwan's aid. This main geopolitical challenge facing China is why they've underwent an unprecedented modernization of air and naval forces these past 2 decades and counting.

War is a form of politics and for China they saw the need to have a blue water navy to counter US and Japan (and even others) in case war is needed to solve their main geopolitical issue for this half century which is Taiwan.

Russia is using war to solve it's main geopolitical issue for this half-century right now which is Ukraine and after they think they've solved it, the war will end. For them they realized a long time ago that they really didn't need the Navy's help in case that had to resort to war.
In fact, the one and only thing they really need their Navy for was always the 2nd strike nuclear capability from their SSBN against NATO and US. That is why that part of their Navy is the only part in great shape.

Russia doesn't need their Navy like the US and China does. In fact they only care about their subs. This explains why they've let their Navy slide so much. Russia is not going to be launching wars against US or western Europe. It will never happen. And with the protection of nukes, US and Western Europe likewise won't start anything against Russia. Ukraine was Russia's red line and now they are acting on it. They don't need a navy to deal with it.

It will be interesting to see what Russia does after it solves its main geopolitical issue for this half century. I think they will seek to spread their tentacles elsewhere globally like Africa or Middle East. Maybe then they will think about paying attention to their surface fleets.
 

gelgoog

Brigadier
Registered Member
The Soviets needed the Navy to counter US influence worldwide. You could say the Russians still need their Navy to ensure their merchant and fishing fleets are able to operate across the world unhindered. But that is about it. And today you have the Chinese Navy as a counter to the US Navy. And as the Russian economy gets more integrated with the Chinese one the less important these maritime trade routes will become. Russia is already deeply focusing on the Northern Sea route with massive construction of icebreakers and the like. That will be their main sea lane for trade with China. A sea lane they will completely control and block access to rival interests. And as China improves rail links to Southeast Asia the sea routes there will become less relevant as well. Putin already announced they will speed up the projects to improve the rail links to China.

With regards to the Russian Pacific Fleet, the Russians know it is weak, which is why they now make joint patrols with the Chinese Navy there. They have ordered a lot more corvettes. The fact is the Russian Pacific Fleet is still weak as hell, but is way less worse than it used to be even a decade ago. Because of those corvettes. They simply do not compare with the regional powers there. But until the frigate construction ramps up those will have to make do.
 

pmc

Major
Registered Member
Russia has to decide what to focus on. It has to decide what to give up and what to keep otherwise it will just get degraded everything.

Pacific Fleet was the least important for Russian core interests (protecting European and Arctic Russia) since Russian Far East is extremely remote and inaccessible.
that part i agree. There is less need of blue water navy in Pacific since both Japan/Korea will be in range of land based missiles which are constantly increasing in range and speed.
than you add the increasing load out of missiles on current bombers and newer type Kh-95 on newer bombers.

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