The only Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov was docked for repairs
The only aircraft carrier of the Russian Navy, Admiral Kuznetsov, docked at the 35th plant in Severomorsk for repairs, said Alexey Rakhmanov, General Director of the United Shipbuilding Corporation. The docking was planned to take place a few days ago, but it had to be postponed due to strong winds. It is expected that the cruiser will return to the disposal of the Navy no earlier than 2023.
The Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the only one in the Russian Navy, docked at the 35th plant near Murmansk for repairs and modernization, said Alexey Rakhmanov, CEO of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC).
"The operation to dock the Kuznetsov has been completed successfully," Rakhmanov said.
This was planned to be done on May 14-15.
The last contract for the repair of Admiral Kuznetsov assumed the repair of only one gas turbine unit, later it turned out that all four need to be removed and repaired, and this is a total of 10-11 months of work. The ship will not leave the dock until 2023, unless other defects are revealed.
The hard fate of "Kuznetsov"
Admiral Kuznetsov is the only aircraft carrier of the Russian Navy, the flagship of the Navy and the Northern Fleet. The maximum speed of the vessel is 54 kilometers per hour, and its dimensions are equal to three football fields. The aircraft carrier was commissioned in 1991 and has been repaired at least seven times since then. In total, the process took about 13.5 years.
The ship participated in combat operations in Syria for the first time in 2016-2017. The approximate cost of the cruiser's actions in Syria amounted to at least 7.5 billion rubles, RBC calculated.
After the operation in Syria, the ship got up for repairs, which has not ended until now.
Admiral Kuznetsov was transferred to the USC in April 2018 - specialists were instructed to completely modernize the power systems and armament of the ship under a contract worth about 60-65 billion rubles, Kommersant wrote. The same contract also provided for the reconstruction of the dry dock for repairs, for which 23 billion rubles were to be spent.
In October 2018, an accident occurred: the floating dock PD-50, in which Kuznetsov was located, abruptly went under water, as a result of which a crane fell on the ship and damaged part of the deck.
After that, Admiral Kuznetsov was transferred to the 35th ship repair plant, but in December 2019 a fire broke out on board. The ship caught fire when a spark from welding got into the bilge with spilled fuel. Two sailors died in the fire. More than 10 people were injured. In April 2020, USC estimated the fire damage at 500 million rubles.
In addition, USC had to terminate the contract with the company that was building a new dry dock for the aircraft carrier at the Murmansk plant. The work progressed ten times slower than what was prescribed in the contract. Moreover, the contractor was unable to report on an advance of 2.6 billion rubles. The director of the plant, who was supposed to help the aircraft carrier return to service, was under investigation for embezzlement of tens of millions of rubles.
In June 2020, RIA Novosti, referring to the public procurement portal, reported that the repair of the aircraft carrier would require more than 251 million rubles.
"A gift for NATO"
Back in 2019, Richard Moss, an expert at the US Naval Institute, wrote that Russia, instead of repairing an aircraft carrier, should build nuclear submarines of Project 885 "Ash" or small missile boats.
He believes that the restoration of Admiral Kuznetsov is not due to the real needs of the Russian army, but is a matter of national prestige.
The expert drew attention to the inefficient use of the ship, which, due to problems with the propulsion system, hull and airfinisher, needs frequent and expensive repairs. For this reason, the aircraft carrier was among the five worst in its class in the history of the world fleet according to The National Interest.
Alice Andreeva
