"President Rodrigo Duterte has allowed Russian warships to freely enter the territorial waters of the Philippines …"
March 23, 2017
An agreement on naval cooperation with the Philippines could make at least some sense if the Russian Navy had ships.
You can discuss strategic plans as much as you like, the possibility of creating foreign bases and the undoubted importance of combat training. But if there are no ships, then there is no fleet.
Strong statement. Now I am being attacked with sea curses and pictures with ships under the Andreevsky phage. Just let the critics first look at the age, capabilities and composition of the weapons. And at the same time they will explain how they will replace a handful of Soviet-built cruisers and BODs when their age approaches 40 years.
35-40 years old for a rank 1 ship? It's as ridiculous as if the battleships of the Russo-Japanese War accidentally came to Midway.
Since the days of the sailing fleet, there have been no examples when ships, having served for four decades, were considered full-fledged combat units, capable of equal compete with more modern rivals. And no upgrades will save here: the differences in the design and capabilities of ships of different generations are too great.
Now they will remember about “Nimitz”, which has been surfing the oceans since 1975. Only this comparison is stupid and incorrect.
“Nimitz” is a self-propelled airfield, where 4 generations of aviation have changed.
Aircraft carriers age more slowly than ships of other classes. But time spares no one. The new aircraft carriers are superior to the Nimitz in terms of economy, efficiency, ease of deployment and support for takeoff and landing operations, especially for modern aircraft with a greater mass. For this reason, a new aircraft-carrying ship named Kennedy is being built to replace the Nimitsu.
What is being built to replace our ships? The question has no answer.
The most interesting chapter
Comparison of the ages of Russian and foreign warships does not give a complete picture of the situation.
The last of the surface ships of the ocean zone, "Admiral Chabanenko", was commissioned in 1999. The lead American destroyer of the "Arleigh-Burke" class was in 1991. In fact, they are the same age - the design of both was carried out in the late 80s.
Well, who dares to compare the combat value, versatility and striking power of “Chabanenko” and “Arleigh Burke”? On the first, there is not even a medium-long-range air defense system. Radar, BIUS, layout, dozens of universal launchers - there is a technological gap between them.
This aspect is rarely called out loud. Even being built at the same time, domestic cruisers and destroyers in most cases were not the same age as the ships of the “potential enemy”. Simply put, they were ten years behind. The reasons can only be guessed at.
During the Soviet era, they constantly worked on this problem, and after a few years, they reached the required level. And so - each subsequent round of evolution of naval (and not only) weapons. We are lagging behind - we are catching up.
Now the situation is out of control.
The fleet has been standing in one place for the last quarter of a century. The lagging behind on radars and combat information systems is two generations.
The Russian Navy and the fleets of other developed countries with immodest ambitions (USA, Japan, NATO countries, and even India and China) exist in parallel realities. Given the differences in the number of ships and their capabilities, simulating a situation with the use of weapons seems meaningless.
In modern conditions, a compound from the ships of the Soviet period will not even have time to understand what and where came from.
Of course, everything can be reduced to “multiply by zero”. Those. nuclear missile apocalypse, in which the initial set of parameters becomes unimportant. All the same, the result is zero.
However, photographs from Gadzhievo (base of the 31st division of nuclear submarines of the Northern Fleet) indicate that not everything is in order with the “apocalypse” either.
2015 year. Finding in the base five SSBNs at the same time. Taking into account the fact that the K-114 "Tula" was at that moment on the "Zvezdochka" in Severodvinsk, this means that there was only one strategic missile carrier on alert. The rest, in the event of a preemptive strike, could be destroyed in the base with a single enemy warhead.
The same situation is confirmed by the data of American intelligence. The illustration shows the number of combat services of submarine strategic missile carriers of the USSR / Russian Navy.
Why does the author describe the situation mainly in black?
Like a doctor who works primarily with patients, journalistic work is also associated with the identification of painful cases in the state and in society.
Especially "deliver" regular reports from pseudo-experts, trumpeting about the increased activity of the Navy. However, what can you not write with vodka.
Once again - what kind of activity can we talk about if the fleet does not have enough ships ?! And if you continue in the same spirit, soon they will end altogether. To tow "Potemkin villages" in the form of half-century destroyers and an aircraft carrier - this option is not being considered.
I do not know what the experts (including foreign ones) are guided by when describing the threats emanating from the “reviving” fleet. And who benefits from rumors as a “potential adversary” trembles at the sight of museum pieces from the Cold War.
After all, there are not stupid people on the bridge of Burke and Nimitz. They see the real power of the "aircraft carrier group", which has lost out of the blue 20% of its air wing.
See the real age of the ships. They see that, due to the lack of cruisers and destroyers, everything that is at hand is being thrown into Mediterranean. And we are very glad if we managed to find anything.
If such news is presented to the public under the guise of achievements and evidence of presence in the Mediterranean, then the case is a pipe.
