There is no reason for scientific analysis here. The Russian Navy and the US Navy exist separately from each other, in different time periods. Just like the fleets of the First and Second World War.
Statistical methods don't work. With a multiple quantitative gap, it makes no sense to calculate the average age of the ship's composition. As well as determining the% ratio of new and old ships. In reality, these% will be expressed in a different number of ships for each of the fleets. Too different to take this calculation seriously.
The "average temperature" phenomenon
It is enough to exclude from the calculations “obsolete equipment” (ships built before 2001), as the unexpected turns out. In the first 15 years of the new century, American shipyards transferred 36 destroyers to the fleet (including the experimental Zamwalt and the burk-shaped Finn, which had not yet been officially accepted into the Navy, but already launched and launched for testing).
PCU (pre-comission unit) John Finn. A couple more months will pass and the PCU code will change to USS (United States Ship).
No less serious results were shown by the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard. During this period, 12 Virginia class multipurpose nuclear submarines and one Carter special operations submarine (Seawulf class) were commissioned.
Major players include two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, Reagan and George W. Bush. Another ("Ford"), recognized as the largest warship in history, was launched in 2013 and will join the Navy this fall.
Other aircraft carriers were built:
- helicopter carrier with the unexpected name "America" (an air wing of 30 helicopters, "Harriers" and F-35);
- two universal amphibious assault ships of the Wasp class (Iwo Jima and Makin Island, each twice as large as the Mistral);
- Expeditionary floating base-helicopter carrier "Puller" (78 thousand tons).
From the exotic - the naval radar base of the missile defense system, which received the designation SBX.
The next item is six high-speed coastal combat ships (LCS), duplicating the tasks of patrol boats, minesweepers and submarine hunters.
Other large units: 11 amphibious assault ships of the "San Antonio" class and two sea terminals for over-the-horizon landing of armored vehicles: "Glenn" and "Monford Point".
In total - a "brigade" of seventy ships of the oceanic zone with an average age of less than ten years. So much for all the statistics.
Excluding the “outdated” ships built in the 1980s and 90s, the Nimitz (1975) remains the oldest operating ship. However, age is not so terrible for aircraft carriers. Their main weapon is constantly evolving. Over the past 40 years, three generations of naval aviation (Phantom - F-14 - "superhornet") have changed on the Nimitz deck.
And again about the Russian threat
In reality, everything is somewhat different than on the beautiful trailer of the Russian fleet. The success of domestic shipbuilders, as expected, turned out to be much more modest.
Over the past 15 years, the Russian fleet has received the Gepard multipurpose nuclear submarine (Project 971), the Severodvinsk multipurpose nuclear submarine (Project 885) and three Borey-class strategic submarine missile carriers.
Four diesel-electric boats pr. 636.3 (modernized "Varshavyanka"). Thirty years ago, such “black holes” posed a deadly threat, however, at the beginning of the 21st century, the balance of power changed somewhat. The boats lack anaerobic SS, without which they cannot survive in the conditions of modern PLO (they are forced to surface every 3-4 days instead of two to three weeks for foreign analogues).
From surface units - five frigates ("Gorshkov", "Kasatonov", "Grigorovich", "Essen", "Makarov"). Four of them have not yet been officially accepted into service, but we can confidently speak of them as built ships. The main scope of work was left behind; three frigates have already entered the stage of mooring trials and GSI.
Corvette, destroyer and frigate
If you wish, you can add seven more corvettes pr. 20380 and 11611 to this list. It makes no sense to talk about smaller units - MAK and MRK.
What is a corvette or small rocket ship?
On the night of October 7, 2015, a grouping of ships of the Caspian Flotilla consisting of a missile ship Dagestan and three small missile ships of project 21631 produced group start 26 missiles 3M14 "Caliber-NK" on objects of the Islamic State in Syria.
The salvo of small ships of the Caspian Flotilla is equal to half the salvo of the destroyer "Berk" (96 launch silos). No further comments are needed.
Unlike smaller ships, the destroyer is still capable of hitting ballistic missile warheads and shooting down satellites in low Earth orbits. Apart from large hydroacoustic stations, helicopters and other military equipment on board.
In this sense, the combat value of the "babies" is greatly exaggerated. Has someone seriously decided to equate RTOs with destroyers? Well, statistics will endure everything.
They don't like to remember the technical factor at all. The harsh truth is that the Russian Navy, like other fleets of the world, in principle, lacks the equipment available to American sailors.
A missile defense naval base, underwater rocket houses carrying 150 Tomahawks each in their ridges, a missile and artillery destroyer and a six-megawatt Aegis radar …
At one time, trying to stay at the peak of progress, the USSR generated many fresh and unique counter-solutions (super-heavy anti-ship missiles, titanium submarines, the Legend space reconnaissance system).
The modern Navy is forced to be content with only those available technologies, the implementation of which does not require large expenditures. The result is what you would expect.
The fleet is not only ships. This is, to a large extent, naval aviation.
The potential of the naval aviation of the Russian Navy undoubtedly increased with the start of deliveries of MiG-29K carrier-based fighters (4 units) and coast-based Su-30SM fighters (8 units for the Black Sea Fleet aviation).
On the other side of the scale are the five hundred F / E-18E and 18F Super Hornets put on the decks of American aircraft carriers at the turn of the century.
Other foreign innovations include the creation of the Triton patrol drone (modified for the naval missions of the Global Hawk UAV). 15-ton apparatus with a 40-meter wing and an all-round radar, capable of examining up to 7 million square meters per day. kilometers of ocean surface. In addition to the radar with an active phased array, the drone's toolkit includes electronic reconnaissance equipment and a complex of optical sensors with a laser rangefinder for visual recognition of targets. Recent history of the fleet.
Epilogue. "Elephant and Pug"?
The favorite pastime of our “sofa experts” is the deliberately meaningless comparison of the potentials of the fleets of Russia and the United States. It contains no more meaning than mentions of "diapers" and regular articles about the concerns of the American command in connection with the "growing lag in the field of naval weapons from Russia and China." The accumulated potential is so great that American admirals may not “climb the bridge” until the middle of the century.
Unlike them, it is contraindicated for us to relax. The above statistics clearly show how effective the rearmament of the Russian Navy is. And how much remains to be done to reach, if not on an equal footing (which is impossible either for economic or geopolitical reasons), then on an adequate level in comparison with the “probable adversary”. Moreover, it is too rash to immediately declare such an armada as your enemy. It is better to do everything so that the US Navy remains an ally, or at least neutral.
Otherwise, why rush into a battle that cannot be won?
However … The quantitative and qualitative level of the Russian and US navies is such that they have less chances to engage each other in battle than ships of the period of the First and Second World War.
On the positive side, it should be admitted that the current situation is not new and has its own logical explanation of a geographic nature. The history of the Anglo-Saxons is inextricably linked with the sea. Everything is completely different with us.
In all honesty, let us ask: what serious military consequences did Tsushima have? Did the Japanese reach Moscow? No - that's the whole answer. As well as the loss of a part of Sevastopol during the Crimean War and its re-occupation during the Second World War. All of these were completely minor, minor troubles for a huge land power.
“Chained in one chain”: the BOD “Admiral Panteleev” and the destroyer “Lassen”. Refueling practice on the move at sea.
