At the military registration and enlistment office:
- I want to serve in the Navy!
- And you at least know how to swim?
- What, you have no ships?
The discussion of the future of the Russian fleet follows the same scenario: the lack of shipyards is seen as the key problem. This is followed by lamentations that all the shipyards, primarily for large-scale shipbuilding, remained abroad - in Ukraine, in the city of Nikolaev. The discussion ends with a dispute about the advisability of acquiring the cruiser Ukraina (formerly Admiral Lobov). The completely outdated rusty box of the "imperial cruiser", which has been standing at the outfitting wall of the 61 Communards plant for 23 years, has become the epicenter of public sympathy among Russians.
The collapse of the USSR is a crime without a statute of limitations, but the causes of many contemporary problems are much closer than it might seem. The existing problems of the Navy are in no way related to the lack of shipyards. If Nikolaev were on the territory of Russia, nothing would have changed fundamentally: the once "cool" plant, left without orders from the Navy, would now continue to drag out its miserable existence. And the Russian Navy would be left without new ships for 10 years.
However, first things first.
I risk causing anger and bewilderment among the Ukrainian part of the audience, but even in the glorious times of the Soviet Union, our Navy was little dependent on the results of the work of shipyards on the territory of Ukraine. There is no doubt that the Slavic brothers carried out a number of large projects, but on an absolute scale their significance was not great.
Many will be surprised. After all, all 7 Soviet heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers were built in Nikolaev: 4 aircraft carrier of the "Kiev" type, our first "classic" aircraft carrier - the aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov", its sister ship "Varyag" (now - the Chinese "Liaoning") and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "Ulyanovsk" (disassembled on the slipway in 1993).
However, do not forget that at the same time at the plant of the Baltiysky Zavod im. S. Ordzhonikidze built nuclear missile cruisers of project 1144 (code "Orlan"). Four 250-meter hulks with a total displacement of 26 thousand tons - on board two nuclear reactors, two hundred missiles, armor, the most advanced means of detection and communication. In terms of its complexity and technical excellence, the Orlan was in no way inferior to the Admiral Kuznetsov.
26 thousand tons is not the limit. At the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad, ships of the measuring complex pr. 1914 ("Marshal Nedelin") were built - a displacement of 24 thousand tons, a nuclear reconnaissance ship "Ural" (36 thousand tons), a scientific ship for controlling spacecraft "Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin" with a displacement 45 thousand tons!
"Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin". Made in USSR
Together with huge scouts and ships of the measuring complex, a series of linear nuclear icebreakers of the "Arktika" type (6 units, total displacement of each 23 thousand tons) was under construction.
After such facts, complaints about the lack of capacities for large-tonnage shipbuilding in Russia sound at least unfounded.
Domestic shipbuilding was not limited to Leningrad enterprises. On the cold coast of the White Sea there was a complex of shipbuilding enterprises, now known as the OJSC Northern Center for Shipbuilding and Ship Repair. Cradle of the Russian nuclear submarine fleet.
It was here, at the facilities of PO "Sevmash", that the first domestic K-3 submarine was created. From here K-162 (project "Anchar") went to sea, which set a world speed record in a submerged position (44, 7 knots).
Severodvinsk is the birthplace of K-278 "Komsomolets". The deepest submarine in the world with a titanium hull, reaching a record depth of 1,027 meters.
The giant "Sharks" - heavy strategic submarine cruisers of Project 941 were also built here. In a figurative expression - "boats that did not fit in the ocean." The height of the floating spaceport was equal to the height of a nine-story building. 19 isolated compartments. 20 ballistic missiles with a launch weight of 90 tons. Surface displacement of the submarine is 23 thousand tons. Underwater - 48 thousand tons!
Total at the facilities of PO "Sevmash" 128 nuclear submarines were built - the main striking force and the basis of the domestic fleet. The shipyard in Nikolaev with its five aircraft carriers is simply lost against the background of the achievements of St. Petersburg and Severodvinsk.
Of course, Nikolaev Shipyard is known not only for "Kiev" and "Kuznetsov". On the shores of the Black Sea were built three missile cruisers of project 1164 (GRKR "Moscow", "Marshal Ustinov" and the flagship of the Pacific Fleet - RRC "Varyag"), large anti-submarine ships of project 1134B, twenty SKR / BOD project 61. At the Kerch shipyard many of the patrol ships of the project 1135 were built (code "Petrel"). It's a lot. So many. But at the shipyards in Severodvinsk, N. Novgorod (Gorky), Leningrad, Kaliningrad and the Far East, an order of magnitude more was built.
The shipbuilding enterprises of Leningrad built 12 missile cruisers (of which four are nuclear-powered), a dozen BODs and 17 missile-artillery destroyers of the project 956 (plus 4 more for export).
The Kaliningrad shipyard Yantar did not lag a bit behind the city on the Neva - the landing ships Tapir and Ivan Rogov were massively built here, over thirty TFR pr. 1135 (Burevestnik) and ten large anti-submarine ships pr. 1155 were launched. and 1155.1.
Large landing ship pr. 1174 "Ivan Rogov"
The Krasnoye Sormovo plant (Gorky / N. Novgorod) was operating at full capacity - over the past half century, the industrial giant produced 26 nuclear and almost 150 diesel-electric submarines. Among the masterpieces of Nizhny Novgorod are the multipurpose submarines of pr. 945 "Barracuda" and 945A "Condor" with a titanium hull.
There was a shipbuilding center in the Far East - the Amur shipyard (Komsomolsk-on-Amur) built over 30 nuclear submarines, not counting other orders in the interests of the military and civilian fleet.
After the collapse of the USSR, all these shipyards remained on the territory of Russia!
From all of the above facts, an obvious conclusion emerges - the loss of shipyards in Kerch and Nikolaev, which have passed into the ownership of Ukraine, is not a catastrophic loss or an obstacle to the creation of a powerful ocean-going fleet.
Yes, it was a sensitive loss - we lost an important shipbuilding center. But it should be understood that modern Russia is not the Soviet Union. We do not physically have that much money for the construction and maintenance of hundreds of warships. Moreover, these days many priorities have shifted - we cannot afford to build hybrids-TAKRs of unclear purpose or boats with hulls made of very expensive titanium. Instead, modern technology offers much wider opportunities - one modern destroyer surpasses an entire squadron of missile cruisers and BODs built in the 70s in terms of its combat power and situational awareness.
If we build ships using the advanced achievements of science and technology, we simply will not need such a number of ships as it was during the USSR.
But these are dreams and plans for the future. The reality is much more serious …
Even if the Nikolaev Shipyard was in the structure of the USC, then its capacities would be idle. It is enough to look at the Russian shipyards of the United Shipbuilding Corporation - where previously 2-3 submarines were launched annually, now they are slowly assembling one, which will be completed by some 20 … eleventh year. Where large-scale construction of landing and patrol ships was carried out, the only Ivan Gren (BDK pr. 11711) has been built for more than 10 years. And once every couple of years they give the customer 1 frigate (usually for export) - as you might have guessed, we are talking about the Baltic Yantar.
Nikolaevsky Shipyard is proud of its past achievements in the field of large-scale shipbuilding. Often there is an opinion that CVD them. 61 Kommunara has a monopoly on the construction of aircraft carriers.
Alas, this is not entirely true. At the Admiralty shipyards in St. Petersburg there is a slipway that allows launching ships with a deadweight of up to 100,000 tons. In 2008-09. here were launched two unique icebreaking tankers, pr. R-70046 (Mikhail Ulyanov and Kirill Lavrov). Length 260 meters. Width 34 meters. Deadweight 70,000 tons. This is already serious - their dimensions correspond to those of Soviet aircraft-carrying cruisers.
But when it came to the real restructuring of "Admiral Gorshkov" for the Indian Navy, it turned out that there is enough capacity for this in Severodvinsk. A deep modernization with a complete change in the appearance of the ship, the removal of the entire bow and the construction of a springboard in its place, the rearrangement of the interior, the replacement of the power plant and the entire electronic "stuffing" … The epic stretched out for 10 years, but nevertheless the Indians got their "Vikramaditya". The Russian industry has coped with an unusual project.
We can do everything. But we do nothing?
Good question. Why is nothing being built at domestic shipyards except frigates and coastal patrol boats?
Sometimes you can hear an explanation that we do not have enough capacity and that domestic shipyards are already overloaded with orders. This is nothing more than slyness: the slipways and outfitting walls are overloaded with long-term ships. If you build a boat for 20 years, and corvettes and frigates for eight years, then no stocks will be enough. Why lay the bottom sections of new ships if the plant cannot resolve the issue with the projects of previous years? And the fault here is most often not shipbuilders, but numerous contractors and contractors - primarily suppliers of the most sophisticated electronic equipment and weapons systems.
The story of the lead frigate of project 22350 "Admiral of the Soviet Union Fleet Gorshkov" is indicative. The ship's hull was assembled in a fairly short time by Russian standards - in 4 years. But then a dead end arose - since 2010, the "Gorshkov" quietly rusts at the outfitting wall of the "Severnaya Verf", unable to go to sea trials. According to some reports, the delay was caused by failures and mutual conflicts of the systems included in the OMS of the Polyment-Redut anti-aircraft complex. According to other sources, the main problems are delivered by universal artillery. There may be many explanations, but there is only one fact - the sailors have been waiting for the Gorshkov for the eighth year.
Frigate "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov" pr. 22350, March 2013
(photo from the sevstud1986 archive, The situation with the "Gorshkov" gives a completely clear answer to the question about a promising Russian destroyer (cruiser, battleship?). Building the hull of such a ship is not a problem, but there will be nothing to install on it.
Of course, the matter does not stand still, and in some ways our "defense specialists" have been very successful. For example, the existing in reality universal shipborne firing complex (UKSK) with the "Caliber" missile family. According to the presented characteristics and the concept of their combat use, "Calibers" promise to surpass the best world analogues.
But what else is there besides the "Calibers"?
Naval anti-aircraft systems - there is complete darkness. The only sample of the new air defense system "Polyment-Redut" on board the frigate "Gorshkov" is still a "pig in a poke". What is this complex, how will it turn out in practice, are there adequate capacities for its serial production? The answers to these questions are still known only to the “proxies”. And, judging by the prolonged silence, the essence of these answers will not be very impressive.
Among other zonal air defense systems, the most justified is the installation of air defense systems, unified with the legendary S-400 (or even S-500)! But, as you know, the naval version of the S-400 does not yet exist and it is unlikely that it will appear at all - we have not heard of any work in this direction. The last time such a kit - the previous generation S-300FM naval anti-aircraft system with revolving launchers and a 4P48 phased fire control radar - was exported to the Chinese Navy more than 10 years ago.
No less questions about detection tools. For example, putting another modification of the good old "Fregat-M" as a surveillance radar would be an overly primitive decision. But there are still no other options.
Universal artillery … At first glance, everything is in order with it. KB "Arsenal" has developed a new 130 mm gun A-192. But in fact: no one has seen a working sample of A-192 on a warship.
These are the problems of domestic shipbuilding. Endless complaints about the loss of the Ukrainian shipyard and dreams of buying the decrepit skeleton of the Admiral Lobov cruiser have nothing to do with the real state of affairs. All problems should be looked for much closer - within the walls of KB Arsenal, NPO Salyut and the defense concern Almaz-Antey. It is these enterprises that are of decisive importance and are the main "brake" in the creation of promising Russian ships. They are responsible for the development of new models of naval air defense systems and detection equipment, without which it makes no sense to talk about a promising cruiser or destroyer.
We can do everything. But we do nothing …
Large anti-submarine ship "Admiral Levchenko" (place of construction - Leningrad)
Nuclear cruiser "Kirov" under construction, Leningrad, 1970s
