The leadership of the Russian Federation has decided to modernize the Navy as the main priority of the armament program for the period up to 2020. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently confirmed information about the allocation of about 5 trillion rubles to the fleet over the next ten years.
The plans are ambitious, and if some points are gradually being fulfilled, then the questions regarding the main classes of ships inspire fears more than optimism. If many issues can be resolved in purely technical and organizational terms, then with financial plans, as always, things are very bad, plus some entrepreneurs have ambitious projects.
In mid-2011, at IMDS-2011, the President of the United Construction Corporation told reporters that in 2016 work will begin on the design of the newest aircraft carrier, and the construction of the ship may already begin in 2018, and in five years the aircraft carrier may enter service, besides, the aircraft carrier will equipped with nuclear engines. It was also announced that escort destroyers would be built together with the aircraft carrier, and this practically turns out missile cruisers for the aircraft carrier strike group. And although the issue of Russian future aircraft carriers has been raised quite often lately, the Ministry of Defense denies the very hypothetical possibility of ordering an aircraft carrier.
Anatoly Serdyukov, Head of the Ministry, said that USC's self-promotion did not in any way affect the ministry's decision. Research work is underway on this issue, and until the result of this work is seen, decisions on the order of the aircraft carrier will not even be discussed. By the way, in the adopted weapons program GPV-2020, no construction of an aircraft carrier is provided.
Building an aircraft carrier means completely changing the tactical and strike grouping, changing the tactics of naval combat, but in order to modernize naval squadrons, you need to build completely different ships.
Multipurpose submarines
So, in the next ten to fifteen years, it is planned to build about 10 multipurpose submarines. A submarine of the Yasen series of the nuclear-powered submarine Severodvinsk has already entered the sea.
At this time, the Sevmash plant is building the second submarine of project 885 - the Kazan nuclear submarine, which will enter service in 2015.
The pricing of the Sevmash plant in terms of work on the Ash project has been repeatedly criticized by representatives of the Ministry of Defense. The submarine "Severodvinsk", created on the basis of the reserve left over from 1993, turned out to be consistent in price, and then only thanks to the freezing at around 47 billion rubles. And now the Sevmash plant has asked for 112 billion rubles from the military department for the second Kazan submarine. It is impossible to say something for sure without having access to calculations of price formation, but it seems that the requested amount hides behind itself not only the inflationary component of the construction industry, but also the consequences of the freeze in the price of the nuclear submarine Severodvinsk.
The question of designing a lightweight and inexpensive successor to the existing submarines of projects 945, 971 and 671RTM (K) is not even raised, although for many the service life is coming to an end. Back in the Soviet Union, they wanted to bring all nuclear-powered multipurpose submarines to one project - the creation of submarines of the Kedr 957 project. But, like many other good projects and undertakings, the project did not live to see implementation.
There is no doubt that Project Yasen submarines will be able to replace not only the Project 949A Antey nuclear-powered missile-carrying submarines, but also all other types of light submarines. Having the best weapons and technical characteristics, "Ash" will perform at a high level the tasks that are assigned to light anti-submarine submarines. However, it is practically impossible to build a large number of multifunctional "Ash" in today's conditions - they are large enough, difficult to assemble and quite expensive. Consequently, all the built "Ash" is simply not enough to fulfill the tasks assigned to the submarines of the entire Russian fleet.
While there is no exact data on how many submarines are needed to fulfill the tasks currently being solved by submarines of projects 949A, 971, 945 and 671, there are no more than thirty of them left in service, which even the Ministry of Defense considers catastrophically insufficient.
Strategic submarines
The situation with the construction of strategic missile-carrying submarines is obvious - Project 955 Borey serves as the basis, for twenty years of the project's existence at the moment we have four realizations:
- the lead submarine "Yuri Dolgoruky", which is completing sea trials and recently was fired by a standard ballistic missile of the "Bulava" missile system;
- the second submarine of project 955 "Alexander Nevsky", we hope, will be released for testing at the end of 2011;
- the third submarine "Vladimir Monomakh" is on construction slipways;
- the fourth submarine of the Borey project, the working name of which is Saint Nicholas, will soon begin to be built, and the production of a building reserve has begun.
With regard to the Borey project, the main problem has already become visible. After all, the strategic submarines Yuri Dolgoruky and Alexander Nevsky were assembled on the backlog of submarines of projects 949A and 971, which had been at the Sevmash plant since the times of the Soviet Union. But the submarines "Vladimir Monomakh" and "St. Nicholas" will be built at the plant from scratch, and no one can clearly say what the cost of construction will be.
Most likely, another confrontation between the military department and shipyards awaits us, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Vladimir Vysotsky said - “we will not put up with illiterately inflated prices,” and worst of all, contracts for the construction of strategic nuclear missile carriers have not yet been signed.
Multipurpose frigates
OJSC Shipbuilding Plant Severnaya Verf, which is part of the military-industrial complex, has received government guarantees for tens of billions of rubles for the fastest fulfillment of the State Defense Order. These guarantees are valid until 2015. Severnaya Verf, based on the State Program GPV-2020, by the end of 2018 undertakes to deliver to the customer - the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation - six corvettes of Project 23180 and Project 23185 (modernized project 23180), six frigates of Project 22350. Today, Severnaya Verf »Is engaged in the construction of two frigates of project 22350.
At the end of 2010, the lead multipurpose frigate of project 22350 "Admiral of the Soviet Union Fleet Gorshkov" was launched and will soon undergo sea trials.
At the Severnaya Verf Shipyard, the second ship of Project 22350, the frigate Admiral of the Fleet Kasatonov, laid down in 2009, is expected to be launched in 2012-2013.
As you can see, everything is in order with the financial support of this project. And here I would like to note the rather thoughtful step of military specialists - the transition to the widespread use of the UKSK, because the ships and submarines inherited from the USSR had just a huge range of different-caliber solutions and missile systems. Being a modular system equipped with universal launchers, the UKSK allows you to fire at the enemy with various shells, missiles and torpedoes of the same caliber - even the multipurpose missile system itself is called "Caliber". The missiles of the complex can be used for firing from submarine 533-mm torpedo tubes and for firing from coastal missile systems. This only adds to the greater versatility of the UKSK application.
This is a very timely step - the use of the UKSK, this will have a positive effect on the tactical, production and economic components. It will increase the efficiency of the use of the Russian fleet, reduce the cost of purchasing additional weapons, and reduce the time of productive work in the manufacture of standard weapons.
Patrol ships
Three ships of Project 11356 have already been laid down at the Baltic shipyard by order of the Russian Navy. Recently, three ships have already been built at the Baltic Shipyard by order of the Indian military - frigates of the Talwar type. Three more frigates of Project 11356, according to the signed contract with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, are awaiting laying.
In December 2010, the laying down of the lead frigate of project 11356 "Admiral Grigorovich" was laid down, the frigate "Admiral Essen" was laid down at the end of July 2010, and laying down of the frigate of project 11356 "Admiral Makarov" will begin at the end of autumn 2011.
The frigate of project 11356 is designed to repel air attacks both independently and as part of a naval group as an escort, to counter enemy surface and submarine ships in sea and ocean areas.
Multipurpose nuclear missile cruisers
Project 1144 has practically no problems, being the banner of the Russian fleet today, the cruisers will be provided with everything necessary in the first place. It is planned to put into operation heavy nuclear missile cruisers of the Orlan 1144 project, upgrading them to multipurpose missile-carrying ships. The Ministry of Defense admits that a military presence in the World Ocean cannot be achieved without Russia's large warships. The modernization schemes for Project 1144 will be used on the Admiral Nakhimov heavy nuclear missile cruiser, which is already at repair docks.
The ship is promised to be delivered to the fleet in 2015. After conducting sea trials and combat tests, the fate of the modernization of the remaining ships of Project 1144: "Kirov", "Admiral Lazarev" and the pride of the Russian fleet "Peter the Great" will be decided.
