Major General Timur Apakidze, Hero of Russia, once said that "the country has been going for a painfully long time to create aircraft carriers, without which the Navy simply loses its meaning in our time."
In May 2007, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral of the Fleet Vladimir Masorin chaired a meeting of representatives of the research complex of the Russian Navy, held at the Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg. As part of this meeting, the question was raised about the need and availability of the possibility of building aircraft carriers for the Navy. Particularly emphasized was the fact that the presence of an aircraft carrier in the Navy is "a necessity fully justified from the theoretical, scientific and practical points of view." A month later, Masorin said that after a comprehensive deep and thorough study of the issue of promising directions of naval development, an unambiguous conclusion was made about the need to build and introduce up to six ships of a new type into the fleet in the next 20-30 years. According to him, it should be a nuclear aircraft carrier with a displacement of about 50,000 tons and with about 30 aircraft and helicopters on board. “We will not build the communities that are building the US Navy, based on 100-130 aircraft,” the admiral said. However, soon Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky was appointed to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy instead of Masorin, who had left "by age," and talk of new aircraft carriers subsided for a while in the light of a new program for the purchase of four Mistral-class ships. This should have cost Russia about 2 billion euros.
In 2009, information about plans for the design and construction of a new aircraft carrier in Russia appeared again, then the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy announced that the Russian fleet would receive sea airlines. These complexes were supposed to consist of naval aviation and space components, and were intended to replace the classic aircraft carriers familiar to everyone. Later, in 2010, the media reported on the start of construction of four new aircraft carriers by 2020 at the expense of the state armaments program. The Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation replied to this with a refutation, his words were confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister, saying that the construction of such facilities was not provided for in the program of armaments for 2011-2020. At the end of February 2011, Vladimir Popovkin, at that time the first deputy minister who represented the weapons program, did not mention the topic of aircraft carriers in any way.
And finally, on June 29, 2011, the President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation announces that in 2016 the corporation will begin the design and construction of an aircraft carrier for the Russian Navy. According to preliminary data, it will have a nuclear power plant and a displacement of 80,000 tons. At the same time, he adds "Russian aircraft carriers are needed" and the next day he declares that construction will begin in 2018 and end in 2023, without specifying either the timing or the timing of the introduction of the new ship into the fleet. (?) How much it will cost the country was also not announced. If we take, for example, the cost of an American of the Nimitz class (about five billion) and the modernization of the Gorshkov for India without the cost of aviation for him (about $ 2 billion), then without taking into account the air group the figure turns out to be quite impressive.
Currently, three main schemes of aircraft-carrying cruisers are used in the world, in the international classification, having the following abbreviations: CATOBAR, STOBAR and STOVL.
CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take Off But Arrested Recovery) - the plane takes off with the help of a catapult and the landing is carried out using an aerofinisher. Basically, this scheme is used on aircraft carriers of the United States and France. The catapult accelerates the aircraft to 300 km / h with a take-off weight of up to 35 tons.
STOBAR (Short Take Off But Arrested Landing) is carried out with a short takeoff run using a springboard, landing is carried out as in the first case on an aerofinisher. The aircraft carrier "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov" is a typical representative of this scheme.
STOVL differs from the first type in that the landing is carried out vertically. This group includes the British "Invincible", the Spanish "Prince of Asturias" and some others.
What type will the first Russian aircraft carrier be? It's not clear yet. Judging by the estimated displacement, the ship will use a scheme with catapults and aerofinishers. In this case, the project 1143.7 "Ulyanovsk" - a nuclear aircraft carrier, the development program of which began in 1984, but due to lack of funding, was frozen in 1991, can serve as a basis for construction. According to the project, its displacement was supposed to be 74,000 tons with a length of 323 m, a flight deck width of 78 m and a draft of 10, 7 m. 70 aircraft units were to be based on the aircraft carrier; … For takeoff, two catapults, a springboard were used, and an aerofinisher was used for landing.
There is another option - the development of the Project 1153 Orel nuclear-powered aircraft-carrying cruiser. The planned displacement was 65,000 tons with an air group of 50 units. The project was closed at the end of 1976 and the funds for its construction were built "Admiral Gorshkov", which is now acquired by the Indian Navy.
At present, the Russian Navy includes the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser (Project 1143.5), which is part of the Northern Fleet's combat strength. 12 Ka-27 helicopters and 23 carrier-based Su-33 helicopters are based on it. He has been in the Navy since January 20, 1991. The normal service life before replacement for ships of this class is 50 years. It turns out that almost half of the term for "Admiral Kuznetsov" has passed, considering how long it takes to develop and build naval equipment, it is high time to think about replacing it.
It should be borne in mind that while the ship is being built, the political and economic situation in Russia and in the world will change unpredictably, and the decisions made today may play a key role tomorrow.
