On Wednesday, June 29, the 5th International Maritime Defense Show began its work in St. Petersburg. The organizer of the grand event is the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Russian Federation with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Rosoboronexport", the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, the Municipality of St. Petersburg.
In his greeting addressed to the participants of the salon, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the following: “St. Petersburg rightfully belongs to the title of“Sea Gate of Russia”, it is one of the main centers of domestic shipbuilding. And it is symbolic that it is here, on the shores of the Baltic, that a review of the achievements of modern Russian and foreign shipbuilding is held once again. There is confidence that the 5th International Maritime Defense Show will become a reliable assistant in the development of joint research plans and the establishment of industrial cooperation in the international military-technical sphere."
The organizing committee is confident that the 5th International Maritime Defense Show will be the main showcase of the achievements of the Russian industry, which over the past few years has shown a steady upward trend and, most importantly, stability. IMDS-2011 will serve the subsequent strengthening of contacts with foreign partners, the establishment of cooperation in each area of modern shipbuilding. 40 ships, combat boats and ships that are part of the Navy, the Border Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation and enterprises are involved in the show. Frigates Hamburg ("Hamburg") F220 of the German Navy, Van Amstel ("Van Amstel") F831 of the Netherlands Navy arrived from abroad to participate in IMDS-2011. FFG52 Carr US Navy.
On the eve of the start of IMDS-2011, information appeared that Russia will nevertheless carry out the design and construction of modern aircraft carriers, despite the fact that previously high-ranking military and government officials have repeatedly stated that such plans do not exist. According to the official data of the United State Shipbuilding Corporation, the design of a modern heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser will begin in 2016, and the first such ship will be built by 2023. However, how much the construction of a new aircraft carrier will cost to the state budget and what the specific doctrine of using such ships will be remains under a veil of secrecy.
At the moment, not many details have been announced about the future Russian aircraft carrier. The first information about the start of design work on a similar class of ships appeared in the Russian media in 2009. It was reported that the design work is being carried out by one of the specialized enterprises of the USC, but at what stage of work the project is, it was not indicated. At that time, said Vice Admiral A. Shlemov, head of the USC's state defense order, the new aircraft carriers will only be nuclear, with a displacement of at least 60 thousand tons. According to a military official, the Navy, in 2009, required at least three such ships with the likelihood of increasing their number to six units, and possibly more.
In June 2009, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, V. Vysotsky, announced that the Russian Navy would receive modern naval aviation systems in exchange for classic aircraft carriers. In early December 2010, the Russian media reported that the state until 2020.construction of a whole series of four modern aircraft-carrying cruisers will begin, and design work is already in full swing. It was assumed that the construction of new ships will be carried out at the expense of the state armaments program in the period 2011-2020, the amount of funding, which is about 20 trillion rubles. However, later the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Anatoly Serdyukov denied the information that appeared about the beginning of the construction of an aircraft carrier, indicating that the military had no plans to buy such ships. But already on June 30, 2011, the first information about the mysterious ship appeared.
It will be a nuclear ship with a displacement of 80 thousand tons.
At the moment, there are three schemes of aircraft-carrying ships in the world. The first, like, say, the American "Abraham Lincoln", carry out the launch of aircraft with a steam catapult, and landings are carried out with the help of aerofinishers. On the second, instead of the catapult, a special springboard is installed, and the planes take off in afterburner mode, however, the landing of fighters is carried out by aerofinishers. The flagship of the Russian Navy "Admiral Kuznetsov" belongs to this class of aircraft carriers. The third scheme assumes the basing of aircraft with a significantly shortened takeoff, and the landing is performed vertically.
To which of these three classes the promising Russian heavy nuclear aircraft-carrying cruiser will belong is still unknown. The huge displacement allows us to make the assumption that catapults and aerofinishers will be installed on the ship. As you know, for the first time the question of building aircraft carriers in the USSR was raised in the 40s of the last century, but under N. Khrushchev they refused to develop them. In Soviet agitation, aircraft carriers were called nothing but a weapon of aggression, created to interfere in the internal affairs of other states. In the mid-1960s, the position of the Soviet government changed: a number of aircraft-carrying cruisers - "Minsk", "Kiev", "Novorossiysk" were developed and built, which housed vertical take-off aircraft. But military experts refused to call these ships real aircraft carriers, since for the most part they corresponded to the combat qualities of the cruiser. To a greater extent, the cruiser "Admiral Kuznetsov" can be attributed to the classic aircraft carrier, which was launched in 1985 and is still in service with the Russian Navy. The flagship of the Soviet fleet could be the nuclear-powered heavy cruiser Ulyanovsk, with a displacement of 75 thousand tons. Unlike other Soviet ships, she most of all met the criteria of a classic aircraft carrier. But in 1991, its construction was stopped due to lack of funding, later "Ulyanovsk", the preparedness of which was estimated in various sources from 18% to 45%, was dismantled and melted down.
There is also a moral aspect to the situation with the construction of aircraft carriers. The possession of aircraft carriers puts our state in the category of "hostile", engaged in military special operations abroad. As an example, we can consider the United States, which has 11 aircraft carriers in the Navy, which are actively involved in armed conflicts around the globe, including the war in Libya. But Russia has always declared its defense strategy and refrains from participating in military operations outside its own territory. In theory, an aircraft carrier may become necessary only to ensure the safety of the borders in the Kuril Islands region, considering the aggravation of regional disputes with Japan.
The military has its own view of the situation with the construction of aircraft carriers. At various times, representatives of the Navy indicated that Russia needed aircraft carriers for anti-submarine warfare, the destruction of formations of surface ships and enemy targets located on the coast and in the depths of the protected territory, the conquest and retention of air superiority in the area of hostilities and the blockade of sea areas and individual straits. zones. But this strategy again assumes the conduct of hostilities of one intensity or another, and those are not provided for by the defense strategy of Russia and are permissible only in the event of obvious aggression from another state.
Earlier, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy V. Vysotsky said that Russia also needs aircraft carriers to perform such a task as covering the patrolling areas of its own nuclear submarines, which requires, in particular, naval aviation. According to him, "if we do not have an aircraft carrier in the north, the combat stability of the missile submarines of the entire Northern Fleet will be reduced to zero literally on the second day, given that the main enemy of submarines is aviation."
Experts doubt that a promising aircraft carrier in Russia will appear in the time frame that is being talked about today. In addition, they have no consensus as to whether Russia needs a warship of this rank at all, which will require significant financial costs. “There is no certainty that such a ship will be built by 2023. Too long time - during this time a lot can change, including the political situation in the world,”suggests Konstantin Makienko, a specialist at the Center for Review of Strategies and Special Technologies. Director of the Center for Social and Political Research and army specialist Vladimir Evseev fully agrees with him. “To build an aircraft carrier, you need to have a certain infrastructure. To purchase new equipment, you need to train personnel how to use it in practice.
In addition, the specialist doubts the likelihood that Russia at the current time can start building an aircraft carrier. “There are significant doubts that a ship of this displacement can be built in the current economic state of the state. Today, Russia does not even build relatively cheap destroyers, let alone nuclear-powered heavy cruisers,”Yevseev notes. In his opinion, it is necessary to set "more feasible tasks" than the construction of an aircraft carrier.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on Friday answered questions from military observers of the Russian media and made some very interesting statements. His most significant messages are related to such important topics as the sea-based ballistic missile Bulava, Russian tanks, and the construction of Russian aircraft carriers.
Speaking about the sea-based ballistic missile Bulava, the Minister of Defense said that there was already a readiness to launch it into serial production: the Bulava flew. It's a good news. We understand for sure that in this version it is possible to launch mass production of missiles. This is very strange since 15 test launches of a ballistic missile were carried out, of which 7 were unsuccessful, and only one launch took place from its main carrier of the Borei-class nuclear submarine - Dmitry Donskoy. Serdyukov also said that by 2015 it is planned to triple the production of ICBMs for the Strategic Missile Forces.
For the Ground Forces, the situation is worse, according to Serdyukov, the Ministry of Defense generally refuses to purchase tanks until Russian tanks begin to meet "modern requirements." The representative of Uralvagonzavod, Deputy General Director Vyacheslav Khalitov, said that Serdyukov was wrong, our tanks meet modern requirements, and in general it turns out that the Minister of Defense lied, informing about the meeting with the designers of this enterprise, she was not there.
Serdyukov also said that the purpose of tanks is changing in the world, the armies of the world are reducing them, so it is more expedient and cheaper to modernize the vehicles in service, rather than buy new ones.
Serdyukov also shattered the dreams of Russian aircraft carriers, which emerged after the statement of the President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Roman Trotsenko. He said that the design of the Russian aircraft carrier will begin in 2016, construction in 2018, and in 2023 the first Russian aircraft carrier will enter service. Serdyukov assured that there are no such plans even in the long term. Only a preliminary project has been ordered to determine the possible appearance of the ship.
Regarding the size of the army, the Minister of Defense noted that they do not plan to reduce the army any more - it has reached the planned level of 1 million people. In 2014, it is planned to enter the planned recruitment of contractors, this will solve the problem with the "demographic hole", by the end of 2017 they want to bring the number of contractors to 425 thousand people (against 180 thousand of the current ones). He announced plans to create two “Arctic brigades”: “The General Staff is currently working on plans to create two such formations. The plans should take into account the location, weapons, strength and infrastructure,”A. Serdyukov summed up the results. According to earlier reports, it is known that one of the "Arctic brigades" should be the 200th separate motorized rifle brigade in Pechenga.
