For more than 10 years, the Admiral Nakhimov heavy nuclear missile cruiser, which has been standing at the wall of the Sevmash plant, will return to service in 2012 - the protracted repair will be financed and completed.
In addition, the rest of the ships of Project 1144 will also undergo repairs with modernization - such a decision, according to available information, was made at the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The possible return to service of the group of missile cruisers of Project 1144 is one of the most discussed naval topics: experts and amateurs break their spears in disputes about how these ships meet the current requirements of the Russian Navy.
Admiral Gorshkov's favorite project
“Only Sergei Georgievich can afford such an expensive toy,” with this phrase Vladimir Chelomey, chief designer of the Granit missile system, the main armament of the new cruisers, almost ruined relations with the commander-in-chief of the USSR Navy, Sergei Gorshkov.
The designer was right in something: huge and very expensive ships, created to solve one single task - the destruction of aircraft-carrying formations of a potential enemy, seemed an anachronism at a time when the whole world was moving towards universalization, which allowed warships to solve many different tasks with using a variety of missile weapons in universal launchers.
Of course, the ships of the project 1144 carried not only anti-ship missiles designed to destroy large enemy surface ships. They received both powerful air defense and very impressive anti-submarine capabilities, but all these means were auxiliary - and the ship's strike weapons, its main missile system, were very highly specialized.
It was inappropriate to use these cruisers for other tasks than tracking the US Navy aircraft carrier formations in readiness for strike.
Such a narrow specialization predetermined the fate of these ships in the conditions of total lack of money: by the end of the 90s of the last century, of the four built cruisers, only the last one remained in service - Peter the Great, completed by a political decision to mark the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy. The first three ships froze at the factory "walls".
What to do with the "white bishops"?
In the British Royal Navy there is a wonderful expression "white elephants", which denotes warships of non-standard projects, the purpose and scheme of which are unclear even to specialists. It was in the position of "white elephants" that Project 1144 cruisers in the post-Soviet Russian Navy found themselves. Tracking US aircraft carriers could no longer be a real task - even if we allowed a war between Russia and the United States, missile cruisers without support became just very large targets, and they did not have to wait for support in the conditions of degradation of all key elements of the state's military structure.
In the second half of the 2000s, money began to appear in the Armed Forces, and at the same time they started talking about the return of the cruisers standing "at the wall" into service. Naturally, the question was immediately asked about the tasks that they would have to perform as part of the fleet.
Almost all experts agreed on one thing: the return of the ships of the project 1144 to the fleet is advisable only under the condition of its deep modernization, which will make them universal.
Opportunities for such modernization had already appeared in the Russian industry by this time: universal shipborne firing systems were created, which significantly increased the range of weapons that a ship can be equipped with, depending on the specific task. Combat information and control systems of a new generation have appeared, which make it possible to build a system of collective defense of the formation: exchange information in real time and control the fire of several ships from one command post.
These innovations, which are being implemented on ships of new projects, currently being built by order of the Navy, have become a chance for cruisers.
Moreover, upgraded with the installation of new firing systems and electronic equipment, the project 1144 cruisers will acquire a fundamentally different quality: their dimensions allow these ships to be equipped with a large number of weapons, making them truly universal platforms combining powerful and diverse strike weapons, air defense and anti-submarine defense systems.
Such ships will be able to perform various tasks - from supporting the actions of ground forces on the coast and in the depths of the enemy's territory to fighting against its surface ships, submarines and aircraft, while it becomes possible to optimize their weapons depending on the goals of each specific entry into combat service.
New structure for new cruisers
At present, the surface fleet of the Russian Navy is moving "from simple to complex" - the corvettes and frigates under construction are planned to be supplemented in the coming decade with larger units, destroyers and universal amphibious assault ships. The ships unified in equipment and armament will make it possible to create efficiently operating units, the maintenance of which will not be ruinous for the budget due to the use of a large number of standardized components for the repair and maintenance of ships of different projects.
This structure, in itself capable of solving a wide range of tasks, both in peacetime and in wartime, can be easily strengthened by introducing additional elements, which can be modernized missile cruisers, and, if an appropriate political decision is made, aircraft carriers of the new the buildings. Moreover, the presence of combat-ready light forces is a prerequisite for the commissioning of new heavy ships: in its current state, the Russian Navy will not be able to use either universal amphibious assault ships, or missile cruisers, or aircraft carriers. Deprived of escort, heavy combat units are doomed to "stand at the wall", occasionally going out to sea, when it is possible to assemble a combat-ready detachment of ships "from pine forest", or simply alone - for representative purposes.
This is how the aircraft-carrying cruiser "Admiral Kuznetsov" and the only heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser "Peter the Great" in service are used today. Hopefully, the Defense Ministry is not planning to upgrade the rest of the cruisers in order to use them in this way.
