Britain has announced a landmark achievement in the creation of a "fleet of the future" - the world's most modern destroyer is ready to be launched at the main naval base of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. According to officials of the UK Department of Defense, the destroyer Daring will be able to play a leading role in conducting maritime operations around the world, according to the BBC.
The new Type-45 air defense destroyer with a displacement of 7, 5 thousand tons is longer than 16 London double-decker buses put in a row, and surpasses the power line tower in height. The deck of the ship can accommodate several helicopters of different types and up to 60 military personnel, in addition to members of its own crew.
Thus, the Daring is a versatile warship that can not only provide support to ground forces, but also carry out humanitarian aid operations, the Russian service of the British television and radio corporation notes.
"Building such a ship is the first step towards building the fleet of the future," the Air Force quotes British Deputy Defense Secretary for the Development of Military Equipment Peter Luff. According to him, this is the first of six Type-45 warships that are capable of qualitatively changing the combat capabilities of the Royal Navy.
Destroyer Captain Paddy McElpin agrees with Luff: "The ship's performance and design make it very easy to navigate. Plus, my ability to control airspace in the battlegroup's area of operations remains unmatched."
In Russia, only the technical design of a promising aircraft carrier will be ready by the end of the year
Meanwhile, in Russia, everything is not so rosy with the creation of a domestic "future fleet" - only the technical design of a promising Russian aircraft carrier of a new generation will not be ready until the end of 2010.
"The topic of building a promising aircraft carrier for the Russian Navy has not gone anywhere, the instructions of the country's leadership remain. The technical design of the ship will be ready by the end of this year," Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, told RIA Novosti on Monday. He clarified that the project is being developed by several organizations, including the Northern Design Bureau (PKB), Nevskoe PKB.
According to the commander-in-chief, it is too early to talk about the appearance of the aircraft carrier. "Even with regard to displacement. A number of requirements have been set before the designers. If they can put everything in a matchbox, then please. If it turns out the same as that of the Americans (more than 100 thousand tons), then let them justify it," Vysotsky said.
Among the requirements for a promising aircraft carrier, the commander-in-chief called the provision of air defense of heterogeneous and even interspecific groups in one operational zone beyond the reach of coastal air defense systems and to maintain the operational regime in peacetime and to gain air supremacy in wartime in this area.
Vysotsky is confident that the Russian fleet needs carrier formations. "If, for example, in the North we do not have an aircraft carrier, then my combat resistance of the missile submarine cruisers of the Northern Fleet in those areas will be reduced to zero already on the second day, because the main enemy of boats is aviation," he said.
The commander-in-chief once again stressed that a special target state program should be developed for the construction of a new generation aircraft carrier."I am deeply convinced that the construction of the aircraft carrier complex should be carried out outside the state defense order. There should be a separate state program, but it does not exist yet. There are only approaches," the commander-in-chief said.
At the moment, the Russian Navy has seven Project 956 destroyers of the Sarych type. These ships are armed with Moskit anti-ship missile launchers, Uragan anti-aircraft missile system, twin 130 mm automatic gun mounts, twin torpedo tubes and RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers. They have a helipad, and in terms of displacement they are inferior to the new generation destroyers of 3,500 tons.
