Everyone probably knows the story of the French "Mistrals" - large universal amphibious assault ships (UDC), which Russia never received. It may be recalled: back in 2010, Russia and France announced a deal to build two Mistrals for the Russian Navy at a French shipyard. And two more ships of the same type were supposed to be built under license in Russia itself.
Further events around Crimea and the associated deterioration of relations between the West and Russia put an end to all this. Many were initially surprised that the department of the then head of the Ministry of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov preferred Western ships instead of Russian ones. Serdyukov (for the sake of justice, I will note: far from the worst defense minister in the history of the Russian Federation) was accused of "surrendering national interests", "indulging the West" and other largely contrived sins.
In reality, everything is much simpler: Russia has neither experience in building UDC nor experience in using them. There is, of course, its own shipbuilding. Back in the Soviet years, a variety of landing ships were built, some of them still serve the Russian Navy. So, for example, for all the years of the USSR, fourteen large landing ships of project 1171 were put into operation. Of the conditionally new - a large landing ship of project 11711. The lead ship, Ivan Gren, was launched in 2012. The second ship in the series will be "Petr Morgunov".
However, the experience of Soviet / post-Soviet projects is of little help here. Formally, UDC is a subclass of a landing ship. In fact, this is a new class of vessel. Its need was acutely felt by the United States during the Vietnam War. When the interaction of different landing groups revealed many problems that would have made themselves felt with special force during a "global" conflict: it is extremely difficult to land people and equipment on a fortified bridgehead.
The solution was to combine shock, landing and management functions within the framework of one ship project. Helicopters can land the first wave, which will partially clear the coast. Then units with equipment and heavy weapons will land on it with the help of high-speed boats. The Americans, for example, can land all this with the help of LCU or LCAC boats. Large and lifting ones. In general, in terms of carrying capacity, one UDC can replace ten "ordinary" large landing ships. From the outside - a very profitable investment.
There are some differences in understanding the concept. Thus, the newest US Navy UDC of the "America" type of the Flight 0 series does not have a dock chamber for the above floating craft, but they do have an additional hangar and workshops. Here the stake is placed on the air potential. However, in general, you need to understand that any universal amphibious assault ship is very expensive, very complex and at the same time quite vulnerable to attacks from the air: not every UDC carries fifth generation fighters like America. This, of course, does not mean at all that universal amphibious assault ships are not needed. Quite the opposite.
New turn
The abandonment of the Mistrals hurt the potential of the Russian fleet, especially considering that the only conventional aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, is being repaired and cannot fight. And its repair can be "eternal".
Therefore, in Russia, alternative options have been offered more than once. Now the story has received a new development. In October, BUSINESS Online reported that the Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation, which includes the Zelenodolsk Plant named afterGorky and headed by Renat Mistakhov, claims to develop the UDC. The ship will allegedly be developed by the Zelenodolsk Design Bureau.
Apparently, these are not just rumors. Earlier, in September of this year, there was unconfirmed information that the Kerch branch of the plant. Gorky will take up the universal landing ships. “Two universal amphibious assault ships (UDC, they are also called helicopter carriers) with a displacement of up to 15 thousand tons are planned to be laid at the Kerch shipyard“Zaliv”, which, as you know, is controlled by the plant. Gorky ", - wrote then the publication" BUSINESS Online "with reference to TASS. The bookmark is planned for May 2020, and the fleet should receive the lead helicopter carrier by the end of 2027.
Discord project
From the outside, everything looks good. The country still has money, as well as those wishing to build new ships. But everything is not so simple, if you look closely. In August 2014, Ukraine announced that the Zelenodolsk enterprise forcibly seized OJSC Kerch Shipyard Zaliv, which previously belonged to the Ukrainian oligarch Konstantin Zhevago. And on March 15 of the same year, the United States imposed sanctions against the plant. Gorky, although earlier the enterprise was already faced with Western restrictions.
Even more experts were surprised by something else. According to the head of the sector of the design department of the FSUE "Krylov State Scientific Center" Alexei Litsis, Russia has "much more advanced in terms of building large ships" Sevmash ", the Baltic and Volgo-Baltic plants, and now the Far East plant" Zvezda "".
There are also other points of view. All the same "BUSINESS Online" cites the opinion of Vladimir Leonov that the sanctions are not a verdict for the plant. And in the new material, the publication examines other aspects of this issue, which speak in favor of the fact that the choice was made correctly. Experts believe that the Baltic Shipyard and the Admiralty Shipyards are already heavily loaded, and the Kerch Zaliv has a large dry dock and, in general, much of what is needed to build a large ship. Finally, experts focus on the development of the Crimean industry, which in the current conditions is extremely important for the current government.
Money and ships
An order for the design of such a large ship is a huge responsibility, but besides that, there is also a huge amount of money. Experts believe that the main benefit here is received by Tatarstan, which owns the main stake in Zelenodolsk Design Bureau (75% minus one share). “Tens of billions of rubles will be allocated for the design and construction of the UDC … It is very profitable and profitable. That is why there is a serious undercover struggle for participation in the creation of the UDC today, "- said a source in an interview with" BUSINESS Online ".
From a technical point of view, everything is both simple and complex at the same time. Zelenodolsk bureau was founded in 1949. Having started working with submarine hunters, KB engineers have developed the world's largest combat ships on hydrofoils of the Falcon class, as well as, for example, the Project 11540 patrol ship. These are significant achievements. But as we wrote above, full-fledged UDCs have never been built in Russia, and the ships developed earlier have almost nothing in common with them.
So the prospects for the first Russian universal amphibious assault ship are more than vague. This is best seen in the example of the aforementioned large landing ship "Ivan Gren", which was laid down back in 2004, and was commissioned only in 2018. And about whether Russia needs universal amphibious ships at all, we'll talk sometime later.
