Russian Admiral Kuznetsov: 2 words that mean the aircraft carrier is finished

Completely deprecated: Russia’s ambitions to match U.S. naval power through its aircraft carrier fleet have long been hampered by geographic limitations and limited warm water ports. Historically, Russia has favored heavy firepower over carrier power.

– Today, advances in anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) systems, hypersonic missiles and drones are making aircraft carriers increasingly vulnerable. Unlike the US, which is actively investing in an aviation strategy, Russia can avoid this “sunk cost” trap. As the Ukrainian conflict shows, traditional naval dominance may be less relevant, highlighting the limitations of aircraft carriers in modern warfare.

– Abandoning aircraft carriers could improve Russia’s position for future strategic influence in Eurasia.

Why Russia’s Geography Limits Its Dreams of Naval Power

Russia is a continental power. This historic land power, spanning 11 time zones from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, dreams of becoming a naval superpower. However, with only four warm water ports and more land borders than sea borders, the desire to become a great navy was always little more than wishful thinking. Of course, Russia in Soviet times had a powerful navy, especially in terms of heavy cruisers and nuclear submarines.

But Soviet and now Russian naval doctrine, as well as its strategic goals, were fundamentally different from those of its main competitor, the US Navy.

While the United States is essentially a giant island (surrounded by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as the Gulf of Mexico), the US has far more naval power than Russia ever will or can have, due to the simple reality of America’s geography . .

Because of this, the United States built a powerful navy in which giant nuclear-powered aircraft carriers formed the basis of all power projection capabilities. For the Russians, their navy was focused on the cost-effectiveness of heavy firepower without aircraft carriers.

Back during the Cold War, the Soviets coveted America’s carrier capabilities. In the 1980s, when everything in the USSR was collapsing, Moscow spent exorbitant amounts of money it didn’t need to build its own aircraft carriers.

Admiral Kuznetsov was the result of these efforts. The Russian flat-top plane, which is still in service (sort of), is the butt of every joke around the world. To put it bluntly, the Russian aircraft carrier is a floating disaster. The Russians are keeping it around to maintain some kind of carrier capability, although neither the Russian military nor any other military will take the threat it poses seriously. Admiral Kuznetsov posed.

Aircraft carriers are outdated

Unlike the Cold War, anti-zoning/anti-access (A2/AD) capabilities have evolved to the point where they are combined with hypersonic missiles, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), And submarines have become ideal machines for destroying aircraft carriers.

Therefore, the idea that the Russian Navy would spend even one ruble on the construction of any flat top is distrustful. Moreover, the fact that the Russian conflicts in which its navy will be deployed are closer to Eurasia means that the Russian military does not actually need to build expensive aircraft carriers to project its power.

Just look at the war in Ukraine. The only area in which Ukraine consistently performs well against Russia is the maritime sector. Unfortunately for Kyiv, Ukraine is predominantly a land war rather than a naval one. Thus, superior Russian ground forces could push the beleaguered Ukrainians to their breaking point.

This is despite the fact that Ukrainian drones have been incredibly successful in sinking or damaging key Russian warships moored at the historic headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. The death of the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. Moscow, for example, has done little to harm Russian advances into Ukraine.

However, if Russia were to build a serious aircraft carrier, that ship would be threatened by the same anti-ship systems that China threatens US aircraft carriers in the Indo-Pacific today and that threaten Iran-backed militants such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen. US Air Carriers in the Greater Middle East.

Americans are tied to the sunk cost that is an aircraft carrier. No other country today should repeat this mistake.

In fact, the nation that first realizes the obsolescence of the flat top and acts accordingly will be the nation that is likely to dominate the next war. If Russia really wanted to compete with America for primacy in Eurasia, it would not waste time on expensive, difficult and easy targets such as an aircraft carrier.

Author’s Experience and Knowledge: Brandon J. Weichert

Brandon J. Weichert is a national security analyst for the National Interest, a former congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who has written for The Washington Times, Asia Times and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Conquering Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacking: China’s Race to Control Life, and Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Catastrophe of Our Own Creation: How the West Lost Ukraine, will be published October 22 by Encounter Books. Weichert can be followed on Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

All images belong to Creative Commons or Shutterstock.

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