Russia failed to build a fleet of aircraft carriers for a reason

Why Russia never built a fleet of aircraft carriers: Russia’s sole aircraft carrier is often the butt of a joke, not considered to be the formidable threat the Kremlin would like to purport.

The Admiral Kuznetsov’s history is riddled with failures, complications and mishaps it has suffered from over its lifetime.

From fires and fallen cranes to faulty arresting wires and smoke problems, Moscow’s only carrier has spent the better part of its life undergoing refits on dry dock.

For most big navies like the U.S. or U.K., the absence of one aircraft carrier for a temporary time period is not the end of the world. When this happens, other carriers are deployed to take its place. However, Russia does not possess this opportunity, since it relies on a singular carrier to meet its naval requirements.

Considering the Kuznetsov’strack record, this ship is hardly meeting any requirements.

So why doesn’t Russia have a big fleet of aircraft carriers in the first place?

The Soviet Union’s History with Aircraft Carriers

Geographical challenges and a lack of resources minimized the USSR’s ability to develop aircraft carriers.

During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Navy was comprised mainly of submarines and smaller tactical ships. Engineers also developed the Kirov and Slava-class guided-missile carriers, which were quite large and heavily armed.

When conceptualizing aircraft carriers though, Soviet strategies paid little attention to these assets. Since the USSR prioritized countering Western submarines, its Navy required larger surface vessels capable of carrying anti-submarine helicopters. The Moskva-class helicopter carriers were produced to fulfill this need, followed by the introduction of the Kiev class in the early 1970’s.

By this time, the Soviets established Project 1153 Orel (Eagle), which centered around developing an aircraft carrier capable of housing fixed-wing fighter aircraft. However, the program was canceled quickly as the Navy’s strategic priorities shifted.

By 1980, the USSR acquired the Tbilisi which was renamed the Admiral of the Fleet of The Soviet Union Kuznetsov. Over the span of 7 years, the aircraft carrier’s name was changed four times. The chaos surrounding the ship’s designation perhaps extended into its functioning.

Introducing the Admiral Kuznetsov:

Named to honor a revered USSR Admiral Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, the carrier officially commissioned into the Soviet Navy in the mid-1980s.

Like the USSR’s other vessels, the carrier’s design centered around supporting and defending missile-carrying submarines and other missile-carrying aircraft in the Navy. The Kuznetsov is equipped with two dozen rotary-style vertical launch systems, which can fire a staggering 192 SA-N-9 Gauntlet point air defense missiles.

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