How Russia Ruined its Only Aircraft Carrier

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The most important ship in the Russian fleet is the tugboat

The only surprising part of this story for me as a Russian is that they actually arrested that shipyard director who stole all the repair money.

Imagine how well maintained the Soviet era nuclear weapons have been taken care of.

"Not having an aircraft carrier is not an option for Russia." It seems having an aircraft carrier is not an option for Russia either.

Reminded of an old Soviet-era joke... Sergei Mikhailovich is struggling down the escalator at the Tsvetnoi Bulvard Metro station in Moscow with two very large and heavy suitcases when a man standing just behind him asks the time. Sergei Mikhailovich sighs, puts down the suitcases and glances at his wrist. “It's a quarter to six,” he says. “Hey, that's a pretty fancy watch!” exclaims the stranger as they step off the escalator. Sergei Mikhailovich brightens a little. “Da balshoe spasibo. It's not bad. Look at this,” he says and points to a time zone display that covers the 24 time zones as well as 50 major cities. He then presses another pushbutton and a voice says “Il est quatre heures moins quart à Paris,” with a perfect Parisian accent. Another pushbutton gave the time in Japanese. The man is amazed by the features of the watch and stands with his mouth open in admiration. “That's not all,” adds Sergei Mikhailovich as he touches a section on the sapphire crystal and a tiny map of the Moscow Metro system appears on the display. “The flashing dot shows our location by Global Satellite Positioning.” “You have to sell me the watch!” the man says eagerly. “Oh, it's not for sale. This is only the prototype and I'm still perfecting it,” Sergei Mikhailovich explains. “Look at this,” and he plays the FM radio receiver, shows the sonar device for measuring distances, the paper printout of data and, astonishingly, how to play audio recordings of books. “You have to sell me that watch!” the man pleads. “No, I can't; it's not completely finished,” Sergei Mikhailovich tells him. “I'll give you 50,000 roubles for it!” “No, no, it cost me more than that to make.” “100,000 roubles then!” “I'm sorry, I can't it's only the prototype and ...” “I'll give you 500,000 roubles for it!” And with that, the man takes out a wad of notes and peels of the amount. Since the prototype cost about 100,000 roubles to create and develop, Sergei Mikhailovich quickly calculates that with the 500,000 he can make two more and have them ready for the Russian market within just a few months. The man offers the money to Sergei Mikhailovich. “Come on, take it. With 500,000 roubles you’re making a handsome profit.” “Okay,” Sergei Mikhailovich pockets the money, takes the watch off his wrist and hands it to the man. The man straps it on his wrist and starts to walk away, “Just a minute,” Sergei Mikhailovich calls after him. The man turns around and Sergei Mikhailovich points to the two suitcases he was carrying. “Don't forget the batteries.”

Hard not to chuckle about the fact that they repainted 6 planes 10 TIMES EACH over a short period just to appear substantially more badass than that were.

This ship was expressly designed with the ski jump launch because they knew aircraft would need to clear the tugboat's superstructure.

Carriers require massive upkeep. No spare parts, corrupt admirals stealing money, and you really appreciate how our nation maintains its fleet.

"Not nearly enough time to wear out a Carrier's powerplant" Ah, but she isn't a carrier, she's a "Aircraft Bearing Heavy Cruiser"

In case of war, the USA Navy would hesitate on attacking the Kuzentov carrier; to sink it wouldn´t pay back for a single missile. Not to say that being a burden for Russia, makes the ship an ally for the USA. The tugboat would be a worthwhile target, though.

Imagine mocking Russia during a war by sinking its carriers tugboats just to watch the carrier destroy itself in the middle of the ocean.

Long live the tugboat, the jewel of the fleet! If I had to choose between building a scale model of the carrier or the tugboat, I'd go for the tug hands down.

The Soviets didn't need an aircraft carrier. They barely needed a navy, outside of sub and antisub assets for the nuclear age. In the end, military focused authoritarianism often falls prey to the most domestic of impulses: Keeping up with the Joneses

The fact they didn't manage to replace a broken 'arresting cable' in an hour, causing them to lose a MIG is mind boggling!

Russia had 6 Aircraft Cruiser, 2 of the Kusnezow Class and 4 of the Kiew Class. The second Kusnezow Class is in service under chinese flag named Liaoning and one of the Kiew-Class ships is the Indian flagship Vikramaditya. Two of the Kiew-Class ships are "attractions" in chinese theme-parks and one was broken up at Pohang, South Korea

As a young U.S. Sailor I was stationed aboard the USS Ranger (CV-61), like most of the lower enlisted I spent the first 90 days aboard on TAD (Temporary Assigned Duty). I was lucky enough to be posted to the Officer's Galley. After a month at sea, the food the Officer's had was far superior to that of the enlisted, I was able to trade a Patty Melt for pretty much anything not nailed down, including some spectacular areal recon photos of a Russian Kiev class carrier. Those were the days.

Carriers are extremely complicated ships to build and run, and everyone's first carrier is typically pretty crap. Early British and American carriers like Furious and Langley were "interesting" to say the best, but the 2 differences between these and admiral Kuznetsov is that they were about 80 years older and much smaller experimental vessels so that each respective Navy could get used to operating carriers before investing in much more capable designs. You really can't Skip Research and Development for ships like this; otherwise you'll end up with mistakes like Graf Zeppelin.

Former US Navy here. It's not enough just to have a carrier and and airwing to park on it. Running a carrier is complex enough; now you have to add running aircraft on that complex ship, and operating carrier aircraft takes intense training of both pilots and ground crews alike. This is not something you just master after a couple of deployments and, for both Russia and China, that culture and the necessary procedures are not yet there. Hell, Russia can't even keep their carrier running without having to deploy a tugboat beside it in case of breakdowns. Both those countries are finding out that this sh!t ain't easy; the U.S., France, and Great Britain just make it look easy because we have been at it for longer than most Admirals have even been alive (seriously).

Q. Why does the new Russian navy have glass-bottom boats? A. To see the old Russian navy.