Russia's sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, or Admiral Kuznetsov for short, is set to spend half a decade in the shipyard getting much needed upgrades. Unfortunately, Moscow has slashed the upgrade budget for Kuznetsov, providing only half the originally promised funds. How this affects the aging carrier's future prospects remains to be seen.
According to The War Zone, the Russian government is allocating only half of the 50 billion rubles —or $866 million dollars—it originally stated it would set aside for a Kuznetsov refit. The original refit budget was already modest for an aircraft carrier with Kutznetsov's problems, and it remains to be seen just how much the Russian Navy can do with a mere $433 million dollars.
Kuznetsov needs a lot of work. Construction on the ship began in 1981, back when Russia was part of the Soviet Union, in what is now Ukraine. The ship was finally commissioned in 1990, shortly before the breakup of the USSR, and was inherited by Russia. Neglected in the post Cold War years, the ship underwent only one refit, from 1996 to 1998. Kuznetsov rarely went on the globe-spanning patrols carriers are famous for. Between 1991 and 2015, it completed six such patrols.
The ship is old and decrepit, and a hazard to its crew. In 2009 off the coast of Turkey, a problem with the electrical system led to a fire that killed one crewman. The ship's propulsion system is unreliable, its steam boilers prone to breaking down so frequently an oceangoing tugboat always accompanies it on long distance voyages. In February of 2012, Kuznetsov broke down in the Bay of Biscay and had to be towed by the tugNikolay Chiker. Chiker is Kuznetsov's silent partner, never far from the aging Russian carrier but never visible in photographs.
According to The Diplomat and Defense Industry Daily, the five year refit was supposed to incorporate improvements including replacement of four of the ship's eight turbo-pressurized boilers and an overhaul of the remaining four. The flight deck is scheduled to get a new deck coating and aircraft arresting gear. The shipyard will remove the carrier's giant P-700 Granit missiles, improve its air defenses, and enlarge and improve the aircraft hangar. The ship will also receive upgrades related to "electronic warfare, communication, intelligence, navigation, and combat control." Russia hopes the refit will allow the carrier to stay in operation for another 25 years.
The collapse Kuznetsov's funding is part of an overall reduction in Russian expenditures for defense. After years of increases the Russian defense budget has contracted three years in a row, with spending falling eight percent between 2016 and 2017. Russia's economy has been stuck in recession, partly as a result of falling commodity prices and Western sanctions over the 2014 annexation of the Crimea. If Moscow's economy picks up again, Kutznetsov could get the full upgrade. For now, the Russian Navy will have to choose what of the planned upgrades to proceed with and what to cancel.
Kyle Mizokami is a writer on defense and security issues and has been at Popular Mechanics since 2015. If it involves explosions or projectiles, he's generally in favor of it. Kyle’s articles have appeared at The Daily Beast, U.S. Naval Institute News, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Combat Aircraft Monthly, VICE News, and others. He lives in San Francisco.
