The statements in this article are based on reliable sources and are repeated at the end of this article
The Kuznetsov, one of the nine sons of the aircraft carrier in the Soviet era, almost went to India to find its big brother, Admiral Gorshkov, because it couldn't be repaired. Some netizens asked, the library ship has been overhauled in three days and repaired in two days, isn't it fragrant to have this time to build a new one? Why do you think so much about "repairing"? [Don't look]
Although in the end, Russia did not sell the Kuznetsov ship to India, retaining the only seedlings and preserving the pride of the Russian Navy, but the sad service career of the Kuznetsov aircraft carrier has just begun.
"Difficult birth" of the Kuznetsov
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union began an arms race with the United States, competing for the first place in military, economic, aviation and other aspects, especially the aircraft carrier business, the Soviet Union was extremely favorable, after all, several aircraft carriers built by the Soviet Union before the Cold War were ridiculed by the world.
For example, the Moskva, the Leningrad, these two aircraft carriers, constructed like an anti-submarine cruiser with a lengthened and widened deck, were ridiculed by several countries: they were "four dislikes".
At a time when the Soviet Union just wanted to make a big splash in the aircraft carrier industry, the United States announced that the "aircraft carrier is useless" and said that it was ready to abandon the research and development of a new aircraft carrier. In the absence of competition in the construction of aircraft carriers, the Soviet Union pushed down the construction of aircraft carriers and vigorously carried out the research of atomic bombs. This delay in the birth of the Kuznysov aircraft carrier was directly delayed by almost 20 years.
It wasn't until the United States, after more than ten years of hiding, suddenly exposed eight aircraft carriers, that the Soviet Union reacted and was put on the spot by the United States. As a result, he finally put down the inventory of atomic bombs that were not "useful" in his hands, turned around and started to develop the aircraft carrier business again.
But at the very beginning, it did not start to build the Kuznetsov, but took the "old road" to build a helicopter anti-submarine cruiser with a high performance, which shows from here the Soviet Union's dedication to anti-submarine cruisers.
After nearly 20 years of groping, the Soviet Union finally had the ability to build a real aircraft carrier, and in the 80s our protagonist Kuznetsov was finally born, and after 40 years of pregnancy, Kuznetsov was finally born. Since then, there has been another "unlucky egg" in the world.
The first was its naming turmoil, the first name was the Soviet Union, then the Kremlin and then the Brezhnev and other naming changes, and finally the name Kuznetsov, who served as the commander-in-chief of the Soviet Navy for 18 years, has been used to this day. He was also an active advocate of Soviet aircraft carrier research.
Becoming an "orphan"
But the unfortunate Kuznetsov's theatrical "ship" has just begun, and after the naming was determined, the Soviet Union quickly carried out the production and construction of the Kuznetsov. At the end of 1985, the Kuznetsov was successfully launched, and in early 1991 it officially entered service.
But no one could have imagined that after less than a year of service, the Soviet Union, the "mother" of the Kuznetsov, announced its dissolution. The Kuznetsov lost its mother when it was less than a year old, and there was also an unlucky guy in space, Sergei, who was stranded in space for 311 days because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and became a Russian citizen in seconds after returning to Earth. How similar their fates are.
Although the Soviet Union collapsed, aircraft carriers and other weapons of mass destruction will not be "forgotten" like the "unlucky" astronauts. Although many parties wanted to compete for it, the Kuznetsov itself was subordinate to the Soviet Northern Forces before the disintegration, so it was naturally taken away by Russia after the disintegration.
But the engineers of the Nevsky Engineering Design Bureau, which built the Kuznetsov, were divided into Ukrainian regions. Therefore, after returning to Russia, the Kuznetsov, in the maintenance and upgrade work, can only be explored by the engineers of the new Russian aircraft carrier themselves.
The tragic "ship" of the Kuznetsov
After Kuznetsov returned to the arms of Russia, the "eldest son" of the Soviet Union, the sad "ship" of the sad Kuznetsov had just begun. During the collapse of the Soviet Union, the production of the Kuznetsov was actually not completed, and Russia actually got the "half-pulled" aircraft carrier.
After Russia perfected and repaired and upgraded it, 1995 finally ushered in the first voyage, unfortunately due to the crew's operational error, the power system of the Kuznetsov was flooded by seawater, and it was directly stopped on the spot. It may be that the impact of this accident on the power system was too great, and the following year, on the second voyage after the repair of the Kuznetsov, the power system suffered a major failure and almost could not return.
In the more than 30 years since the birth of the Kuznetsov, due to Russian technical problems, the speed is 8 knots slower than that of the French aircraft carrier, which is known for its "turtle speed", and at the same time, it will be accompanied by billowing smoke during operation.
In the 2016 mission to combat extremist groups in Syria, the Kuznetsov finally completed the first actual combat of the "ship". But the funny thing is that a MiG-29 carrier-based aircraft was unable to successfully land on the deck due to some problems of the Kuznetsov itself during the return voyage, and then sank into the sea.
A month later, a Su-33 was pulled off during the return voyage and fell directly into the sea. After this mission, the Kuznetsov aircraft carrier began its long-term repair and upgrade work, but the "unlucky" attribute remained unchanged.
During the maintenance period, there were also many accidents, and in 2018, during the maintenance process, there was a power outage accident due to the PD-50 large floating dock. The crane of more than 70 tons fell, directly smashing the flight deck of the Kuznetsov. Not only did the crane collapse, but even the PD-50 dockyard sank directly.
In 2019, a fire broke out during repairs on the Kuznyzov, killing 2 people and injuring at least 12 others. In 2022, there was another fire. This is really pure "bad luck" Some people speculate that in 6 years of repair time, the shipyard has long wanted to scrap the Kuznetsov in order to get rid of this tricky big burden. But the truth is unknown.
The Russian Navy is really short of money
Some netizens asked: Why doesn't Russia build a new aircraft carrier and continue to toss the ill-fated Kuznetsov? Due to the economic blockade of Russia by the United States and Western alliance countries, Russia's fighting attitude has been stretched in the conflict and war in Ukraine in recent years, which shows that it is really "short of money".
Fighting a war is so focused on economic considerations, let alone building a large aircraft carrier that costs billions or even tens of billions. Not only the construction cost of the aircraft carrier, but also the sky-high maintenance and maintenance costs are now unaffordable for Russia, so Russia chooses to spend a small amount of money to do big things, and continue to renovate the Kuznetsov aircraft carrier to extend the service life of the aircraft carrier.
According to Russian sources, the Kuznetsov aircraft carrier has sailed out of the dock in 23 years and is expected to undergo sea tests in the second quarter of this year, and if nothing goes wrong with this test of the aircraft carrier, the Kuznetsov will be delivered to the Russian Navy by the end of this year. But it's all in the case of testing that there are no problems, if something goes wrong. Deliveries may be delayed until 2025.
Resources
[1] Reference News - February 20, 2024 [When will Russia's "Dumiao" aircraft carrier return to service?]
[2] Observer.com - June 8, 2022 [Russian media: Russia's "Kuznetsov" aircraft carrier has been delayed in maintenance again, and it will only return to service in 2024]
[3] Guangming.com - July 5, 2023 [Russia's only aircraft carrier may resume service at the end of next year]