Blueprint for Russian aircraft carrier to be ready this year
A technical design for Russia’s new-generation aircraft carrier will be ready by the end of the year, the head of the Russian Navy says. Navy experts believe the future aircraft carrier will be nuclear-powered with a displacement of 50,000-60,000 tons.
In an interview with RIA Novosti Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said several organizations were working on the warship’s design, including the Severnoye and the Nevskoye design bureaus.
He said it was too early to say what the new aircraft carrier will look like or what its specifications will be, not even with regard to its displacement. - The designers have been given a number of requirements. If they manage to pack everything into a matchbox, they are welcome, he said.
Some Navy experts believe the future aircraft carrier will be nuclear-powered with a displacement of 50,000-60,000 tons.
The admiral said the Russian Navy needs carrier battle groups. – If, for example, we do not have an air craft carrier in the North, then the battle capability of the Northern Fleet’s attack submarines will be reduced to zero after the first day, because the submarine’s principal adversary is aviation, he said.
The Russian navy has only one operating air craft carrier, the Northern Fleet’s “Admiral Kuznetsov”. The carrier is planned to enter a dry dock in 2012 for full-scale modernization, as BarentsObserver reported.