Repairs on Russia's Admiral Kuznetsov halted, decommissioning possible

Work on the carrier has been suspended, and a final decision on its fate is to be made by representatives of the Navy and the United Shipbuilding Corporation in the near future. According to a number of military experts, further restoration of the outdated ship is economically and technically impractical, Izvestia reports. 

"This is a bygone era. Classic aircraft carriers are not needed by the Russian navy," said former Pacific Fleet commander Sergey Avakyants.

At the same time, other analysts, including Ilya Kramnik, a research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, believe that the fleet needs means of air support over long distances, and a new ship, built taking into account the accumulated experience, should replace the Kuznetsov.

Regarding the rundown carrier, Kramnik said: "It is a physically quite old vessel. It has an outdated design and not the most reliable power plant. In ten years, the ship will be fifty years old. Even if it serves until 2040, that's not long. Therefore, taking into account the experience gained from operating the Kuznetsov a new ship needs to be built. We can do this — we have shipyards capable of building ships of this class."

During its repair, the Admiral Kuznetsov has repeatedly become the subject of high-profile incidents. In 2018, it was damaged during as the docking she was sitting in sank. In 2019, a major fire occurred on board. In 2021, the director of one of the ship repair plants in the Murmansk region was arrested on suspicion of embezzling funds allocated for the ship's repair.

In May 2018, it was reported that about 60 billion roubles were planned to be spent on the repair of the Admiral Kuznetsov. To this can be added 70 million roubles, which were allocated to repair the damage sustained during the accident in the floating dock in October 2018.

A year ago, the FSB reported on a foiled attempt of a terrorist attack on the aircraft carrier. According to their version, in March 2024, the Ukrainian special service contacted a Russian serviceman serving on the ship through messengers and tried to persuade him to carry out an explosion. Components for an incendiary device were allegedly transferred through a logistics company. The serviceman, as claimed by the FSB, reported the contact himself and became part of an "operational game," the result of which was the initiation of a criminal case against the alleged recruiter.