Russia will launch large-scale construction of aircraft carriers within the next two years, said President Dmitry Medvedev.“We need new aircraft carrying warships, this is a very important direction for the development of the Navy,” he said on board Russia’s only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov. He added that the first aircraft carrier should be built by 2013-2015.
“We have lost much ground in the 1990s, when we did not build any warships. Now we have to restore an [industrial] basis for aircraft carrier construction and for the Navy as a whole.”
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This is certainly alarming in terms of the GLONASS expansion. Even an armchair analyst would conceive that Russia is attempting to create a navy capable of global force projection. I perceive their current foreign policy objectives as a doctrine similar to the one employed by the U.S. post-Spanish-American War.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the Russians were never able to create a competent aircraft to operate from a carrier, which is why their submarine fleet received the such a large share of naval funding in the old years of the USSR. Is there anything bouncing around about a credible, carrier-based attack or bomber aircraft that will make this carrier fleet something to consider in our own strategic planning?