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TAKR NEWCON - Requirements

Historically, the Russian Navy had served as an auxiliary tool for the country’s powerful army. The advent of nuclear submarines in the second half of the 20th century gave the navy a strategic deterrence function, however, which grew over time. In order to protect the areas of deployment of strategic bombers and to be prepared for the possibility of active participation in numerous conflicts in the developing world, the Soviet Union began constructing cruisers that could transport helicopters in the 1960s, followed in the 1970s by cruisers that could carry heavy aircraft.

The development of Soviet aviation ships exhibited a number of "Un-American" features:

• The United States moved directly to fleet aircraft carriers with strike aircraft in the 1930s, and the ships got progressively larger as the strike aircraft became heavier. Displacement roughly doubled from about 50,000 tons of the CV-41 Midway class to over 100,000 tons with the CVN-68 Nimitz. In marked contrast, the Soviets proceeded in a crawl, stumble, walk, run sequence, with helicopters on the 15,000 ton Moscow to VSTOL aircraft on the 40,000 ton Kiev to ramp-launched fixed wing aircraft on the 67,000 ton Kuznetsov. The Cold War ended just as they were to take the next step to catapult launched aircraft on the nuclear powered 80,000 ton Ulyanovsk./li>
• Whereas the Americans always fielded "attack" carriers with offensive land attack strike capabilities, the Soviet carriers were always "defensive". The initial helicopter carriers were intended to defend against American SLBM submarines, and the later designs were intended to provided defensive air cover for Soviet surface ship groups. The Soviets criticized American attack carriers as instruments of imperialist aggression.
• American aircraft carriers were aircraft carriers, with only minor anti-aircraft self defense armament in addition to the aircraft group. In contrast, the Soviet carriers were always hybrids, with quite substantial SAM and ASM missile batteries. THe Soviets labeled these ships "Aircraft-Carrying Cruisers", partly as a subtrefuge to circumvent the Montreaux Convention, but a claim that had the additional benefit of being true. The Soviet fascination with such hybrid warships dated at least to the Project 1058 design of Gibbs & Cox of 1937. That design established the precedent that such hybrids produced unsatisfactory performance, a defect that later deisngs never overcame.
• The American attack carriers with intended to operate as part of a carrier task for, with escorting cruisers and destroyers providing SAM missile and ASW support. The Soviet hybrid carriers, with a full spectrum of weapons, were intended to be capable of operating independently, without supporting escort ships.
• American carrier aviation never suffered from a shortage of willing suppliers of aircraft, though Grumman always seemed to favorite. The Soviet Ministry of Shipbuilding, however, was dependent on the Ministry of Aviation Production, which was rather more friendly with the Soviet Air Force - a formation not eager to see the Navy emerge as an air power competitor. For many years, the Naval aviation was relegated to the offerings of the Yakovlev design bureau, which had long ceased to be a player in land based combat aircraft.

The only ship of this type ever launched was the Admiral Kuznetsov, which under the Soviet system was called a “heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser,” or TAVKR, from its Russian acronym. Although the Admiral Kuznetsov was designated an aircraft carrier by the US, its mission was different from that of American aircraft carriers.

American aircraft carriers are basically a floating base for airplanes and helicopters. The Admiral Kuznetsov, however, also had defensive capabilities. It carried 12 long-range missiles, and the cost of carrying these weapons was space for aircraft along with a lift to move aircraft on and off the deck.

Russia was developing a new naval strategy which envisions the creation of 5-6 aircraft carrier joint task groups by 2050-2060, the Navy commander said on 04 April 2008. “We should not separately build combat ships, aircraft or spacecraft – everything must work as an integrated system,” Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky told a news conference in Moscow. “This applies to aircraft carriers as well. We are planning to build five or six naval aircraft carrier groups.” These joint task groups will comprise combat ships, various aircraft, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), satellites and submarines. “The existence of these joint task groups will increase the combat effectiveness of the Navy by 60%, and in some respects up to 300%,” Vysotsky said. The construction of new aircraft carriers is expected to begin in 2012-2013.

Ideally, each of the Russian Navy's ocean-going fleets (Northern, Baltic, Black and Pacific) would best be served by two carriers each.

During the campaign in Syria Moscow realized the necessity of a new modern aircraft carrier. Moscow sent the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier group to Syria’s shores, however, the ship had already done three decades of service and is on its last legs. On the Russian ship's deck there were about 30 planes, while an American aircraft carrier can carry up to 90. Also, the take-off speed on the Admiral Kuznetsov was a few minutes, while on an American aircraft carrier three planes can take off in one minute. Moreover, there are many tasks that the Russian ship cannot perform today. Therefore, Russia needs a new modern aircraft carrier.

Like every Soviet aircraft carrier before it, Kuznetsov was constructed in the Nikolayev 444 shipyards, located in Ukraine. Russia does not have shipbuilding capacity for a vessel larger than 60,000 tons. "One of their biggest initial problems is that Russia doesn't have any history in building aircraft carriers because the carriers the Soviet Union built were all built in Ukraine," Dmitry Gorenburg, an expert in the Russian navy at the Virginia-based CNA Corporation told The Moscow Times 24 March 2015.

No Russian dry dock exists that can house such a large carrier. Either one would have to be built, or they will have to attempt to build two halves of the ship in different yards and then weld them together at Sevmash, Russia's largest military shipyard, which has a deep basin nearby that could work for such a task, Gorenburg said.

Russian Navy Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov said that a next-generation aircraft carrier was being designed for the Russian Navy. "The work on the prospective aircraft carrier is in full swing. The Navy will get the aircraft carrier. The works are fully consistent with the requirements set out by the Navy command. The main requirement is that the aircraft carrier must have broad capacities both for the use of carrier-based aircraft and for effective operation within combined forces".

While the airborne portion of Russia’s naval forces are far into development, their floating airfields are another story. So far, plans for a Russian aircraft carrier have only reached the prototype stage. A model was presented at the Krylov State Research Center. This aircraft carrier will be atomic-powered and will carry about 100 planes. It would have a catapult to lift planes on and off the deck along with launch jumps.

Even though the state armaments program up to 2020 does not provide for the construction of an aircraft carrier, the industry is preparing for such an order. The current conflict with the West over Ukraine has acted as a catalyst for Russia’s plans to develop heavy warships, including the aircraft carrier.

One open question remains the construction site location for the new aircraft carrier's hull, since the Nikolaev shipyard, where the Soviet TAVRK was built, is now in Ukraine. Most experts believe that the construction of a new ship of this class can begin only after the completion the reconstruction of the Sevmash factory, where a long list of orders already exist. Another possible site is the Zaliv factory in the Crimean town of Kerch, which had the largest dock in the Soviet Union. Sergei Aksyonov, the head of the Republic of Crimea, has mentioned the Zaliv factory as a possibility for aircraft carrier construction.

Deputy Commander of the Russian Navy Admiral Igor Kasatonov announced in March 2015 that Russia would build its first aircraft carrier – although construction will begin only after 2025. This was not the first time a senior Russian military official had proposed the construction of an aircraft carrier, however, and there was some question about whether this project will actually come to fruition.

In his 2015 statement, Kasatonov noted that Russia would gain experience in constructing and operating of large modern ships while completing the ocean-going destroyer ship “Leader,” which would become the “theoretical basis and the foundation for the construction of an aircraft carrier.” In mid-February 2015, the chief of naval aviation of the Russian Navy, Major General Igor Kozhin said that technically everything is ready and the aircraft carrier may be built in 8-10 years.

The aircraft carrier proposed by Kasatonov would be part of an ongoing modernization of the naval component of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces. Currently, half a dozen Soviet-built Su-33 planes, which were intended to be based on TAVKR ships, are being retrofitted and orders exist for new MiG-29ks naval fighter aircraft. Plans for fifth-generation carrier-based aircraft are expected in the near future.