How Russia's war on Ukraine stalled its Navy modernization - Defense Express

Defense Express reports.

According to Defense Express, in addition to the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the Russians have the Admiral Nakhimov nuclear cruiser, which is still undergoing repairs despite $5 billion in costs.

News about the failures of the Russian military-industrial complex always attracts attention, but it is worth noting that this news about the Nakhimov nuclear cruiser is actually a fragment of a much broader picture of Russia's failure to modernize its fleet amid a full-scale war against Ukraine.

In any case, this is the perspective offered by H I Sutton, a Western analyst specializing in naval affairs, in a publication for the Naval News portal. If this article is summarized, we will get the following picture.

To this news about another failure with the restoration of the Admiral Nakhimov, it is also worth adding a report that at least part of the crew of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier could be mobilized for the war against Ukraine, amid a constant “shift to the right” of the schedule for the repair of this ship.

“And these two examples of failures in the repairs of the Nakhimov and Kuznetsov are a vivid example of how the Kremlin wastes resources on projects that it considers symbolically important, but that have no combat value,” Defense Express noted.

There is another interesting aspect to the work on the Admiral Nakhimov nuclear-powered cruiser. In order to show at least some results at the end of the year in a purely Soviet style, the Russian military leadership has planned to conduct at least a test run of the reactors on this ship in November. But even if this test is successful, it will not mean that the ship will be able to go to the sea.

In addition to the two projects mentioned above, Russia also has problems with the timing of the construction and commissioning of corvettes carrying Kalibr missiles, which are actively used in the war against Ukraine. And there are similar issues with the construction of submarines of the 677 Lada project, which in theory should replace the Soviet 877 Varshavyanka project.

The analysts in Defense Express conclude that Russia is failing to implement the above-mentioned projects because it has a certain lack of resources amid the full-scale war against Ukraine. Although, this does not stop the Kremlin from wasting resources on symbolic ship projects.