The only Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, which has been under repair since 2017, is planned to be returned to the fleet in 2022. General Director of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Alexey Rakhmanov stated this at a press conference, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Rakhmanov, after the repair the situation is similar to what happened in 2017, when the aircraft carrier, returning from the coast of Syria through the English Channel, smoked like an old steamship, will not be repeated.
“Let's start with the state and work on the aircraft carrier - they did not stop for almost a minute, with the exception of the prohibitions that we had as part of the work of the state commission after the famous fire. Therefore, work on the aircraft carrier continues and is generally on schedule. We have a feeling that there will be some delays, no...
It won’t (smoke), because the smoke that arose during the passage through the English Channel arose due to the fact that the fuel equipment was, let’s say, incorrectly adjusted. This is a story that I hope we will not repeat in terms of negative experiences. I think there won’t be any smoke,” Rakhmanov said.
The head of USC also emphasized that the corporation’s capabilities allow Russia to build its own aircraft carriers - the only question is an order from the state:
“If the homeland orders, we will build aircraft carriers... We understand what kind of technology this can be, we understand what basic technological solutions should be laid at its basis. And in general, the experience of creating, well, firstly, repairing the Kuznetsov, in fact, recreating and re-building the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier for the Navy suggests that we have such experience, at least at one enterprise called Sevmash. exists today."
Let us remind you that after the Admiral Kuznetsov went up for repairs, it experienced a series of failures. First, the floating dock at the 35th ship repair plant in Murmansk sank, damaging part of the ship. And in 2019, due to a spark during welding work, the ship caught fire, during the liquidation of which two people died.