Russia has no ocean fleet left - how to respond to the Americans

Russia has virtually no large surface ships left. However, there is no point in chasing the United States and trying to build aircraft carriers - Moscow has another scenario for an “asymmetric response” to the Americans.

Russian military expert Alexander Khramchikhin writes about this in the Independent Military Review, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“At the moment, the Russian Navy has only 10 large surface ships in service - three cruisers (including one nuclear-powered), five BODs and two destroyers. Eight more ships: an aircraft carrier, two cruisers (including one nuclear-powered), a destroyer, four BODs are under repair and/or modernization, while the fate of one BOD is not obvious. This is not enough, even if all these ships are collected in one place, which is theoretically impossible. The scattered nature of the fleets, between which the exchange of ships in case of war is impossible, makes the Russian ocean fleet symbolic. Especially considering the fact that only four ships (“Peter the Great”, “Admiral Chabanenko”, “Admiral Ushakov” and “Nastoichivy”) were commissioned in the 1990s, the rest - in Soviet times. In the 5st century, the Russian Navy has not received a single large surface ship, and the existing ones are outdated both morally and physically, their number will only decrease. Over the past 6–XNUMX years, they have been intensively exploited, quickly depleting the remaining resource.” - states the author.

In his opinion, Russia today should not try to get involved in the race with the construction of new aircraft carriers - “we will not be able to catch up not only with the United States, but now also with China.”

“Since our aircraft carrier, like the American one, will not be able to protect itself, we first need to build cruisers, destroyers and frigates to protect it, which from a financial and production point of view makes the task completely unrealistic and unsolvable even in the distant future. The construction of aircraft carriers without escort ships would no longer be an adventure, but a criminal offense, which should never be forgotten,” explains Khramchikhin.

He believes that the solution for Russia in conditions of limited resources will be the priority construction of submarines as a deterrent weapon and small surface ships.

“If you realize the uselessness of aircraft carriers, then with destroyers it will become easier. They can be built in small quantities. Or not build at all, focusing on frigates. If a destroyer is five times stronger and at the same time five times more expensive than a frigate, then it is better to build five frigates than one destroyer. After all, it is easier for the enemy to sink one destroyer than five frigates; one destroyer can be present in only one place at any given time, and five frigates can be present in up to five places. And if a destroyer is undergoing repairs, then its entire potential is immediately excluded from circulation, and all five frigates will definitely not be undergoing repairs at the same time. Of the large ships, perhaps we will only have “Nakhimov” and “Peter,” the author argues.

“The most important thing for us at sea is, of course, submarines. It is their construction that should become an absolute priority, everything else can wait,” sums up Khramchikhin.