March 21, 2025: Some of the problems the Russian army has in Ukraine are being felt in the Russian navy. This is especially true with the Northern Fleet where everything is top secret. Commercial satellite photos show what is really happening up there and it is not a satisfactory situation with corrupt officials, deadlines that are perpetually missed and no facilities able to revive the only aircraft in the Russian fleet. The shipyards on the Kola Peninsula are overwhelmed and there is no room for the carrier Kuznetsov. The only well taken of ships up there are submarines,

Despite the sanctions and need to spend heavily on Ukraine operations, the Russian navy has been able to keep work going on the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov since 2023. This vessel is the pride of the fleet but cursed with accidents and other delays during an earlier upgrade of the carrier to keep it in service. Originally the plan was to have the carrier undergo a two year period of repairs, upgrades and modernization in a drydock belonging to the Russian navy. This was to begin in 2018 and shortly after that process began, the largest floating dry dock in Russia, PD-50, had an accident and sank. The Kuznetsov was afloat in the PD-50 at the time and survived with some damage from a collapsing crane. The PD-50 sank in deep water and most salvage experts agreed that it would be too expensive to raise the dry dock and repair it.

The navy could not afford to buy a new dry dock and admitted that this might be the end of the line for the Kuznetsov, which is overdue for some major maintenance and refurbishment. PD-50 was the only Russian dry dock that could hold the Kuznetsov. Many Russians saw this as just another example of the corruption, sloppiness and poor management that have crippled the military industries and the space program. An affordable solution was found for the Kuznetsov when two separate drydocks built parallel to each other could, if combined into one drydock, accommodate the Kuznetsov.

In 2019 work began on the new drydock but getting the carrier back to the fleet was delayed until 2022. That was optimistic because an expensive engine room fire did so much damage that it delayed the completion of work on the carrier until 2024. Kuznetsov is no longer in a drydock but may never get the promised new equipment, including a lot of new electronics, installed. Sea trials are a distant dream, as is that of Kuznetsov ever returning to service.

During better times in the past Kuznetsov carried 24 jets, 18 Su-22s and six MiG-29K. This is a much smaller air group than those on American and British carriers. Kuznetsov has only six helicopters. The Kuznetsov compensates for its smaller air group by being primarily armed with missiles and is fully armed and equipped for independent operations without a screen of smaller warships.

The jets are launched from an angled ski-jump flight deck. This is called the short take-off but arrested recovery or STOBAR system that substitutes an angled ski jump flight deck to replace the catapult. Using a catapult aircraft can be launched carrying more fuel and weapons than aircraft launched from a ski-jump flight deck. Using a ski-jump deck, aircraft have to leave the carrier at full power and that means carrying fewer weapons in order to reduce the weight of the aircraft so it can safely get into the air, rather than into the water. Catapults on flat decks are more efficient but more complex systems that literally pull loaded aircraft along a level flight deck to help it gain enough speed to get off the deck and into the air with their jet engines or propellers generating as much speed as they can. The faster you leave the deck the more you can carry while doing it. What it comes down to is catapults get aircraft into the air with more weapons compared to the angled STOBAR flight deck. Catapults are expensive to install and operate, especially compared to an angled flight deck. Initially Russia wanted to use vertical takeoff warplanes like the Harrier or F-35B vertical takeoff aircraft. Russia was unable to create aircraft similar to the British Harrier and American F-35 and was forced to use a ski-jump flight deck to launch conventional aircraft.

The 57,000-ton Kuznetsov is 305 meters long and has a top speed of 54 kilometers an hour. Propulsion and power is provided by steam turbines which also supply electrical power for various ship systems as well as crew living quarters. The six-year refurbishment was supposed to have upgraded the ship's electronics, which included surface and air search radars as well as a fire control radar for the six Close in Weapons System or CIWS 30mm auto-cannon.

There are 24 vertical launchers for the 192 anti-missile and anti-aircraft missiles with ranges of 15 kilometers. Those can also be used against small ships. This is a much heavier self-defense load than any Western aircraft carrier. Its major weapons, unlike those of Western carriers, are twelve large anti-ship missiles with a range of 400 kilometers. There is also sonar for detecting enemy submarines and approaching torpedoes. Helicopters on the ship can be equipped for detecting and attacking submarines.

Kuznetsov can stay at sea for 45 days before needing refueling and replenishment of other supplies for the crew of 2,336 officers, sailors, and aviation personnel. There are also accommodations for a flagship staff of 40 officers. As the largest ship in the fleet, it would serve as a flagship of the fleet, or at least a carrier task force. Currently there are not enough sailors and officers to man the carrier. Russian naval headquarters will remain at Severomorsk north of Murmansk where a worthless staff will manage a crippled fleet.