miketheterrible on Sun Aug 20, 2017 7:50 pm
It was obvious when recently Putin signed the decree regarding the strategy of the Navy till 2030. That was this year they signed it. I guarantee you they are now working out a plan for a system that is standardized to start building. They may be determining if it is Super Gorshkov or not as an example. Right now, they got what they want in a design and development in corvettes, but not on frigates and higher. They may see where they want to go when Gorshkov is fully ready. The media hypes about the "cut in spending" but what most fail to realize that the supposed amount to be spent was pre determined years ago. In this case, Austin posted it in the defense budget thread. And he was correct in the amount (almost) as he pointed out it will be 2.8% of GDP but from what Johnin posted in the economics thread, it is 2.9%. So it will be roughly 2.7T rubles. Which let me remind you is over $40B USD in current exchange rate, and pre 2014, was $80B USD (brings into perspective, as ruble cost wouldn't have changed). So they are still spending a lot more than you think. A single Gorshkov takes years to build, and not the entire cost is thrown up front. Its and it doesn't cost $1B to build one. If it was money issues, frigates that are cheaper would still be build (Grigorovich) but in this case, they are only building those for India. So there is a whole other thing happening. Maybe, just maybe they are going with a new design. Something between Gorshkov and Grigorovich? Maybe something they can build at multiple shipyards and shares many components with Grigorovich and the various Corvettes? Who knows what is going on. But we get hints based upon recent events, and the signing of the decree till 2030 for the navy is the biggest one - they were unsure till recently what they wanted/needed.