GarryB Fri Jun 03, 2022 6:19 am
Russia could also go this path. Only build a second carrier with improvements, then a significantly larger, based on the well -known design.
The problem there is that normally building two the same is economic because the second one being the same as the first means the second one can be built faster because any problems were already solved making the first one so there should be no new surprises.
Obviously if Russia builds two more carriers they have plenty of experience in the use of the Kuznetsov but the shipyard that will build the new carriers didn't build the Kuznetsov so the shipyard making the two new carriers will be making two different unique ships so no benefit of the problems being the same
Making two bigger ships on the other hand makes much more sense and would not work out to be much more expensive.
The Kuznetsov is not a bad ship... its problems are being sorted out, but it is a little too small to safely operate Su-33s, which means a bigger ship makes much more sense... especially when operating naval Su-57s.
For China it made sense to build Kuznetsov type ships, but the shipyards which upgraded and modernised the design also built the new ships so experience is accumulated, which would not be the case for the Russian shipyards making new carriers.
The new helicopter carriers will be interesting because I suspect they will want to operate their new helicopter replacement for the Helix family, and the second ship is supposed to be a drone carrier, which would be a first in the world and would make a lot of sense to have a 40K ton ship dedicated to remote operated platforms... ground and sea and air and undersea perhaps... its ability to land armour would enable unmanned patrol ships to be carried too and also subs recovered and released and of course remote controlled vehicles could be landed by ship or amphibious vehicles land themselves and indeed the deck for helicopters and drones to operate from.... it is supposed to carry 1,000 naval infantry and their armour and helicopter support for 60 days so the space on board for armour and ammo and water and food and helicopters and landing vessels would be significant... but the drone model could be a landing support vessel with suicide drones and recon drones and an enlarged hospital, plus lots of helicopters which are always useful as well as hovercraft and trucks and other things useful in a war zone or a natural disaster zone.