Future Russian Aircraft Carriers and Deck Aviation. #2

They reportedly have made upgrades to the Kuznetsov including launch assisting equipment they are very vague about... I rather suspect they will want to test the upgrades applied to the old ship before planning for new ones so that any new experience can be applied to their design.

They had VSTOL carriers and their experience was that they are not as capable as a normal STOBAR fixed wing carrier (short takeoff but arrested recovery... so chocks and a ramp for takeoff and cables to land.), but the smaller VSTOL carriers were very expensive anyway...

The result was the bigger Carrier design (Kuznetsov) which was about as small a carrier they could make for the Su-33 and MiG-29K to operate safely from, and their experience led to the Ulyanovsk which is even bigger and with catapults and conventional Yak-44 type AWACS.

The K was the smallest they thought would make sense and is too small for conventional Hawkeye like AWACS planes, while the U is big enough for cats and therefore AWACS and heavier loaded aircraft.

This upgrade has added something to improve takeoff performance which should increase takeoff weights which will further improve performance of the fighters.

Any new CVNs will have Redut and S-500 but wont be like the Kiev class mixed carrier cruisers.

But there is no point building new CVNs till new Destroyers and new Cruisers are in production... and they wont start laying them down for a few years yet.

New destroyers and new cruisers will likely be nuclear powered and all electric drive so they are going to have to invest in electrical systems and chips and equipment... but then such technology is going in to new cars and trains and trucks and buses and even aircraft so it is well worth investing in.

What they have confirmed is that the large shipyard they have that we speculated was for building carriers or other very large ships will likely be busy non stop making tankers and large cargo ships and other civilian vessels and they will likely need to expand and upgrade more shipyards able to build not just new carriers but all the new destroyers and cruisers that will be needed to support carrier based operations around the world which would also include long range support ships too.

They will not be building CVNs any time soon... they will need destroyers and cruisers in serial production and a full test run on the K and its upgrades first... plus they also need to step up civilian ship production... fishing factory ships and also large cargo and tanker and oiler vessels to deliver their products direct to their customers... bypassing western fleets which have proven so damn unreliable and subject to politics.

Sad for those western companies, but they are not fighting these sanctions so the result will be a new Russian fleet doing the same job they are doing... so not only do they miss out on work and contracts, they also get new rivals doing the same sort of work they do which will cost them money for lost contracts and also market share...