The Slow Death of Russia’s Only Aircraft Carrier — Admiral Kuznetsov
During World War II, the aircraft carrier emerged as the preeminent method of projecting power beyond one’s national borders.
These floating cities are so crucial that the U.S. Navy has gone to great lengths to make the carrier, and its accompanying task force, the crown jewel of its force projection mission.
And it’s also why China has invested heavily in recent years in technologies to defeat these U.S. carriers.
China even built a complete mockup, as shown in recent satellite images, of the American carrier USS Ford in the middle of a desert — presumably to practice attack runs and anti-ship missile strikes.
Recognizing the power of an effective navy after WWII, the Soviet military built and maintained a formidable fleet that included aircraft carriers, ballistic missile submarines, cruisers, and a large number of attack submarines.
At its height, the Soviet Navy was one of the largest in the world, with 421 ships of eight different types.
But, oh how the mighty have fallen…
I’m currently working on a piece to be published next week for Medium about the current state of the Russian military after two years of war, but as for the Russian navy, they have lost 11 surface…
