Among the exploits undertaken by the russian state-owned defense industry is a topic that is being carefully avoided by Kremlin's media and seemingly gets less attention from foreign outlets, too, outshined by the epic failure with the everlasting repairs of Admiral Kuznetsov, the last aircraft of the russian navy.
But it's not our focus today as we are talking the ambitious project aiming to renovate the Admiral Nakhimov nuclear-powered cruiser, classified as Project 1144 Orlan, known in the West as Kirov-class.
Read more: russia Discusses the Maritime Aircraft Carrier System and Fifth-Generation Fighters Amid Ongoing Repairs of the Admiral Kuznetsov
The ship has been under repair since 1997, with at least 5 billion dollars spent on it by now, yet after almost 30 years, it still cannot leave the shipyard. According to the latest published work plan, it should have been launched and even depart for its first trials in the open sea November 2024 but it won't happen, russian media report. The date of the tests has been postponed indefinitely.
Apparently, even the russian newsmakers realize how unhealthy the situation looks, where a powerful nuclear ship is held under repair for almost three decades, so they are trying to find "natural" explanations for the delay.
One of the reasons stated is that November–December is the season of ice formation in the waters of the White Sea where the sea trials of Admiral Nakhimov were supposed to take place.
Another rationale provided is that forcing an "unprepared" cruiser into the sea would be rash. All the more so because, they say, with its hands full sustaining the war against Ukraine, the russian defense-industrial complex has "higher priority" shipbuilding tasks, such as constructing missile-carrying corvettes or nuclear cruiser submarines.
The most pressing problem with this situation around the Admiral Nakhimov cruiser is that Moscow officials have already announced and advertised extensive modernizations, which they are struggling to implement now. In particular, after the works are complete, the ship was supposed to carry as many as 80 launchers for the Oniks, Kalibr, and Zircon missiles.
Another factor is the pending status of the Pyotr Velikiy nuclear cruiser, currently the only Kirov-class ship still operational in the russian navy. Unverified reports suggest that the russian military wanted to scrap this ship due to its reaching the end of service life, but cannot do so until they receive the replacement — which is our Admiral Nakhimov.
Read more: "Admiral Kuznetsov" Aircraft Carrier and "Admiral Nakhimov" Nuclear-Powered Cruiser of russian Fleet Are Done For – Even Without Ukraine's "Help"
