Kuznetsov-class Ship Brief

Interesting there is a shipyard in Crimea called Dalian when there is a major port and shipbuilding city in China called...Dalian.

Andrew MacDougall

It was pretty neat to watch you do this ship, I remember doing a video with the Grim Reapers in the past over this. That Phased Array Radar you mentioned I had some fun trying to figure that one out. NATO named it "Sky Watch", it failed, much of it due to bureaucratic alongside technical issues. The technical issues puzzled some western analysts since they seemed to have done well in other projects. Turns out what you see there is some concrete slabs, probably to simulate the weight in order to keep the ship balanced as in the design. I had no idea that the Kashtan units on Kuznetsov came without the missile launchers. I was under the assumption the gun only version was the export variant and I thought I had seen some of the Kashtans with the launchers, maybe it was some upgrade later on? I gotta peek at that again. SU-25UTG, this plane actually throws alot of people off, even some sims take it as a carrier attacker plane, but in reality it's a 2-seater trainer plane to help pilots train for launching and landing on the carrier. I found an website with some tiny pictures, but most the combat stuff like you'd see in DCS was replaced with a different suite of panels, and the trainer could simulate faults and situations for training. It also only has two stations, it doesn't even have a RWR system. I thought the water situation was only for certain decks on the Kuznetsov, but I maybe mixing that up with some of the Kirov-class ships. J-15T, fun story about this one you didn't cover. It seems like originally they wanted to buy some Su-33s from Russia, but Russia said no after they modified some Su-27s to use some Chinese built systems outside their agreement. I think what happened after they bought a prototype was buying some engines from Russia but modify the afterburners to be stronger. The Su-33 uses modified afterburners to be able to launch with it's payload and China attempted to do the same... with much less success. I liked those bullet points comments about countries, got a chuckle out of me. I did find it neat to see things I didn't know, or was off on myself. Really nice vid. :)

Daishi29

Just finished this article on her https://www.navygeneralboard.com/russias-troubled-carrier-a-ship-of-many-names/

Blair Shaw (Subhunter)

The Kuznetsov well what can I say defiantly a poor design with poor quality control. What I am hearing right now about her refit is that the boilers have been removed and replaced there are pictures available to prove this, however Gas turbines which have a troubled history in Russia and diesel engines I doubt will be fitted to her unless they go for overseas imports of something like the MTU engines from Germany. That said above its likely new boilers will be fitted to her they have made some head way in that arena for sure. The current overhaul is said to be substantially major, and likely will see her return 2024/25 and serve into the mid 2030's maybe even to 2040. One major thing to note is that currently the Russians don't have a dry dock capable of accommodating her either in the North or East, and simply bringing her to St Petersburg is not an option at the Admiralty shipyards either as they don't have the technical expertise nor facility to dry dock her. That said by the end of this year Russia should finish the new dry docks in the north which will be able to accommodate her, this is largely why the overhaul has stalled and taken so long to complete. With the P700 (SS-N-19) being phased out of service her current fit of 12 VLS will be deleted and unlikely to be replaced. Also to note the P700 cruises at mach 1.6 and has a terminal speed of mach 2.5 PD50 the dry dock that sank in 2018 was built in Sweden in 1980 and has gone through some real horrific events in its life plus lack of maintenance, most notable events were during its delivery voyage it ran aground and caused severe damage, it ended up being repaired in Norway before arriving in Russia. In 2011 the K84 fire took place inside her as well. The new dry docks which is actually 2 docks merged into one will be the PD50 replacement. Personally I have always said that the Russians should have scrapped the thing and instead focused on a more achievable project either a LPH or re using the money saved to invest in a practical DDG program.

Blair Shaw (Subhunter)

Another excellent brief Aaron, thank you. The 1936 Treaty of Montreaux (also known as the Montreaux Convention) is what governs passage of all shipping through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles between the Black Sea and the Med. Interesting note; at the time the United takes declined to even send an observer, never mind take part in negotiations. A number of highly-specific restrictions were imposed on what type of warships are allowed passage. Non-Black-Sea powers willing to send a vessel must notify Turkey 15 days prior of their sought passing, while Black Sea states must notify within 8 days of passage. Also, no more than nine foreign warships, with a total aggregate tonnage of 15,000 tons, may pass at any one time. Furthermore, no single ship heavier than 10,000 tonnes can pass. An aggregate tonnage of all non-Black Sea warships in the Black Sea must be no more than 45,000 tons (with no one nation exceeding 30,000 tons at any given time), and they are permitted to stay in the Black Sea for no longer than twenty-one days. Only Black Sea states may transit capital ships of any tonnage, escorted by no more than two destroyers. (bear in mind we are talking as destroyer classifications from the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty and its definitions of destroyer, not modern day ones). Under Article 12, Black Sea states are also allowed to send submarines through the Straits, with prior notice, as long as the vessels have been constructed, purchased or sent for repair outside the Black Sea. The less restrictive rules applicable to Black Sea states were agreed as, effectively, a concession to the Soviet Union, the only Black Sea state other than Turkey with any significant number of capital ships or submarines. The passage of civil aircraft between the Mediterranean and Black Seas is permitted but only along routes authorised by the Turkish government. Its of note that many regard Russias re-occupation of the Crimea in 2014 as highly orientated towards restoring its naval base and ability to build carriers again in the long term. There was a great deal of concern that Turkey would ever allow the Russians to let the carriers (including the Kievs) pass through - but reclassification of the ships, and diplomatic arm twisting seemed to have won the day. On its last trip out to Syria I was able to witness the appalling pall of black smoke the Kuznestov discharged on its trip down the English Channel, although we were too far round the coast to actually see the ship itself!