In the expanses of the native Fatherland, now and then it comes to the construction of six aircraft carriers at once. Relatively recently, these conversations were heard again. At the same time, the ship "Admiral Kuznetsov" is often recalled. The construction of even one aircraft carrier is a serious burden on the economy and great prospects. It's time to figure out what is really at stake, and whether the country has at least some prospects in this area.
“From the labors of the righteous, stone houses cannot be made.” Maxim Gorky, In People.
There were mentions of six new Russian aircraft carriers on the Internet in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021. Some domestic official, a general with large epaulettes or a propagandist now and then starts a hurdy-gurdy on this topic. When it comes to military spending, society tends to be divided into two groups with polar points of view, which can be described something like this: “How many pensions are in one of your planes!” and “Who does not feed his army feeds someone else's!"
Both of these points of view are valid in their own way and vice versa. And all because the development of the military-industrial complex and the implementation of any defense projects should not proceed at the expense of the rest of the economy. In other words, the need to develop the military-industrial complex should pull the rest of the industry along with it. The country really needs a new industrialization: the creation of new enterprises, the construction of new cities (if necessary), the organization new jobs, ranging from a kindergarten teacher and a working lathe, ending with a teacher at a university and design engineer. In general, for the construction of "six aircraft carriers" the country needs everything that politicians and their propagandists throughout the former Soviet Union love to promise and do not like to do.
However, for 31 years in the former Soviet republics there has been no industrialization, but de-industrialization. The damage to the economies of Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic countries, Georgia and Kazakhstan from the privatization of the 1990s is many times greater than the damage that these same countries suffered from the Second World War. The industry of Belarus looks a little better against the general background, however, even there, for decades, creeping privatization has been coming on them, as well as in other former Soviet countries, factories in Belarus are increasingly suffering from obsolescence and depreciation of fixed capital (machines, equipment, etc.).
Of course, de-industrialization is happening both in the US and in the countries of the European Union. But there it is associated with the growing financialization of the economy, and not with the predatory redistribution of people's property, as in the 1990s. By the way, de-industrialization in the West leads these countries to the same abyss of economic cooling, with the only difference being that thanks to the inflated the financial sector and a monopoly on modern technologies, the “fat layer” of the local states is many times greater than that of the republics of the former USSR. If the situation does not change, then the national republics risk sliding from the state of the world economic semi-periphery to the state of the periphery, finally becoming a raw material appendage of the West and China.
Therefore, before once again talking about the construction of some kind of "aircraft carriers", it is worth remembering that billions from the sale of minerals and food would be a good idea to channel into a new industrialization. However, over the years, there have been only talks about this. It would not be superfluous to recall that the new "Russian aircraft carriers" are not aircraft carriers and not so "Russian" after all. Regular references to the ill-fated "Admiral Kuznetsov" as a kind of model allow us to judge about it. Let's take a look at his example...
So, "Admiral Kuznetsov" is an aircraft-carrying cruiser of project 1143.5-6 "Krechet" built in 1970-1987. In other words, this is a Soviet, not a Russian development. Moreover, this is a Soviet building. Question: how many developments, not to mention buildings, does modern Russia have? To date, the Admiral Kuznetsov is the only aircraft-carrying cruiser in Russia. But were they such during the years of the USSR? No, I was not. The first aircraft-carrying cruisers in the USSR appeared as part of the Project 1143.1-4 Krechet project. But the fate of all of them turned out to be unenviable, like the factory on which they were once built ...
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Project 1143.1-4 "Krechet": Kyiv decommissioned in 1993 and sold to China, Minsk decommissioned in 1993 and sold to South Korea, Novorossiysk decommissioned in 1993, sold to South Korea and dismantled in 1997, "Admiral Gorshkov" decommissioned in 2004, is part of the fleet India.
Project 1143.5-6 "Krechet": "Admiral Kuznetsov" - in the ranks of the Russian Navy, "Varyag" - construction was stopped in 1992, sold to China, completed by the PRC and put into the Chinese fleet in 2012.
Project 1143.7 "Krechet": "Ulyanovsk" was discontinued in 1991, dismantled in 1992.
All these wonderful ships were once built at the Black Sea Shipyard in Nikolaev, Ukraine. As of 2021, the shipyard is bankrupt. And before pointing fingers, laughing and gloating, ask yourself what happened to not dozens, but hundreds of industrial enterprises in all the former Soviet republics, including Russia.
In continuation of the topic, read about aircraft carrier made of ice: a failed project.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/220522/63059/