Russian Navy news.

[ikalugin]

While Russian Navy suffers a readiness pit (with many ships in repairs) and the Ukrainian crisis brings delays in the surface ship production (gas turbines for pr. 11356 and 22350 Frigates) there are some positive news out there too.
For example:

Today, 7 more (for the total of 15) Severodvinsk class SSGNs were confirmed to be in the plans for the Russian Navy at this time.
http://www.vz.ru/news/2015/6/16/751005.html

Also, a new LHD would replace the (now presumed lossed for Russia) Mistral class, albeit smaller Russian Navy plans to procure up to 4 of those vessels.

[ikalugin]

Priboi class LHD model:
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/detonator666/60635934/218926/218926_1000.jpg
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/detonator666/60635934/219183/219183_original.jpg
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/detonator666/60635934/218507/218507_original.jpg
Note the forward ramp for offloading stuff onto a beach.

[Onkel Neal]

Russia To Finish Building 'World's Stealthiest' Submarines By 2023
http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-finish-building-worlds-stealthiest-submarines-2023-1969687

Russia is going to complete building a series of seven Yasen-class nuclear submarines by 2023. The confirmation comes from Vladimir Dorofeyev, CEO of the Malakhit Marine Engineering Design Bureau.

[ikalugin]

What we really need though is a smaller SSN, which would do most of the work, as Yasen class is overkill for things like boomer protection (I mean, how would it use it's 24 missile silos for that?)

[Jimbuna]

Reminds me of the UK Astute Class....heck, they are so stealthy we occasionally run one aground to remind people they exist :hmmm:

[ikalugin]

Sadly the first pr.885 submarine (ie Severodvinsk) did not receive the originally planned for 4th generation power plant or a number of other features, so it is not as stealthy as we would like (still and improvement over Akula IIs).
The 08851/885Ms we are building at the moment (4 in current production with 2 more to be layed down this year) do get all those 4th generation features and receive newly desighned equipment, thus making them more capable than the original Severodvinsk (atleast on paper).

Thus in the end we would have (by 2023 in plans) 1 08850 and 14 08851s or newer (there probably would be evolutionary improvements sub series to sub series - same as on Akulas), giving us a decent 7/7 split between the two fllets, which sort of fills the minimal SSN requirements we have (3/3 go to boomer protection, 4/4 go for various other missions).

With the modernised Akula, Sierra and Oscar series this should be ok ish till 2025, but we really need a smaller, cheaper, SSN or equivalent (like high end AIP SSK).

Another interesting point - in addition to procuring the 06770 and 06771s (ie Lada class, one in experimental use, 2 in the production, 1 to be layed down in 2015) SSKs, we are developing the follow up, new, next gen AIP SSK.
As the Kilo class production have shown - we would probably be fine in this department, provided we order the subs.

[XabbaRus]

Priboi class LHD model:
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/detonator666/60635934/218926/218926_1000.jpg
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/detonator666/60635934/219183/219183_original.jpg
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/detonator666/60635934/218507/218507_original.jpg
Note the forward ramp for offloading stuff onto a beach.

I like it. Thing is how does it compare with the Mistrals which were ordered, and from my understanding no one in the Navy wanted or the MoD except for Serdyukov at the time? Russian amphibious assault does seem to be more of the 'drive straight up onto the beach type' rather than park a few miles off shore and launch. Also I don't hear the usual suspects getting worried about this type of assault ship. Carries out an almost similar role to the Mistral.

[ikalugin]

Well, even though Mistral selection was opposed by many, in my opinion Russian Navy needs LHDs, at least to conduct initial landings. The recent news imply the Navy's desire to acquire 4 of those ships.

The ship's themselves are smaller and carry fewer helicopters and other things.

Some troll math. It is known that pr.949As are being refitted into pr.949AMs, with replacement of their 24 Granit AShM launchers with 72 Yahont launchers. This means that between at least 4 Oscar series (2 of which are already being refit) who are planned to go through that refit we would have the same quantity of AShMs, as RN would have Aster series SAMs between it's 6 T45 destroyers.

[nohouan]

I used to live in Saint-Nazaire, where the shipyards there built the Mistrals. They probably don't have characteristics some russians would want (well, simply put, they are not russian) but they really are good ships, nontheless. They fit french mission requirements perfectly. From my understanding, it was more a problem of not having time of testing an entirely new class, while they still needed some.
I am not sure the transfer to Russia has been finalized, though...

Now about the new russian subs, I would tend to agree with Ikagulin and Jimbuna : Those new subs could be too expensive to operate in the long run, even with their multi-mission flexibility. The first sub that was really overkill in design when I was a kid was the Seawolf. They had to cut the orders and rethink the design as mission requirements changed.

[ikalugin]

Things we don't like in mistrals, even after the Russia specific modifications:
- can't take battle damage/has weak armament.
- doesn't have enough capacity.
- more expensive when compared to its peers.

I was talking about suplimenting the Severodvinsk class SSGNs with a cheaper, simpler SSN, not replacing. The reason is b/c Severodvinsk is simply an over kill for most missions, such as boomer protection or ASW duties.
The price is okay ish, it is somewhat below 1b USD per sub now.

The ideal SSN for that job would probably be something on the lines of the re-incarnated Victor-III, myself and JS drew up a such (fan) project called P95 Kikimora. I think the cutouts are somewhere on the forums here.

14+1 Severodvinsk class sort of fill the minimal need for nuclear boats in RuN, but I think we need 10 or more smaller SSNs, certainly post 2020, to replace older 3rd gen boats. AIP SSKs (such as the proposed Kalina class) can be an option, but I still don't feel that they could conduct long range deployments in the way SSN's do, we may see how Colins replacement fares.

P.s. The kikimora:
http://skb-86.awardspace.biz/kikimorakalugina.htm

[nohouan]

I wasn't aware of the battle damage assesment on the Mistral, the shipyard crews were simply quite proud of the ships.

I stand corrected for the subs.
I think personnaly that in nuclear navies today and into the future, a key aspect of affordability will be to carefully balance nuclear and AIP boats.
Of course, when it come to very large navies to begin with, it's easier said than done.

[ikalugin]

Don't get me wrong, Mistrals are good ships. It is just that they do not follow Russian pattern of building over armed and over redundant battle-stars.

The problem with the AIP SSKs, is that they are catching up unit price wise to the grown up subs, atleast in Russia. After all, the Severodvinsk class unit cost is around 830m USD.

[XabbaRus]

I thought the Mistral for Russia had been strengthened for arctic operations?
I quite like the look of this alternative.

[ikalugin]

It got reworked for northern conditions (ie it has heating and a proper ventilation system), higher hangars (to fit taller helis) and the like.

However it is not very resilient in the sense that even fairly light battle dammage would kill it.

[ikalugin]

According to this:
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?purchaseId=2521260&&purchaseMethodType=ep
Contract, the 4th pr.22350 Frigate would receive domestically manufactured power plant in 2018.

[XabbaRus]

I find it quite interesting how some commentators and posters on other forums (I think you know which one I mean, which I have seen your name on) seem to rejoice that the Ukraine isn't providing gas turbines or at least wonder how Russia is going to finish building its ships.

Do they not realise that Russia does have its own manufacturers of gas turbines such as Kuznetsov, Llyuka and Saturn? I know converting an aviation gas turbine into use for a ship isn't just a case of dropping it in, materials are likely to be different and other such things, but it isn't a million miles away. I'm not going to Russia this summer so will have to get a report from my wife but Russia seems to be riding out the period of economic mess. I do wonder how long it can continue though. Saying that Sakhalin-2 is going to be expanded, Nord Stream 2 is going to be built and BP is going to do deals. Looks like the reality is kicking in and that companies still want to make money and need to do deals regardless what happens in the Ukraine.

[ikalugin]

The interesting thing is that (if I remember it right) we manufacture the non ship variants of the same GT for other applications.

[ikalugin]

Some internal pics of our new SSBN Alexander Nenvsky.
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/15530/13428093.34/0_c7e4d_8c0fa7d4_orig.jpg
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/6002/13428093.34/0_c7e51_1bd822b1_orig.jpg
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/6301/13428093.34/0_c7e50_c081e0c3_orig.jpg
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/17/13428093.34/0_c7e4e_d6744202_orig.jpg
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/4528/13428093.34/0_c7e4f_1857c02_orig.jpg
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/6834/13428093.34/0_c7e4c_99272fa5_orig.jpg
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/3212/13428093.34/0_c7e4b_c4f80b2e_orig.jpg