So Russia almost lost its aircraft carrier the other day...

ProfessorWes · Nov 5, 2018

Whoops: Russia's largest floating drydock abruptly quit floating last week, and nearly took the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov with it to the bottom. They've only got the one carrier, and it pretty much needs a total rebuild and modernization. Which is now going to be a little difficult for Ivan . . .

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/huge-floating-drydock-sank-and-nearly-took-russia’s-only-aircraft-carrier-it-35117

On October 30, Russia’s sole remaining aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, lay nested inside PD-50—a huge 330-meter long and 79-meter tall floating drydock currently moored off the Roslyakovo dockyard near the city of Murmansk. That morning, the dock suddenly began tilting to one side, causing personnel to scramble for safety.

One of its tall, seventy ton cranes smashed into the Kuznetsov’s hull near the waterline, tearing a 3.5 by 4.5-meter-sized gash into its flank. The other crane fell into the water.

The Kuznetsov remained buoyant, however, and a tug hastily pried (the) 47,000-ton carrier away from the floating drydock, which submerged completely under the water in four hours. Four workers were injured, and, tragically, one remains missing and is likely dead.

PD-50 now lies 160 feet below the water and will prove very difficult to resurface—in the unlikely event doing so is at all practical. Officially the accident has been attributed to a loss of electrical power in the dock’s water pumps, though it appears that illegal safety violations are implicated in the sinking, and that a legal battle is in the works.

Reporter Ilya Kramnik wrote in Izvestiya that the Kuznetsov nearly sank with the dock (due) to lacking her own independent power, and that the dockyard had cut costs on electrical maintenance personnel and diesel generators.

. . . PD-50 was nonetheless the largest floating drydock in Russia, and the only extra large one serving Russia’s Northern Fleet—home to the better part of Moscow’s critical ballistic missile submarine force. In fact, those huge nuclear-powered subs made very heavy use of PD-50. While some shore-based drydocks are available, of course, transferring ships into them takes a lot longer, and vessels currently being worked on can’t be quickly swapped out.

PD-50 was also uniquely of an appropriate size to help refurbish the Russian Navy’s huge nuclear powered battlecruisers—particularly the Pyotr Veliki , which was scheduled to undergo renovation soon .

As a result, the drydock sinking may significantly impair the Russian Navy’s submarine, cruiser and carrier operations, and particularly its efforts to modernize its larger, older platforms.

Look for some contractors and naval officers to be abruptly reassigned to Siberia, far away from any ocean, in the not too distant future. In the meantime, Russia's in the market for either a new carrier-sized drydock or a new carrier-sized shipyard. Since PD-50 was built by Sweden (which is feeling rather peeved with Russia at the moment due to assorted military provocations), and the shipyard that built the Kuznetsov is now part of Ukraine (also rather peeved with Russia for outright invading it), that might be a problem. :wink:

SAJohn · Nov 5, 2018

If it were not for their nuclear power, Russia would be a near third world country. Their GDP ($1.58 trillion) is a bit less than that of Canada. Our GDP is about $20T. The U.S. even outnumbers the Russians about 2.25 to 1.

Mobuck · Nov 6, 2018

It seems most of Russia operates under the NMP rationale. Not My Problem so I don't really care. Too many generations of suppressed individual initiative and lack of gain from personal achievement.