Russia is finally retiring its Pyotr Veliky, which is the world’s largest non-aircraft carrier warship and the only nuclear-powered surface vessel still in service, as a sign that its naval strategy will change. This follows the completion phase of modernization for her sister ship, the Admiral Nakhimov.
It was foreseen that Pyotr Veliky and Admiral Nakhimov would be subjected to deep modernization. Restoration of Pyotr Veliky has been abandoned, while that for Nakhimov continues because of the cost and technical problems, but mainly because of the issue of maintaining two such behemoths.
It now moves on to the basic and intermediate categories of corvettes, missile boats, and frigates which are more durable units going to be simultaneously cost-effective and within the modern concept of naval warfare.
Pyotr Veliky may now be gone from the operational fleet, but military capability seems hardly impacted in these latter-day Soviet-era ships of the Kirov class. With an enormous level of armament, there is an equal level constituted by the ashore, afloat, and air native defense, together with anti-submarine warfare capabilities that are built into these huge monstrous crafts. Finally, a nuclear power source allows it to go for a long time, indeed very far away, without a need to refuel.
As Defense Security Asia notes, the Pyotr Veliky is “slated for decommissioning,” which suggests that Admiral Nakhimov is the only Kirov-class vessel to remain operationally available in service thus far. The universal floating launchers fitted will permit Admiral Nakhimov to be armed with Kalibr-NK and Onyx cruise missiles, and then Tsirkon hypersonic missiles. This vessel is to serve in the Arctic, another new hot spot between Russia and the West.
The Arctic is seen by the Russian leadership as one of the flash points of the future with the West. General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff, emphasized that “the United States and NATO are focused on ensuring their dominance in the Arctic and deterring the Russian Federation in the region.” For its part, Russia is strengthening its military potential in the Arctic region, developing its infrastructure, and securing economic activity in navigation and mineral production.
Kirov-class vessels, while they would offer deeper-striking endurance with subsequent longer deployment times at sea, therefore have fallen to the wayside. Its means of Arctic surveillance now fall to means of maritime patrol planes and satellites supported by the new capability of nuclear icebreakers. But the decision to refit Admiral Nakhimov shows that huge and sturdy navy ships are still dear to Russia.
At least when it comes to integrating its largest surface warships, naval modernization has been at a stumbling block scale. The Kirov-class battlecruiser, the only Admiral Kuznetsov ever built, has been plagued by maintenance problems, funding issues, and a poor operational record.
The Kirov class was designed in the mid-1960s to checkmate NATO nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and is the most heavily armed warship ever built. Pyotr Veliky is the only ship of this class because of the armament of its formidability against ships, air defense, and anti-submarine.
More recently, Admiral Kuznetsov had been promised fixed-wing jets to the Soviet fleet and had also fallen prey to its own set of mishaps: serious mechanical problems all along and, on the only combat mission in Syria, two of its jets went down. Currently, the ship is undergoing a major refit that will add air-defense systems as well as reverse-mount much of its key equipment.
The country has much to catch up with the modernization of the returning Admiral Nakhimov and Admiral Kuznetsov to the navy fleet, including high costs of advanced electronic warfare, which were some suggestions that Pyotr Veliky may be retired instead to gain money for similar upgrades.
Overall, the Russian navy is trending toward a smaller, more versatile ship. The development of modern missiles, among them the Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile and the Kalibr cruise missile, is making new armed warships so combat-capable that high-destroyers are no longer needed. The armaments allow the ships of the Russian Navy to effectively engage in littoral waters, going in line with the general mindset of the Russian Navy for small and agile vessels.
As Russia keeps up with its modernization fights of the navy, it is in the retirement of Pyotr Veliky and the deployment to the Arctic of Admiral Nakhimov that the tides of change are made manifest in the country’s maritime strategy. This further underscores the growing importance of the Arctic region, not only to emerging key trading routes but also to the battleground of geopolitics that sees the country bent on claiming its stake to secure interests in strategically important territory.