Crimean Shipyard Making Visible Progress on Russia’s First Post-Soviet Carrier Warship

Satellite images from the Zaliv shipyard on the disputed Crimean Peninsula has shown that progress is underway on Russia’s first post-Soviet carrier warship program, namely the first of two Project 23900 Ivan Rogov Class amphibious assault ships which saw their keels laid in 2020. New images show major progress on the ship’s hull in particular over the past two years, with the lack of flight decks or an island being the major remaining parts not yet added. With an estimated displacement of one 40,000 tons when fully loaded, the Ivan Rogov Classwill be of comparable size to the U.S. Navy’s America Class carriers or the French nuclear powered carrier Charles De Gaulle. With Russia not having laid down even destroyer or cruiser sized ships for its Navy since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, work on the Ivan Rogov and its sister ship the Mitrofan Moskalenko represents the most ambitious surface shipbuilding program in the country in almost 35 years.

It has been widely speculated that the Ivan Rogov Class vessels are not intended to be operated purely as helicopter carriers and assault ships, and that, like the U.S. Navy, the Russian Navy plans to deploy fighters with vertical landing capabilities to provide a fixed wing aviation capability. Officials have repeatedly indicated that such a fighter is under development, although whether it will have fourth or fifth generation capabilities and whether it will be developed jointly with another country remain uncertain. In the late 1980s the Soviet Union was considered the world leader in the field of vertical landing capable aircraft with its Yak-41 and Yak-43 programs, the former which reached an advanced prototype stage, although work on these aircraft was terminated when the state disintegrated. Developing a fighter capability for its two carriers would allow Russia to retire its current aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which lawmakers have indicated is under consideration due to the difficulties shipyards have faced in maintaining the vessel. Another possibility is that the two new carriers will be fielded alongside the Admiral Kuznetsov, which remains possible due to the significant investments made in refurbishing and modernising the older vessel. This would provide the Russian Navy with fleet of three carrier warships.