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Russia to rejuvenate its navy
Russia announced plans Sunday to revive its navy by building
several aircraft carriers and improving its fleet of nuclear submarines.
Russia's power at sea is a shadow of that of the formidable
Soviet Navy of the Cold War era. But with a strong economy from booming oil
exports, the Kremlin is seeking to raise its profile on the world stage by
modernizing its armed forces.
Russia will build five or six aircraft carrier battle groups
in the near future, the RIA news agency quoted a navy commander, Vladimir
Vysotsky, as saying at Navy Day festivities in St Petersburg.
"We call this a sea-borne aircraft carrier system that
will be based on the Northern and Pacific fleets," Vysotsky said.
"The creation of such systems will begin after 2012."
He said such carrier groups would operate in close contact
with Russia's military satellites, air forces and air defenses.
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Russia now has only one aircraft carrier, the Nikolai
Kuznetsov, which was launched in 1985 but did not become fully operational for
10 years because of the turmoil after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Kuznetsov is not even a full-fledged aircraft-carrier,
being officially called an air-capable cruiser. It carries fewer aircraft than
U.S. carriers and features a steam turbine power plant with diesel generators,
while all modern carriers are nuclear-powered.
Vysotsky said that Russia would also modernize its
new-generation nuclear submarines of the Borei class.
The first Borei submarine, the Yuri Dolgoruky, was launched
in February and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2008. Two
other submarines of this class are being built.
"Starting with the fourth submarine, we will begin
modernizing this class," Vysotsky said. "The modernized Borei
submarines will be the core of Russian naval nuclear forces until 2040."
"We are aspiring not only to introduce new
technologies, not only to compete with the West, but to take completely new
steps which would allow us to look at submarine technologies of the middle of
the 21st century," he said.
The prestige of the Russian Navy was badly dented in August
2000 when the Kursk nuclear submarine, one of its newest, sank in the Barents
Sea with the loss of all 118 sailors aboard.
Tests of a new nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile,
Bulava-M, designed to be mounted on Borei submarines, have had mixed results.
The Kremlin has claimed the missile can penetrate any air defense.
Vysotsky said the Bulava would enter service this year.
"Despite the fact that there are still some glitches, the missile will all
the same learn how to fly," he said. "Not just to fly, but also to
use all the potential invested in it."
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