Russia’s current fleet of amphibious assault ships was not designed for this sort of thing: they were design to attack, not threaten to attack. While Mistral’s amphibious assault capabilities may be questioned, its loitering (to borrow from aviation terminology) abilities far exceed those of the rather old and tired Ropucha-class. Mistral is big, well-equipped, and in comparison luxuriously comfortable. Not to mention that it can carry a serious helicopter assault force. It is the perfect combat vessel with which to threaten various banana republics.

Now, the Project 11711 is a logical continuation of the Ropucha-class. It’s a ship designed for a mass amphibious assault, but just like Ropucha, it is not well suited for long-term “patrol” missions. Yes, it can carry three dozen APCs, but they are not much help unless you land them on the ground.

The other problem with 11711 is more significant: it is very much a paper ship. The past twenty years have not been kind to the Russian shipbuilding industry. Much know-how has been long and very little R&D has been carried out. Especially in the area of amphibious assault ships. Recent statements by Medvedev suggest that technology transfer is the primary reason for the planned purchase of the four Mistrals. Russia wants to buy one complete ship (minus weapons and radars) and to license-produce three more at home. This would give Russian ship designers and builders a valuable close look at what they missed over the past two decades.

This first-hand experience would be extremely important in light of Russia’s plans to build new aircraft carriers. While Mistral is not what Russia is looking to build, it is as close a sample of Western aircraft-carrying combat ship as Russia can hope to dissect. Naturally, there are also political reasons for this planned purchase: Russia is seeking closer ties with France and nothing is better for improving relations than billions of euros.

Naval and air force bases in Abkhazia give Russia more flexibility but not a complete freedom of action in the Black Sea. Unfortunately, I have no new information about the Su-34s and their possible deployment in Abkhazia. It is really too early to know.

Ekranoplans, like Ropucha, are good for carrying out amphibious assault operations. They are not particularly useful for hanging around for extended periods of time.

BTW – if I remember correctly, a while ago you mentioned the deployment of SU-34s in Abkhazia. Any news/details on this?

Seems to me that one Misral in the Black Sea would be enough.

At one point you say: “I do not think Russia needs supercarriers”

And yet you go on to state/conclude: “it would be nice if Russia had an aircraft carrier”

So which is the best way forward? A smaller carrier than the US super carriers? Or simply exploiting the long range of the T50 with air refuelling? Or some other combination?

Good to see more current posts on the site.

thanx.

The F-22 is an extremely advanced aircraft. And American “advanced” usually stands for “overpriced” and “fiddly”. Not to say that the Raptor is not a premier fighter aircraft. It is a great achievement. It’s that just American defense industry is notorious for its ability to waste taxpayer dollars. The Russian military-industrial complex would certainly like to catch up to their American colleagues in that department. Luckily, they don’t have that much money to waste.

As far as political will goes, that can change very quickly. I actually doubt that China will become an operator of the T-50. They have a competing project and, unless something goes terribly wrong, they will probably decide to stick with it. But there are plenty of other countries that, in 5-10 years, will be looking to upgrade their park of fighters and will find few alternatives to the T-50. Political will has an interesting way of conforming to financial reality. Ten years is a very long time in international politics. A lot can change.

What countries do you believe would be willing and able to aquire such an expensive and sophisticated 5th generation multirole aircraft?

We know that India will probably want 200 or so double-seater variants. I suspect that the Chinese would also be interested. But I don’t really see who else could have a) the political freedom to do so b) the financial means and c) an air force sophisticated enough to integrate such a complex machine.

Do you?

Cheers,

VS