A new Russian "cruise"

[designeraccd]

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-09-08-voa42.cfm

Also this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080908/ts_nm/russia_venezuela_navy_dc


"Long planned", but apparently announced after the invasion of Georgia....interesting. DFO :rolleyes:

[astraltrader]

I am surprised that the Russian Cruiser Peter the Great [Peotr Velikiy] is still around as I thought that the new Russian President had vowed to scrap all of the Kirov class cruisers.
Anyway a couple of pictures of her...

[Stan.J]

Very sleek and powerful looking.

[designeraccd]

If her sytems function as designed and if her crew is trained this battlecruiser is, theoretically, the most powerful surface ship currently afloat....excluding carriers. At any rate I'm sure she can indeed "show the flag" as in days past of gunboat diplomacy.....now considered very unPC by the liberal "elite" on both sides of the North Atlantic. To bad Putin doesn't have the same "enlightened" outlook.


DFO

[designeraccd]

Russian ships to Venezuela in show of power
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV – 1 day ago

MOSCOW (AP) — The voyage of the cruiser Peter the Great, scheduled to arrive in Venezuela next week with a squadron of other Russian warships, was meant to showcase the Kremlin's ability to project naval power abroad and reassert its claim to great power status.

But the arrival of the 24,000-ton nuclear-powered vessel and its escorts may mark the end of an era of rising ambitions for the Russian navy, not its beginning.

Russia's plans to conduct exercises in the Carribean for the first time since the Cold War were made before the global financial crisis mauled the country's energy-based economy. Plunging oil prices, some believe, could end Moscow's aspirations for a stronger presence in the Western Hemisphere.

The Peter the Great, a missile destroyer and two support vessels from Russia's Northern Fleet set off for Venezuela late September, in what was widely seen as a show of the Kremlin's anger over the U.S. dispatch of warships to deliver aid to Georgia after its August war with Russia. A pair of Russian strategic bombers visited Venezuela for a week in September. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union sent its planes and navy ships to Cuba.

The squadron's arrival next week is timed to coincide with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's planned trip to Venezuela and other Latin American nations. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an unbridled critic of the U.S. policy, said his nation needs a strong friendship with Russia to reduce U.S. influence and keep the peace in the region.

Some experts, though, question the military value of the exercise.

"The Kremlin is continuing its anti-American course in the nineteenth century style," said Alexander Golts, an independent military analyst. "But it makes no sense militarily. A couple of ships struggling to make it to South America aren't going to strengthen Russia's posture against the United States."

Medvedev vowed in September that Russia will follow up on the Venezuelan cruise with other maneuvers worldwide. But its navy capability is limited.

"Russia simply lacks ships for the purpose," said Alexander Khramchikhin, a top analyst with Moscow-based Institute for Political and Military Analysis, an independent think-tank.

He and other analysts say that the Peter the Great and its destroyer escort, the Admiral Chabanenko, are among a few vessels in the Russian navy capable of long ocean cruises.

The construction of the Peter the Great began before the 1991 Soviet collapse but was completed a decade later. It was designed to destroy aircraft carriers with an array of supersonic cruise-missiles. It's the largest ship in the Russian fleet and the only surface vessel powered by a nuclear reactor, which gives it enormous range and autonomy.

The cruiser suffered a deadly accident in 1996 when a high-pressure steam line ruptured, killing four seamen. In 2004, the Russian navy chief abruptly declared the ship so decrepit it could explode any moment.

Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov quickly retracted his words, saying he was misquoted, and some media attributed the statement to a personal conflict with the cruiser's captain.

The Russian squadron has called at several Mediterranean ports as part of its current cruise, which the Navy said will cover 15,000 nautical miles — three times the distance between the Venezuelan shores and home base on the Arctic Kola Peninsula. After completing joint maneuvers with Venezuela, the ships will sail for the Indian Ocean for further exercises, the navy said.

Of all branches of the Russian military, the navy suffered most after the Soviet collapse. Sharp cuts in military spending left many Russian warships rusting berthside and forced the navy to scrap dozens of comparatively modern vessels.

Booming oil prices during President Vladimir Putin's eight-year tenure led to steady increases in military spending, allowing the navy to repair some vessels and train new crews. But the Russian navy is still a shadow of what it was in the Soviet era, when Moscow dispatched warships on regular patrols of the world's oceans.

"Most big surface warships which were built during the Soviet times have closely approached the end of their service time," Khramchikhin said. "It can't be extended indefinitely unless they want to see them sink in the middle of their cruise."

The Kursk nuclear submarine catastrophe, which killed all its 118 seamen in August 2000, and a steady string of other deadly accidents highlighted the poor state of the Russian navy.

Earlier this month, 20 people suffocated and 21 others were injured aboard a new nuclear-powered submarine when a firefighting system switched on by accident and pumped the sub full of Freon gas, displacing the vessel's oxygen. The mishap, which officials blame on a seaman's tinkering with the firefighting system's controls, occurred while the sub was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan.

"Badly-trained crews on poorly-maintained ships pose the danger of new catastrophes," said military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

Russia now has just one Soviet-built carrier, which is much smaller than any U.S. carrier and has been dogged by unreliable turbines and other technical problems. Experts say tumbling oil prices and the global financial slowdown have likely scuttled all plans for massive new military spending, including a plan to build new carriers, at least in the short term.

"Russia lacks money, industrial resources and qualified industry personnel for that," Khramchikhin said.


Power projection (?), 19th Century gunboat style...whoopeee DFO

[battlestar]

G'Day All

I've been watching this cruise by the Peter the Great. It had already visited ports in the MED, including Toulon.

After the Carribean part of the deployment, they were scheduled to head into the Indian Ocean, with possible port calls in Mumbai and Vietnam, before returning via Suez and the MED. Now, that part might be cancelled.

But can they afford it? I never though they could, its nice to see I'm not the only one. The price for this deployment has already exceeded its alocatted budget, according to insider reports, which might partly explain the new squeeze for money on India to finish their carrier!

All to keep Putin happy. The one thing I've agreed with Stalin, NEVER let the head of the KGB run the country! Putin will bring Russia to ruin, and the west won't need to lift a finger, because Putin still thinks that he's the head of a superpower, not one that's broke!

To top it off, The Russian Navy still hope to bring the rest of the Kirov class back into service! Crazy!

[designeraccd]

Come on now...when you think you are CZAR, you must have a czar sized flagship to wave daaa flag! or something like that. Certainly unfortunate way to many people are driven by ego..................DFO :(

[battlestar]

G'Day All

Sorry Designeraccd, I forgot about ego, but as a famous Aussie rock song says 'Ego, is not a dirty word':D

Oh, to make up for the weather statements, it rained for most of the day today, but it was still 85F:rolleyes:

[designeraccd]

Ego of itself isn't bad, but when one can't find a hat that fits...could be a CLUE!!! Is that why czar vlad's pics always show him bare headed?

Well thank you, glad to hear your grass is getting watered. We have lotsa bright, beautiful sunshine today...but temps at or below freezing soooo not exactly conducive for safe riding of my Yamaha FJR 1300 or driving of my Miata (MX-5 Mazda) given the areas of ICE scattered all over local roads. sigh....DFO :(

[designeraccd]

This could somewhat CRIMP czar vlad's grandiose plans for empire and globe girdling military power:

A comprehensive flight of investor capital is occurring in Russia for a number of reasons. This situation is placing great pressure on the Kremlin to use its capital reserves — the third largest in the world — to prop up the Russian banking sector and the main engines of the Russian economy: the energy and mineral sectors. In the short run, Moscow’s massive capital reserves will allow it to weather the global liquidity crisis and increase government control over all sectors of the economy. In the long run, however, Russia might face a dearth of capital as it drains its coffers trying to pump cash into the system, putting vital capital expenditure projects (such as improving infrastructure, improving oil and natural gas field development, and military spending) on hold to the detriment of its ability to face off with the West. The result will be an economy that has far more in common with the Soviet Union than with post-Soviet Russia — even post-Soviet Russia under Vladimir Putin. And that will affect Russia’s bid to reassert itself globally.