British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon called Russian aircraft carrier“Admiral Kuznetsov” is a “ship of shame,” reports Reuters.
“We'll keep an eye on the Admiral Kuznetsov as he sneaks back to Russia. [This is] a ship of shame whose mission was to increase the suffering of the people of Syria,” Fallon said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense called Fallon’s words an attempt to distract British taxpayers from the problems of their own fleet, apparently hinting at information that appeared in the media about the unsuccessful launch of a ballistic missile from a British Navy submarine.
“The purpose of such statements and the show played out with the escort of our ships is to divert the attention of British taxpayers from the real state of the Royal Navy of Great Britain,” Major General Igor Konashenkov, an official representative of the Ministry of Defense, said in a statement.
Russian ships “don’t need meaningless escort services” because they know the fairway and course, the general emphasized.
On Wednesday it became known that six NATO ships, including British ones, met a group of ships in the English Channel, in which the Admiral Kuznetsov was moving from the coast of Syria to its home base in Severomorsk.
The UK Ministry of Defense also published aerial footage showing the Kuznetsov being escorted by British fighters in the English Channel.
Ships of the aircraft carrier group Northern Fleet We started moving to Severomorsk in early January. According to plan, to Russian shores they were due back by January 16th. The group successfully completed all assigned tasks in Syria, the Ministry of Defense said.
“In two months of participation in hostilities, pilots naval aviation carried out 420 combat missions, 117 of them at night. Almost all flights took place in difficult hydrometeorological conditions. 1,252 terrorist targets were defeated. The strikes were carried out on infrastructure facilities, concentrations of militants and military equipment, firing positions and strong points illegal armed groups,” the military department reported.
However, Kuznetsov's participation in the Syrian campaign was marred by the loss of two fighters from the ship's air wing - the MiG-29 and Su-33. In both cases, the arrestor cable broke during landing on the deck.
Gazeta.Ru found out that the commission investigating the crash of a Su-33 fighter jet into the Mediterranean Sea is inclined to believe that the cause of the accident could have been cracks in the arresting device cable.
“Parts of the broken cable were delivered to Moscow, and experts are now studying them,” a source familiar with the investigation told Gazeta.Ru.
According to the interlocutor, the pilot landed on the ship in strict accordance with the requirements of the instructions, and now experts are studying the properties and qualities of all steel threads of the brake cable. “They must determine the grade of metal that was used in the manufacture of the rope, as well as using special computer programs calculate the load on each thread at the angles that arose during the landing of the aircraft. The results obtained will be summarized. After this, it will become clear whether there was a defect, at what stage of production and why it occurred,” explained the interlocutor of Gazeta.Ru.
The Ministry of Defense identified the manufacturers of cables for the Svetlana-2 arresting devices, which are produced by PJSC Proletarsky Plant, back in 2006 at a special meeting with representatives of the metallurgical industry dedicated to the repair of the aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov. Then it was decided that the final products would be produced by the Volgametiz enterprise, part of the Severstal-Metiz group, the wire rod for cables would be supplied by the Beloretsk plant (Mechel group), and the Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant would supply square billets of 180 mm profile (brand steel 100). In 2014, the Severstal-Metiz group of enterprises announced the spin-off of its rope assets into JSC Redaelli SSM, thus Volgametiz became the Volgograd branch of the new JSC.
According to information from the State Purchases website, in January 2016, Proletarsky Plant PJSC, which produces aircraft finishers, entered into an agreement with Redaelli SSM JSC for the supply of steel rope A-36.5-GL-Zh-L-N-T TU 14- 4-1594-89. IN total The joint-stock company was supposed to supply 10 km of cable for the amount of 84 million rubles.
The repair of the aircraft finishers themselves at Kuznetsov cost 40.5 million rubles. This follows from the agreement between the Zvezdochka ship repair enterprise and Proletarsky Zavod OJSC dated April 12, 2016, information about which is posted on the official website of the United information system in the field of public procurement. Then the 35th ship repair plant of Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center JSC ordered the plant “services to restore the technical readiness of the Svetlana-23N5 product.” However, the commission had no complaints about the mechanisms themselves.
The cables for "Kuznetsov" had to pass military acceptance and tensile testing. A source from Gazeta.Ru assured that such an acceptance was carried out.
“That is why it is necessary to find out what happened, because the broken cable was completely new and this was the first landing on it,” explained the interlocutor of Gazeta.Ru.
The Ministry of Defense has not yet officially commented on the causes of the accidents.
In 2005, there was already a similar incident on the Admiral Kuznetsov, when a Su-33 landed, got caught on the arresting device cable, released the gas and at that moment broke the cable, and then rolled off the deck. Then the pilot also ejected and remained alive, Gazeta.Ru’s interlocutor recalled. Among the reasons for this accident, experts cited design flaws in the S-2N/23N aero arresting device.
“We will be keeping a close eye on the Admiral Kuznetsov as she sneaks back to Russia, a ship of shame whose mission has only added to the suffering of the Syrian people,” Fallon was quoted as saying by Reuters.
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But British aircraft carrier Ark Royal, which bombed Iraq in 2003 without UN authorization, is a ship of honor and glory, yeah.
Aircraft carrier Ark Royal. Isaac Newton, 2006
The people of Iraq still remember with tears of happiness the soldiers and sailors of Her Majesty who invaded and occupied their country under the pretext of searching for “weapons.” mass destruction"by Sadam Hussein. All 300 thousand Iraqis who have died since then are grateful to them to the end of their lives. And the leaders of ISIS are so simply happy - where would they be if not for these nice guys?
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On January 6, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the return of the aircraft carrier group from the coast of Syria to Severomorsk - the main base of the Russian Northern Fleet. "In accordance with the decision supreme commander in chief Russian Armed Forces Vladimir Putin Russian Ministry of Defense begins to reduce the group Armed Forces in Syria,” said Head of the General Staff Gerasimov.
Commanding Russian group troops in Syria, Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov, in turn, noted that during two months of participation in hostilities, naval aviation pilots carried out 420 combat missions, 117 of them at night. According to him, aircraft hit 1,252 terrorist targets.
Everything is very logical. For, nevertheless, the TAVKR and the group were sent to the shores of Syria BEFORE the elections in the United States and taking into account the likely escalation of the conflict. In fact, the relevance of the TAVKR off the coast of Syria was removed immediately after Trump’s victory. And now is the time to return to our home base. At the same time, we worked on all aspects of the operation of an aircraft carrier in real combat mode.
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On January 25, a group of Russian warships, led by the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov, entered the English Channel. Russian ships are sailing through the strait under the close surveillance of an entire armada of NATO ships, which even includes a helicopter carrier.
, 2017 The number of NATO ships exceeds the composition of the Russian aircraft carrier group. In particular, at least six ships are monitoring Russian ships, including the British frigate St. Albans, the Portuguese frigate Bartolomeu Dias", Dutch patrol ship"Groningen", the Norwegian frigate "Roald Amundsen", the British amphibious assault helicopter carrier "Ocean" and auxiliary german ship"Spessart".
The Russian aircraft carrier group includes the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, the cruiser Pyotr Velikiy, the destroyer Alexander Shabalin, the tanker Lena and the tugboat Nikolai Chiker. The supply vessel Sergei Osipov, which was previously part of the group, has already passed the English Channel and is currently time is running By North Sea in the direction of the home base in Baltiysk.
Thus, no matter how Western propagandists try to ridicule the Admiral Kuznetsov, clinging to the “smoking smoke” and “old age” of the ship, the NATO military adheres to opposite point vision. For them, the Russian aircraft carrier group in the English Channel is a challenge and at the same time a way to satisfy their curiosity.
In addition to NATO naval squadron, met Russian sailors also an American reconnaissance aircraft. The US P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine patrol aircraft flew at an altitude of only 150 meters above the ships of the Northern Fleet carrier group. American intelligence officer took off in the morning from an airfield in Spain to sort of “mark the territory” in the “English channel”.
Russian sailors, of course, do not succumb to NATO provocations, but there is no doubt that this incident will receive an appropriate assessment from the Russian Foreign Ministry. In general, the solemn guard of NATO forces becomes good tradition. First they met us, now they escorted us out. It is significant that the troops Western coalition pay more attention to monitoring by Russian forces than the fight against terrorism in Syria and Iraq.
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The Russian Ministry of Defense responded to the words of Michael Fallon. “The purpose of such statements and the show played out with the escort of our ships is to divert the attention of British taxpayers from the real state of the Royal Navy of Great Britain,” said the official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov. Konashenkov added that “Russian warships they don’t need meaningless escort services, they know the fairway and course.” In addition, a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense noted that Mr. Fallon should more attention to be given to the British fleet.
In general, I want to say that it is wonderful to hear such statements from the Minister of Defense island state, on this moment not having a single aircraft carrier at all. In particular, the Minister of Defense of the state, who at one time invented tanks, who brought the situation to the point that now there are no numbers of tank regiments in Britain. For there is only one regiment - Royal Tank Regiment.
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The aircraft carrier group of the Northern Fleet, which includes the Admiral Kuznetsov, began a large-scale operation on October 15 last year. The purpose of the campaign is to strike terrorist positions in Syrian provinces Idlib and Holmes. It is noteworthy that the Russian TAVKR took part in military operations for the first time.
“It turns out that the crane that fell on the Kuzya - the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, still lies, like a collapsed Egyptian granite obelisk, on the damaged deck of the Kuzya,” writes the telegram channel Serpo Po. “As always, bravura messages from the bosses in "everything is fine" style beautiful marquise", "the repair deadlines will not be violated", now let's quickly figure it out - they do not correspond to reality. They are still wondering how best to remove this crane from the Kuzi.
This is straight out, not a ship, but some kind of onion mountain. He is pathetic in every way, starting with the cloud of thick black smoke that marks his presence. A formidable warship should not evoke pity, but the worthless “Kuzya” evokes only this feeling. And, naturally, some kind of “machine uprising” is taking place against him.
In 2004, a Su-25 crashed onto the deck of the Kuzi. The plane was written off. In 2005, while landing in the Atlantic, a Su-33 cable broke, and the plane dove like a fish into the ocean, drowned, and rests in peace at a depth of 1,100 meters. In 2009, a fire killed one person. In 2016, during the epic “smoky march” to the shores of Syria, a MiG-29 crashed and, again due to a broken cable, another Su-33 dived into the sea and sank. Apparently, so that the first drowned man at the bottom of the sea would not be bored.
This “Kuzya” is just some kind of aviation gravedigger. And finally, the incident on October 30 with the giant floating dock PD-50, which sank after dropping a 70-ton tower crane onto the Kuzi deck.
By the way, for nostalgic patriots of the USSR, who believe that the Union, in addition to “delicious ice cream,” had an incredibly powerful shipbuilding industry, we inform you that the PD-50 was built in 1980 in Sweden. They couldn't build it themselves.
You read about “Kuzi’s” ordeals and think that it’s better to write him off and send him into retirement than to suffer with him like that. He's kind of unhappy."
And in other photographs you will not see more than three or four aircraft on this deck. Why? Because there are more of them great country there are simply no Su-33s or pilots capable of landing on deck.
So, Russia’s largest ship, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, is approaching Syria. After two years of standing near the factory wall in Severomorsk, he is on the move again. Assad urgently needed a strategic urgent Care? But is “Kuzya” able to provide it? What are Russia's global interests in general?
Heavy aircraft carrier looks impressive in photographs. But this is where his capabilities are limited. It is always under repair, it has a disgusting power plant, morally and physically outdated electronics and now, as the military reports, “the head missile system“Granit” is in service after repairs, more than two-thirds of the anti-aircraft artillery is in service, surveillance and guidance equipment is more than 60% functional.” For a hike Putin's Russia collected everything she could: eight Su-33s, a couple of experimental MiG-29Ks for the Indian fleet and a couple of helicopters. Usually, in the hangars of the giant (60 thousand tons of displacement!) there are no more than seven aircraft, the rest of the space is taken up by officers’ vehicles and all sorts of others... But according to the project, it is designed for fifty attack aircraft and helicopters! 
The campaign began with a scandal. The BBC reported that the crew of the Kuznetsov, which took refuge from a storm off the coast of Scotland (thanks to Britain, which agreed to meet them and allowed them to enter one of the bays) is polluting environment. « Get rid of trash by simply throwing it overboard- this is more than bad form. This goes against international conventions and, ultimately, is simply indecent,” said Angus Robertson, spokesman for the Scottish National Party’s defense committee. This is how they thanked Britain for its help. 
“Kuzya,” as the sailors either affectionately or contemptuously call him, is accompanied by the Admiral Chabanenko UAV, a tugboat and three tankers. Along the way, the patrol ship "Yaroslav the Mudry" and a tanker from Baltiysk, and the patrol ship "Ladny" from Sevastopol will come up. All this is called a carrier aircraft group (CAG). There is some pine in the forest, but still sparse. In the same accompaniment, a couple of years ago, “Kuzya” sailed to Venezuela, to visit his friend Chavez (Russia, however, has specific friends). By and large, this is all that is capable of sailing overseas in Russian fleet. But always accompanied by a tug...
In the American AUG (aircraft carrier strike force), which the Russian KAG is a parody of, are dominated by cruisers, frigates and nuclear submarines. They object that the Kuznetsov is more versatile and, in addition to aviation, also carries 12 launchers of Granit anti-ship cruise missiles. But American floating airfields (this is the functional purpose of an aircraft carrier) do not need an attack missile system. This task is performed by aircraft, of which Kuznetsov has a humiliatingly small number, and guided missile cruisers escorts, which are not in his escort at all. 
What are the goals of the trip to the Mediterranean Sea, which will last at least until February next year? Hard to say. It is clear that this armada is sailing towards Syria. It's not clear why. At first, the Chief of the Russian General Staff claimed that the campaign was related to exercises. Russia, they say, has obligations to its Western colleagues. In the Mediterranean Sea, the Active Endeavor operation of NATO countries and their partners takes place on an ongoing basis, in which from time to time they also participate Russian ships , conducting inspections of suspicious civilian transport, monitoring the non-proliferation regime of weapons of mass destruction and missile technologies, and the presence of terrorists there.
Why involve an aircraft carrier for this, which in one such trip consumes almost the entire fuel supply of the Northern Fleet? For the sake of respectability, perhaps. In addition, sailors need to be trained and trained: rocket and artillery firing, carrier-based aircraft flights, etc. And in general, the Barents Sea is uncomfortable at this time of year, which is why admirals are drawn to the south.
However, as the campaign progressed, it turned out that Russian ships would not participate in the exercises. So, there is a show of force and moral support for Assad? From which even the Arabs turned their backs? It was planned to enter the Syrian Tartus, another base near Russia not in the Mediterranean Sea. And this one is not important, although it has been deepened for many years. “Kuznetsov” will not even be able to moor to its floating berths; the draft will not allow it. But it will be possible to refuel with fuel, food, fresh water, a little repair, as always when our decrepit ships came here. And at least two, as sources in the Russian Ministry of Defense sparingly report, Bastion anti-ship complexes, armed with 36 Yakhont missiles each, will need to be unloaded for the Navy brotherly country— if Libya had them, the NATO fleet would not be able to sail so freely under the shores of Gaddafi’s friend.
Sailors and pilots will be able to go shopping, buy souvenirs, and relax. It was not for nothing that they sailed so far. However, in vain. As it became known the other day, this idea was abandoned. And they did the right thing. It would be even better not to organize such campaigns, a real demonstration of powerlessness and loss of guidelines, both moral and strategic. And if the devil has brought it where it is not needed, then at least not organize combat training for pilots off the coast of Israel. And then on the last trip, when they decided to arrange aerobatics close to the promised land, Israeli pilots already had their fingers on the missile launch buttons. So “Kuzya” could cause a huge international scandal. And to be left without an air group at all, which is already pitiful...
It will be good if the TAVKR returns home without serious emergencies. Usually it was impossible to do without them. Moreover, almost half of its sailors and foremen are conscripts spring conscription. Salaga. So he won’t show Kuzka’s mother to anyone; his main danger will not be the open sea, not Syria and not the Americans, but himself. After the voyage, the ship is planned to be sent again for overhaul, which will last at least until 2017. The question is, if in twenty years, of which most of falls on the period Putin's prosperity, the country has never been able to put its only “aircraft carrier” in order, then does it need them at all? Are you able to? Isn't it easier to buy Mistrals?
The weighty word of "Stennis".
On December 30, “Kuznetsov” was close to the target of the campaign, off the coast of Cyprus. Although the goal, as we have already said, is extremely dubious and hardly achievable. The trip causes nothing but ridicule. But it makes it possible to once again compare the technical capabilities and levels of strategy, and at the same time the levels of thinking of the leadership of Russia and the United States. 
On the same day, in response to Tehran’s threats to close the Strait of Hormuz in case of further sanctions against it and to the provocative exercises of the Iranian fleet in the area of the strait, not paying any attention to the strict warnings of the command of the Iranian Navy, through the exercise zone demonstratively, showing who the owner, the American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier John S. Stennis, followed at sea. Nimitz class giant. Nine squadrons on board.
The command of the United States Fifth Fleet issued a tough statement that it would not allow the Iranian Navy to block the water corridor under any circumstances. That Iran's intentions go beyond international law and any attempts of this kind will be immediately suppressed. And you know, it worked! 
Before us is a magnificent example confirming the correctness of the American Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, who wrote the classic work “The Influence sea power on history." He formulated the famous principle of Fleet in being. As a matter of fact, it is precisely for this book, for the formulation, for justifying the role of the fleet in geopolitics, - rare case in the history of literature! - Captain Mahan and was elevated to the rank of admiral. The essence of his principle is that the fleet influences politics by the very fact of its existence. Of course, if this strong fleet. The same as Britain had. Or the one that America has.
In response to this reminder of the obvious, I mean the raid of the aircraft carrier Stennis and the demonstration of the strength and determination of the US intentions, Tehran immediately declared that it was white and fluffy, that it had no intention of blocking the strait through which it was transported more than a third of the oil produced in the world. It wouldn't have worked - look at the deck of this American aircraft carrier. Compare it with the deck of the Kuznetsov. America has many such aircraft carriers. And, as you can see, they are very effective.
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