Admiral Kuznetsov: How Russia’s Only Aircraft Carrier Became a Floating Disaster

4 Key Points: The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s only aircraft carrier, is likely headed for the scrapyard after a disastrous career.

-Plagued by mishaps, including a fire, a crane collapsing on its deck, and the sinking of its drydock, the carrier has been out of service since 2017.

Admiral Kuznetsov Russian Aircraft Carrier. Image Credit: Twitter/Screenshot.

-With its crew reportedly transferred to fight in Ukraine and the Russian economy strained by war, the Kremlin can no longer afford the “albatross.”

-It’s likely scrapping marks the pathetic end for the ship and symbolizes the grim, withered future of Russia’s surface navy.

The Cursed History of Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov

Is it the end of the line for the world’s saddest aircraft carrier? Open discussions have evidently begun in Russia over the future of the RFS Admiral Kuznetsov, the only aircraft carrier in the Russian fleet and the largest surface warship Russia has ever constructed.

The ship left effective service in 2017, has not contributed to the war in Ukraine, and is now an albatross on the Russian defense establishment.

Where does the Admiral Kuznetsov go from here?

Admiral Kuznetsov: The Cursed Aircraft Carrier?

Laid down in 1982 in Mikyolaiv (now part of Ukraine), Kuzentsov was intended (along with her sister) to serve as the core of the Soviet Navy’s fixed-wing aviation force.

This force would compete with (if not match) the US Navy’s large fleet of nuclear aircraft carriers. A thousand feet long and displacing 58000 tons fully loaded, Kuznetsov was designed for 29 knots full speed, although it’s unclear how often she made that speed, if ever.

Kuznetsov was commissioned into Soviet service in January 1991, less than a year before the dissolution of the USSR. She became fully operational in 1995, although a lack of funding prevented her from operating very often.

Sukhoi Su-33 launching from the Admiral Kuznetsov.

Her air group has consisted of various configurations of Su-33 “Flanker” and MIG-29 “Fulcrum” fighters optimized for naval service, along with an array of helicopters. A skijump takeoff eliminated the need to develop complicated catapult mechanisms.

Like many Russian aviation warships, she carried intrinsic anti-surface and anti-submarine missiles to supplement her air group.

Career Mishaps

Admiral Kuzentsov suffered severely from being a one-of-a-kind vessel in a fleet with depleted maintenance funds and human capital deficits, entering service at the very nadir of Russian naval power.

Early deployments often resulted in accidents involving machinery or aircraft, which became especially problematic due to the long distances between her home base in the Arctic and her operational areas in the Mediterranean.

Extended periods at the dock necessitated periods of refit, refurbishment, and crew retraining.

However, by 2006, Kuznetsov was capable of consistent operations and conducted several cruises across the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic. Most notably, Kuzentsov conducted a combat deployment in 2016 in the Eastern Mediterranean as part of the Syrian Civil War, launching over 400 sorties against rebel targets. Two of her twelve fighter-bombers were lost during recovery throughout her deployment, a failure rate which eventually forced the Russian Navy to transfer the aircraft to a land base.

Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Admiral Kuzentsov returned to Severomorsk in February 2017 for what was intended to be a four-year refit and modernization project.

Unfortunately, in October 2018, the ship was present for the sinking of PD-50, Russia’s largest floating dry dock, and was struck by a 70-ton crane during the chaos.

A new dry dock capable of receiving the Kuznetsov was not completed until 2022; in the interim, the ship suffered a major fire that caused significant damage.

Russia-Ukraine War

In large part because of the mishaps that characterized the latter portion of her career, Admiral Kuznetsov did not make it to the Black Sea in time to participate in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

It is unclear whether Turkey would have allowed the transit of the vessel in any case, as the terms of the Montreux Convention leave much at Ankara’s discretion regarding the transit of aircraft carriers. In the event, it was probably fortunate that the carrier was not available, as it is easy to imagine Admiral Kuznetsov suffering the same fate as the cruiser Moskva, sunk by a combination of drones and cruise missiles.

The failure of Russia’s initial invasion and the subsequent need to fully mobilize the Russian economy in service of the war boded ill for Kuznetsov. The surface fleet, incapable of supporting operations in the Black Sea after the war began, was deprioritized. As the largest and most expensive ship in the fleet, this left Kuznetsov’s future in considerable doubt. In any case, the serial delays to the modernization of the carrier and the demands of the front led to the transfer of her crew to combat duties in Ukraine in September 2024.

Scrapping

The final decision to discard Kuznetsov has not yet been made, but the writing appears to be on the wall.

Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

No work is being done on the carrier now, and central Russian defense and military officials have begun to speculate openly about her disposal.

Even if Kuznetsov were returned to service, she would represent a forty-year-old platform with an air group not up to the standards of even the second-tier navies of France, India, and the United Kingdom.

The expense seems hard to justify, especially given the overwhelming financial difficulties facing the Russian Federation.

In truth, it’s irrelevant whether the Russian Navy scraps Kuznetsov or lets her rot alongside a pier. An aircraft carrier that is not regularly training pilots and aircrew is not an aircraft carrier; it is simply a flat-decked warship without very much utility.

At this point, it would take years to reconstitute the expertise and experience needed to conduct even limited flight operations from Kuznetsov. The ship could be reconfigured to support drones, but it is by no means obvious that this would be a cheaper or more effective solution than simply building new ships to serve that role.

RIP, Admiral Kuznetsov? 

The retirement of Kuznetsov heralds a grim future for the Russian Navy. While Russia continues to produce submarines, its surface shipbuilding sector has withered to near non-existence.  Most of the fleet is, like Kuznetsov, decades old and in dire need of refurbishment or replacement. Russian authorities have chosen to pretend that they are decommissioning Kuznetsov because of the impending obsolescence of the aircraft carrier.

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That debate continues apace, but it is clear that the ship is being retired because Russia lacks the resources to repair it and because the war with Ukraine has proved to be a profound financial drain on Russian military assets.

Kuznetsov’s half-sister, the Liaoning, remains in service in the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Given Russia’s dire economic situation and the extreme requirements of maintaining a carrier aviation force, it makes sense for Moscow to abandon its aging carrier and effectively reboot its entire approach to surface naval warfare.

About the Author: Dr. Robert Farley

Dr. Robert Farley has taught security and diplomacy courses at the Patterson School since 2005. He received his BS from the University of Oregon in 1997, and his Ph. D. from the University of Washington in 2004. Dr. Farley is the author of Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force (University Press of Kentucky, 2014), the Battleship Book (Wildside, 2016), Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and the Diffusion of Military Technology (University of Chicago, 2020), and most recently Waging War with Gold: National Security and the Finance Domain Across the Ages (Lynne Rienner, 2023). He has contributed extensively to a number of journals and magazines, including the National Interest, the Diplomat: APAC, World Politics Review, and the American Prospect. Dr. Farley is also a founder and senior editor of Lawyers, Guns and Money.

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