Following the sinking of one of the world’s largest dry docks on October 29 in a shipyard in the far northwest part of Russia, officials have finally admitted that they are unable to continue work on Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, for the time being. While Russia’s shipbuilding industry is reportedly looking into alternatives, no timely and viable solution to continue retrofitting work on the Russian Navy’s flagship has emerged to date.
“We have alternatives actually for all the ships except for [the aircraft carrier] Admiral Kuznetsov. Our enterprises are in operation, [including] the Nerpa [Ship Repair Factory],” the head of Russia’s United Ship-Building Corporation (USC), Alexei Rakhmanov, is quoted as saying on November 7 by TASS news agency. “After all, we can perform certain docking works in Severodvinsk, not far from Murmansk. We don’t feel any special problems in this regard.”
However, the Russian shipbuilding industry does not possess a large enough facility to accommodate the carrier and it will take at least six to 12 months to recover the sunken floating dry dock. According to open source information, Russia would require international support for any such complex recovery operation as it does not possess the equipment to lift the massive drydock from the seabed on its own.
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