Big_Gazza wrote:AlfaT8 wrote:
Overall, looking at the situation, Corvettes have been going well, Frigates are being resolved, destroyers are in planning and so are Carriers.
As for Cruisers, i don't think so, the Lider and SG would probably be more than enough.
Personally, I think the traditional Western classification of Corvette/Frigate/Destroyer/Cruiser is so archaic as to be useless. Lider @ 17,500T (?) is being touted as a "Destroyer", yet the old Kara Class "Cruisers" were only 9,700 full load. I much prefer the old Soviet style of functional designations like Small/Large Anti-Submarine Ship, Rocket Cruisers, Heavy Nuclear-Powered Guided Missile Cruiser, or Heavy Aviation Cruiser.
While on this subject, do the Russians still use officially use such a designation system, or have they "conformed" to the banal western practice?
Yes they mostly still use the Soviet designation system. There have been some changes
Buyan is a MAK (small artillery ship)
Buyan-M is a MRK (small missile ship)
Stereguschyj is a Malyj SKR (small patrol vessel)
Lider is an Eskadrennyj minonosets (destroyer; or literally 'squadron torpedo-layer' which is the historical Russian name and use for these ships dating back to the turn of the 20th century.. still used, and during the Soviet period too).
On the other hand Gorshkov and Grigorovich class vessels are of type fregat (frigate). In Soviet times you didn't have this term and they would have been given a more functional designation such as small anti-submarine ship or patrol vessel. However times and technologies have changed and this new definition has been introduced; and it makes more sense because ships of this size or larger (and some smaller ones) are these days fully multirole and can be used for air-defence coverage, for anti-sub duties, for missile strikes against both land and sea targets, for anti-piracy patrols, etc...