French-Russia Mistral deal - russian side?

Sorry, I am not Russian, but in my opinion they were not too badly burned.

Sure, they wanted those vessels and would have them both in service by now, but instead they got complete specs for the Mistral class carriers and they got to build half of them... I rather suspect they likely would have operated them for a few years and then signed a contract to build two more in Russia, but also likely further joint contracts to build vessels could have followed if everything went to plan and their satisfaction.

As it was they will likely never get another major military ship build in France again, which is pretty understandable, but they pretty much got money back, got full intimate details of a working Helicopter carrier and most of the internal components they developed for their ships are likely to be kept on the Egyptian ships, so there is now a foreign market for their naval helos.

I rather suspect they will develop their own helicopter carrier designs, likely with modifications to more suit their needs, including much better armament and facilities to better suit their equipment like ice breaking capability and allowances in size for their taller coaxial design helos.

I think Russia faired very well in that deal. Russian industry built parts of that ship and received a great deal of tech from the French in ship construction. My understanding is the Mistrals were not really the ships the Russians wanted, but in the end the decision was political and for tech transfer. They wanted the Korean design. Now they will build similar ships to the Koreans. They also made out quite well with the refund and sale of KA-52's to the Egyptians. Overall it was a nice win. They were supposed to build the 3rd and 4th ships in Russia, but will build a Russian design now, another win for Russian industry.

Aristide wrote:Thanks for your opinion regarding that.

Its interesting to see the other side. I hope relations between France and Russia get better soon.

I also wonder if the Russians would be able to resist the temptation to add an array of VLS cells to these. They are compact and add a significant dimension of capability to such a platform. With KA-52s they have patrol and tactical strike. With drones and VLS and Kaliber they can strike targets at fearsome ranges. I also wonder if they will add Nuclear power since they are considering it for Lider and using it in ice breakers anyway. Nukes would make a lot of sense for a big gas guzzling ship like this.

Nuke propulsion would improve speed and range and I rather suspect vertical launch systems would be a standard requirement... even the UKSK system would allow rapid attack on any enemy subs detected nearby... they could carry a couple of anti sub helos on board for that purpose.

This would make the ships even more flexible as those tubes can carry anti ship weapons and land attack weapons and anti sub missiles without modification.

This would also make her multipurpose so she could then operate in the black sea if needed... or at least go there to resupply.