Heavy nuclear missile cruiser "Admiral Lazarev" sent for scrapping
It was the available Orlan in the worst condition... no great surprise they decided it was not worth keeping.
Nakhimov is almost finished and they decided this now which could mean they are not happy with the upgrade.
Or they realised with just one CV they don't actually need three Orlan class cruisers right now and instead of wasting money upgrading everything that getting two Orlans upgraded and maybe a few Slavas will be plenty for the time being and their focus should be on producing Corvettes and Frigates and getting a Destroy design laid down and progress made in getting those ready for production.
Time and cost probably close to building a new cruiser.
Unlikely, and largely irrelevant as no new cruisers are likely to be laid down in the next 5 years anyway, so the choice is not upgrade or new... it is upgrade or not.
PtG could end up being scraped too and a new class could arrive sooner than expected.
I don't think so... scrapping is not exactly cheap or quick either... I rather suspect the viable ships that can be useful will get minor upgrades and will be used until there are replacements for them.
I hope they don't waste time trying to turn them into super ships with arsenal ship levels of missile tubes and crap on them.... this is an opportunity to test new large radar and sonar arrays that should be in development for destroyer and cruiser projects in the near future.
They don't need 500 plus missile tubes... they are not intended to win WWIII single handedly... that is just stupid and a waste of money.
These are big vessels which should have good endurance and global operational capability which the frigates and corvettes of the Russian Navy currently lack.
They are building new helicopter carriers and have a CV, their use as escorts for these ships is pretty obvious.
They need new support ships and more corvettes and frigates to defend local waters and to allow older ships to retire in dignity.
I read that PTG will not get the upgrade that Nakhimov got. So looks like its a one off.
Not sure how that decision could have been made yet considering the lack of experience using the Nakhimov... I mean the real testing doesn't start till it is actually in the water.
The upgrades are expensive because the equipment going in to these ships is all brand new, but by the time they are making there new Destroyers and Cruisers this equipment will be standard and will be getting fitted to all ships across the board as upgrades for the older models.
Is Russia better off building 3 10K ton ships vs one 30K ton mega cruiser or even 4 x7K ton Gorshkov + large destroyers?
The reality is that they need both destroyers and cruisers if they want decent escorts for helicopter carriers and the Kuznetsov... the improvement in electronics from the cold war period to now is amazing but it does not make a Corvette into a destroyer nor a Frigate into a Cruiser... they wont be building ships bigger than the Kirovs, but they will likely be close to 20K ton to fit the air defence systems needed to defend a group of ships... which is what a cruiser is for.
I think we are seeing the answer.
The Nakhimov is not even back at sea, they need to test it and get some experience with it before making any serious decisions regarding the Russian Navys future.
It makes sense to have ships with different level upgrades so you can determine which is better... they might find both are good enough for the roles they have planned for these ships for all we know.
the deck is hardly pitching its very very minor movements, floating segments would be wildly moving around much worse
Why do you think floating segments could not be rigidly linked together so they didn't move independently of each other?
It is indeed a pity to scrap the Lazarev, but on the positive side, the less Orlans they have, the more Liders they need...
It is a handsome ship, but they probably don't need three of them plus potentially three Slavas... right now.
PtG will be done on half the time Nakhimov took
Even if it takes the same amount of time... it is still ten years faster than a brand spanking new cruiser designed from scratch would take.
I agree it will be faster and I hope they take the opportunity to upgrade the radar and sonar equipment so that next generation large sized sets can be tested on a real ship so they will be able to test new systems before they go on Destroyers and Cruisers they will be planning to build next.
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LMFS
Put down the crack pipe.