REPERCUSSIONS: A Huge Floating Drydock Sank and Nearly took Russia’s Only Aircraft Carrier with It.
Last week I posted a short item about the damage suffered by Russia’s only aircraft carrier when a crane collapsed on its floating drydock. But apparently the drydock has sunk in 160 feet of icy water, and its loss will create ripple effects:
PD-50 was nonetheless the largest floating drydock in Russia, and the only extra large one serving Russia’s Northern Fleet—home to the better part of Moscow’s critical ballistic missile submarine force. In fact, those huge nuclear-powered subs made very heavy use of PD-50. While some shore-based drydocks are available, of course, transferring ships into them takes a lot longer, and vessels currently being worked on can’t be quickly swapped out.
PD-50 was also uniquely of an appropriate size to help refurbish the Russian Navy’s huge nuclear powered battlecruisers—particularly the Pyotr Veliki , which was scheduled to undergo renovation soon.
The report also notes that, “the drydock sinking may significantly impair the Russian Navy’s submarine, cruiser and carrier operations, and particularly its efforts to modernize its larger, older platforms.”
And replacing PD-50 won’t be easy or cheap:
Russia does maintain a few other large floating drydocks that can accommodate its ballistic-missile subs—though probably not the larger Admiral Kuznetsov. Two other drydocks in the Black Sea measures roughly 300 and 250 meters long, but are considerably narrower. The Japanese-built PD-41, which services the Pacific Fleet in the Russian Far East, may be large enough but is quite distant.
These drydocks could only be towed across to the Northern Fleet slowly, at great expense and at some risk of mishap during transit through icy waters ad narrow straits. Of course, moving them would deny those other bases their vital services.
Nor can PD-50 be easily replaced, as it was purchased from Sweden. Given current tensions and sanctions imposed on Moscow, a new purchase from any European source is currently unlikely. The Soviet Union formerly relied heavily on the Ukrainian Mykolaiv shipyards for carrier construction — in fact, China’s first aircraft carrier is a Kuznetsov sister ship purchased from Ukraine — but Kiev is unlikely to assist Moscow given Russia’s invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. East Asian shipyards would have few qualms, but a replacement would still take years to produce and would still need to be transited over a long distance to Severomorsk.
Moscow’s naval rebuilding program just hit a huge speedbump.