Feb-Mar-Apr, May-June-July 1972 - Navy League of Australia

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U.S. military analysts believe the Soviet Union may be
A very large vessel was under construction
at a shipyard at Nikolayev,
on tha Black Saa. H had what
appeared to be aircraft elevator wells
and large tanks for aviation fuel.
They estimated that the ship, when
completed in about two years, would
be m the 20.000-ton to 30.000-ton
class.
That would approach the size of
the U.S. Essex class aircraft carrier
and would be the largest warship in
the Soviet fleet.
Since construction was still in a
relatively early stage, the analysts
said they could not be sure what kind
of ship it would be.
Some said the only other kind of
ship it might be was a petroleum
supertanker.
But several factors lead most
analysts towards the view it will be
an aircraft carrier.
These include:
The ship is not being built at one of
the commercial yards, but at
Nikolayev. where the helicopter
carriers Moskva and Leningrad were
built.
Large elevator wells would not
seem appropriate for a supertanker.
They are wider than those on
the Moskva and Leningrad, suggesting
they are designed for
lowering planes rather than helicopters.
Early construction appears to be
that of a warship with several decks,
rather than a tanker, which would
have very deep storage areas and
only a top deck.
building its first aircraft-carrier.
Finally, the analysts believe that, if
the Russians are determined to
operate fleets of warships in places
such as the Pacific and Indian
Oceans, the Mediterranean and the
Caribbean, they would need aircraft
carriers to help protect the surface
ships from air attack and to project
tactical air power ashore.
The vulnerability of U.S. carriers to
attack has long been asserted in
Soviet military literature.
Indeed, the Russians have
developed a variety of relatively longrange
missiles that can be fired
against carriers from bombers,
surface ships and submarines.
What is not well known, though, is
that in the late 1930s — as part of an
effort to design and build a large
ocean-going navy as opposed to one
for territorial defence — Stalin
unsuccessfully attempted to get
U.S. help, in the form of blueprints
and some components, to build
carriers.
Four carriers were said to have
been planned for completion by
1948
Robert Herrick said in his book
"Soviet Naval Strategy". published
by the U.S. Naval Institute in 1968.
that World War II caused the money
destined for carriers to be diverted to
other military programmes
American analysts said they had
seen no evidence the Russians were
developing and testing jets with
folding wings to allow them to fit in
the ship's elevators or with low-stall
speeds to enable them to slow
sufficiently to land on a carrier's
short flight deck.
• But this did not mean such
development efforts were not under
way: they said.
Many of them felt that, if the
Russians did intend to add one or
more carriers to their Navy, they
probably would employ — initially,
at least — so-called vertical and
short take-off and landing aircraft.
Sincc 1967 the Russians have been
known to be experimenting with
such jets.
A Yakovlev jet. code-named
Freehand by Western analysts, was
flown at an air show at Domodedovo
in July. 1967
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Paft Thirty-Four
THE NAVY
February/MarctVAprll, 1972
Fabruary/March/Aprll, 1972 THE NAVY P«C« Thirty-five