Table of Contents

develop new, more modern and capable
designs and systems.
Russian Navy Honor Guard in Norfolk, VA
but one unfamiliar with this class of ship and
lacking accurate charts. Its crew was new, their
uniforms were tattered, and its threadbare
pockets were almost empty. Everybody was
thrown into a crash course of survival and onthe-job-training
as Russia turned yet another
momentous page of its history.
Sailing into uncharted waters, the Navy could
not avoid the shoals and shallows. With the
now-acceptable ability to see and speak the
truth, it was obvious that much of Admiral
Gorshkov’s once-impressive Navy was
inoperative, obsolete, or in need of more
attention than the results would merit. In the
course of some 10 years, from 1995–2005,
naval leadership made painful triage decisions.
The choices were stark: try to save most and
lose all, or try to maintain the most capable
and invest in the future. The latter was the
wise choice. As a result, the Russian Navy
today is about one-sixth to one-quarter the
size of the Soviet Navy in its heyday. The
fallow years of the 1990s were used to
The organization and fiscal stability achieved
since 2005 has permitted budgeting for
and financing of critically needed new
construction. The Russian Navy still retains
the essential missions of its Soviet predecessor,
all geared toward the defense of the territorial
integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state
and the protection and promotion of its
interests. Today’s global realities may allow
it to accomplish these missions with fewer
means and lesser cost, which would be
advantageous, because navies are expensive
and each generation of armaments takes more
than a decade to develop, design, and build.
Today, the Russian Navy once again stands
at a point of transition and renewal, as it has
at various times in the preceding centuries of
its history. The 21st century is beginning with
different challenges and opportunities, and
Russia envisions its new 21st-century Navy
to be built and manned to effectively face
those challenges and fulfill its missions while
carrying on the best traditions of its illustrious
but often rocky and painful past.
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