Admiral Kuznetsov
definitely
does not escape its cursed ship status.
A fire, admittedly minor and quickly brought under control, broke out on Thursday aboard the only Russian aircraft carrier, announced the Zvezdochka shipyard located in Murmansk in northern Russia.
"
There was a fire on board the
Admiral Kuznetsov
, which is in the dry dock at the Zvezdochka shipyard
," the naval company was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Tass.
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This incident, which caused neither casualties nor damage according to the industrialist, would be anecdotal if it did not represent yet another incident in the life of the flagship of the Russian fleet, admitted to active service in 1991, the year of the fall. of the USSR.
Never rigorously maintained, the "
heavy aircraft carrier cruiser
" has sailed little in thirty years of career and was only deployed in overseas operations in 2016 during the war in Syria.
His mission ended in a fiasco - with the accidental loss of two fighters, a Sukhoi 33 and a MiG-29 - while his passage from the Barents Sea to the Mediterranean aroused much ridicule at the time in because of the trail of black smoke given off by its ancient boilers.
A previous major fire in 2019
In 2018 and despite his already advanced age,
Admiral Kuznetsov
began a long modernization at Zvezdochka, as Moscow had no alternative to consider his retirement from active service.
The 60,000 ton ship is still called upon to serve for a long time as the only Russian aircraft carrier.
But the setbacks did not end after his Syrian deployment.
On October 30, 2018, the pontoon bridge PD-50 in which the 300-meter vessel was in dry dock sank in Kola Bay...
Admiral Kuznetsov
was certainly not dragged by the bottom, but the accident caused heavy damage and caused the death of a member of the crew.
In December 2019, a major fire broke out in the ship, again resulting in significant destruction, as well as the death of two people.
The fire reported this Thursday by Tass will certainly not have the same consequences as the previous one, but testifies to the structural difficulties of Russian shipyards in terms of safety.
On December 17, 2021 in particular, the
Provornyy
corvette under construction at the Severnaya Verf shipyard in Saint Petersburg was ravaged by flames and will be received by the Russian navy with a delay of at least five years.
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The delays for the modernization of
Admiral
Kuznetsov
have also been numerous since 2018, with a return to service which will not take place before 2024. Especially since the loss of the PD-50 pontoon bridge has shifted the schedule to the right.
As Russia no longer has an available dry dock in this region large enough to accommodate its flagship, it had to urgently build one in the port city of Murmansk.
It was announced on Wednesday that the aircraft carrier, after a few months in the open air, was ready to be relaunched by the end of 2022. Rare good news... which is eclipsed by this new fire.
Admiral Kuznetsov
's curse
continues.
But Moscow is keen to maintain its status as a naval air power held by a handful of countries in the world and to maintain its very meager skills in this area.
The technologies deployed on the red star-stricken ship - oil-fired boilers, lack of a catapult system for aircraft - are long outdated.
They will always be at the end of its modernization, which does not promise to be revolutionary and which will above all have to allow the ship to be operational, which has never really been the case so far.
But this rejuvenation can only work if the black series of claims does not continue... which does not seem to be won.
