Russian aircraft carrier's crew repurposed for Ukraine offensive

While the only Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Flota Sovietskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, rusts and burns during repairs, its crew has been turned into a mechanized battalion and sent to Ukraine. We present the behind-the-scenes events and the performance of this vessel.

According to the UK Defence Journal, the crew of the Russian aircraft carrier Kuznetsov was reorganized into a mechanized battalion. According to the Ukrainians, this battalion first fought in the region north of Kharkiv and is now supposed to move to the Pokrovsk region.

Information about the formation of the infantry battalion from Kuznetsov's sailors surfaced as families started sharing information on Vkontakte while searching for soldiers from unit 78987.

This issue gained more publicity after Oleg Sosedov, a sailor from Kuznetsov, went missing during the Russian operation in the Kharkiv region in July. Sosedov, also associated with the battalion, was last seen during the assault on the border village of Sotnytskii Kozachok.

Forming infantry battalions from the intellectual elite of the armed forces, including the navy and air force, is a sign of Russian desperation, reminiscent of the actions of the Third Reich at the end of World War II.

The education and training of warship crews take years and require enormous costs. Wasting such people in frontal charges, often referred to as "meat assaults," is a sign of desperation.

This indicates a lack of personnel reserves, with losses being covered by almost anyone, reminiscent of the last months of the Third Reich when Kriegsmarine sailors were formed into infantry units.

The aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, built in Ukraine during the Soviet Union era, is the only aircraft carrier in the Russian fleet. Its length is about 1,000 feet, the width is 230 feet, and the draft reaches 33 feet.

Kuznetsov is equipped with a ski-jump-type launch ramp. This feature significantly simplified the construction of the vessel but at the cost of limiting the capabilities of the onboard aircraft, which must take off either under-armed or with limited fuel reserves.

This problem does not occur with aircraft carriers equipped with catapults, which until recently required a steam source or power for newer electromagnetic catapults.

In theory, Kuznetsov's air group can include nearly 60 Su-33 or MiG-29K aircraft, but in practice, due to costs, the Russians maintained at most a dozen or so aircraft. Furthermore, the Russians cannot conduct pilot training for aircraft carrier landings because the only range with a moving runway simulating an aircraft carrier deck is located in the Saki base in Crimea, which is regularly shelled by Ukrainians.

Additionally, in typical fashion, the Russians equipped Kuznetsov with twelve P-700 Granit anti-ship missile launchers, with a range of 390 miles moving at a supersonic speed of over Mach 2.5 (1,900 mph). Each missile contains a warhead of 1,650 lbs with a conventional or thermonuclear charge of 500 kT.

The last-resort defense consists of 3M87 Kashtan artillery-missile systems and six-barrel automatic AK-630 guns, which, however, did not save 'Moscow' from sinking.

After being commissioned, the vessel was plagued by a series of failures before being sent for repairs in 2017. It is worth noting that in recent years, Kuznetsov was always escorted by a tug ready to intervene in case of problems.

The problems, however, did not end. In 2018, a crane fell on the ship during repairs, damaging the only dry dock capable of fitting Kuznetsov. A year later, a fire broke out on the ship. This scenario repeated in 2022, with repairs theoretically supposed to be completed by 2024.

However, considering the reformation of its crew into an infantry battalion participating in "meat assaults," a return to service for this ship in this decade is rather unlikely.