{"id":1618518,"date":"2022-08-22T07:46:32","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T11:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1618518"},"modified":"2022-08-22T07:48:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T11:48:11","slug":"does-russia-have-the-shipyards-necessary-for-its-new-naval-doctrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/does-russia-have-the-shipyards-necessary-for-its-new-naval-doctrine\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Russia Have the Shipyards Necessary for Its New Naval Doctrine?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdoes-russia-have-the-shipyards-necessary-for-its-new-naval-doctrine%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1618518&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_217242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-217242\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-Russian supporters wave flags as they welcome missile cruiser Moskva, a flagship of Russian Black Sea Fleet, entering Sevastopol bay on September 10, 2008. Ukraine shocked military observers in April when it managed to sink the warship. (Photo by VASILY BATANOV\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Russia\u2019s new maritime doctrine signals its intent to challenge the United States and allies on the seas, but there is skepticism about the country\u2019s ability to build a fleet capable of doing that given its limited options for shipyards and weakened supply chains, according to analysts.<\/p>\n<p>Front and center of the new document, published July 31, is the Kremlin\u2019s declaration that the US and NATO are among the \u201cmain challenges and threats to national security and sustainable development of the Russian Federation\u201d with respect to the seas. It also indicates Russia will refocus its priorities from the Northern Fleet and North Atlantic to its Pacific Fleet, said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uaf.edu\/casr\/about\/bio-page\/troy-bouffard\/\">Troy Bouffard<\/a>, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, out of the four [fleets], the Pacific Fleet is destined to become the lead naval force for Russia,\u201d he said. \u201cWith this proposed Pacific pivot, Russia is strategically communicating its intent to challenge and compete with Western, as well as Asian, naval forces \u2014 including China.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, the doctrine deems the country\u2019s shipbuilding capabilities a top priority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAvailability of a modern and independent from external\u00a0conjecture shipbuilding complex is one of the most important conditions for ensuring national security of the Russian Federation and its sustainable socio-economic development,\u201d the document says, according to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uaf.edu\/casr\/publications\/other\/\">English translation<\/a> published online by Bouffard.<\/p>\n<p>But Bouffard and two analysts from the Center for Naval Analyses told Breaking Defense that Russia\u2019s shipbuilding ambitions, particularly the language concerning the country\u2019s plans to build aircraft carriers, immediately raised eyebrows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe largest shipyards, the ones that were able to build those kinds of ships, were located in Ukraine in the Soviet days,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cna.org\/experts\/gorenburg_d\">Dmitry Gorenburg<\/a>, a senior researcher from CNA, a US-based federally funded research and development center. \u201cDepending on how the war goes, assuming they don\u2019t actually take over Nikolaev, which seems unlikely at this point, they would have to build a new shipyard somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nikolaev port, located northeast of Odesa, is where the <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/04\/what-should-the-us-navy-learn-from-moskvas-demise\/\">Moskva<\/a>, a premiere Russian warship named for the country\u2019s capital city and sunk by Ukraine\u2019s military in April, was built. The port city is also where Ukraine\u2019s own flag ship, the frigate Hetman Sahaidachny, was scuttled to keep the Russians from seizing it.<\/p>\n<p>Gorenburg speculated that Russia\u2019s far east may be an area of interest for a new shipyard given the vast amount of space as well as potential for \u201csynergies with China,\u201d but he added that it was not clear based on the new doctrine what the Kremlin\u2019s intentions may be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut again, before you can build a ship you need to build a larger dry dock. That is going to take a lot of time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Gorenburg also said that even before Western countries began levying heavy sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Russia had struggled with building surface ships. He cited production delays in the Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates as one example.<\/p>\n<p>The sanctions, which limit many of the advanced components necessary to build warships, \u201cis only going to make it worse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bouffard, the analyst from the University of Alaska, echoed Gorenburg\u2019s sentiment, adding that Moscow\u2019s new doctrine is \u201coverly ambitious\u201d and that Russia\u2019s maritime investments for more than a decade have been concentrated on its submarines \u2014 potentially at the expense of its surface fleet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith sanctions, it\u2019s very difficult to imagine how Russia can achieve the new goals, especially with regard to aircraft carriers and unmanned vessels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Russia\u2019s Interest In Unmanned Naval Tech<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Much like the United States, China and other countries though, traditional warships are only one part to the future fleet Russia wants to build. Another <del> <\/del>element that the country sees as critical are unmanned undersea and surface vehicles to improve its \u201csituational awareness,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cna.org\/experts\/bendett_s\">Samuel Bendett<\/a>, also a researcher at CNA who focuses on Russia and its military technologies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRussians see the development of unmanned systems as key to increasing their situational [and] informational awareness in the larger world ocean at a time when a confrontation may be a possibility with the United States and NATO,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s new doctrine cites unmanned and robotic technologies as important both for its navy as well as conducting marine research and safeguarding its maritime facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike aircraft carriers, unmanned vessels do not require large infrastructure to construct, and that means the Russians might have an easier time building them. Before the war in Ukraine, the Russian military claimed to have at least 17 unmanned maritime projects underway, which suggests Russian companies are also focused on the technology.<\/p>\n<div class=\"iframe-container\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">3\/ A key priority is the development of marine robotic complexes and systems. Prior to the war in Ukraine, Russia had at least 17 different USV\/UUV projects aimed at maritime exploration and ISR at different depths, some with military applications. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/a3xuHWM7Uv\">pic.twitter.com\/a3xuHWM7Uv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Samuel Bendett (@SamBendett) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SamBendett\/status\/1554131044068114433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 1, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>The country\u2019s historical strength building submarines has led it to be more successful developing unmanned undersea vehicles rather than surface vessels, but it has not been able to implement them on a \u201cmassive scale,\u201d as Bendett said Moscow previously hoped. Bendett characterized Russian efforts producing USVs as still \u201cflailing around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Russian navy previously imported a French USV but ultimately abandoned the technology due to complaints from sailors, Bendett said.<\/p>\n<p>Given the state of international sanctions, if the country\u2019s domestic sourcing for unmanned vehicles comes up as inadequate, importing technologies from France or other European nations right now is likely not an option for Russia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cContemporary naval capabilities heavily rely upon sophisticated technology \u2014 the kind of specialized tech that Russia lacks and cannot access due to targeted sanctions,\u201d said Bouffard. \u201cAt the very least, progress will be significantly delayed since Russia will not likely accept anything but legitimately advanced developments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bendett also said it is not clear how many of those 17 projects are advancing successfully or have simply floundered, but what is clear is that Russia sees the technology as necessary to advance its position as a global maritime player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, there are actually statements about [unmanned technology] in the maritime doctrine. So for the enterprises working on\u201d unmanned vehicles, he said, \u201cthat\u2019s the signal that they should be either paying attention to what the government is saying, or they should be investing more, or they should finally be producing results.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"recommended-mobile mobile-only\">\n<h3 class=\"recommended-mobile__heading\">\nRecommended\t<\/h3>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pro-Russian supporters wave flags as they welcome missile cruiser Moskva, a flagship of Russian Black Sea Fleet, entering Sevastopol bay on September 10, 2008. Ukraine shocked military observers in April<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1618520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1618518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1618518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1618520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1618518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1618518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1618518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}