https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/r...shap-t8vp37bcr
Russia faces loss of its only aircraft carrier after crane mishap
Russia could be without an aircraft carrier for the first time in more than four decades after an accident during repairs in the Arctic left a hole in its flight deck.
Admiral Kuznetsov was damaged after the floating dock where it was being worked on sank last week, causing a 70-tonne crane to crash on to the vessel, killing one person and critically injured two others. Russian officials have downplayed the damage to the ship, but admit that the crane tore a 5m (16ft) hole in its deck. A week after the accident near Murmansk, pictures that emerged yesterday showed the crane still lying on the flight deck.
The carrier’s woes have sparked predictions that it could be scrapped. It has been transferred to another shipyard, where an unnamed engineer told the local website b-port.com that it was unclear how long repairs would take. “It’s not realistic right now to assess the damage caused,” the engineer said.
The vessel, commissioned by the Soviet navy in 1985, has a long history of technical problems and was undergoing a multimillion-pound upgrade. It is due to go back in service in 2021. The carrier was deployed to the Mediterranean in 2016 to support Russian airstrikes against Syrian rebels, and was dubbed the “ship of shame” by Michael Fallon, defence secretary, when it returned through the English Channel.
Repairs to
Admiral Kuznetsov will be hugely complicated by the sinking of the dry dock, which was built for the Soviet Union by Sweden in the 1980s. One of the largest such facilities in the world at 330m long, it is reported to be the only dry dock in Russia big enough to accommodate the carrier.
“The
Admiral Kuznetsov, it appears, has come to the end of its life,” wrote Sergei Kravchuk, a columnist with the opposition-friendly Snob website.
Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s oldest independent newspaper, claimed that Moscow had intended to send
Admiral Kuznetsov into the waters off the western Norway during Nato military exercises, the biggest since the Cold War, which are due to end tomorrow. “But now it stands, lame and lop-sided, with a hole 4x5 metres, and the accident is an example of Russia’s monstrous technical degradation,” wrote Yulia Latynina, a columnist for the newspaper.
The Soviet Union’s first aircraft carrier,
Kiev, entered service in 1975, before being sold to China in 1996, where it was converted into a luxury hotel.