https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/r...yard-hdpjmxgx6
Russia’s only aircraft carrier could be heading for scrapyard
Russia’s only aircraft carrier could be decommissioned because there is no way to repair it.
The Admiral Kuznetsov was taken out of service temporarily last year and is moored at a shipyard in Murmansk, in the northwest of the country. Work had to be halted in October when the PD-50 floating dock to which the ship was attached flooded and sank after a power cut. A 70-tonne crane on the dock collapsed on the aircraft carrier, gouging a 15ft hole in its deck......
The Izvestiya newspaper reported that the fate of the carrier was in doubt because there was no suitable replacement for the PD-50, one of the biggest floating docks in the world. A similar one, the PD-41, is stationed thousands of miles away in Russia’s Far East, making it an unrealistic alternative. The carrier could potentially go to a commercial dry dock in Belokamenka, near Murmansk, for its multimillion-pound refit, which was scheduled to be completed by 2021. However, it is unclear if the yard there is big enough, or if it can accept a military ship.
There are questions about whether it is worth repairing the ageing carrier, launched in 1985, at all. “Not everyone thinks that continuing the refit is expedient,” a military source told Izvestiya. “There are differing opinions, including those who think that it would be better to use the money to build a pair of frigates and an atomic submarine.”......