Quote:
Originally Posted by Feanor
Lol. It would not take much work to reform the Russian Navy back into operating condition. It would just take serious financing, which the current Russian government has no interest in. putin would rather poket the money then spend it on maintaining our subs (I'm not being literal, more of a general illustratory statement).
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Well, keep in mind there is a very big difference between the state of the Russian shipbuilding industry and the state of its submarine building industry. The submarine industry is operating at a higher tempo (in tons and numbers) of new builds than it was at the end of the cold war, while the shipbuilding industry is putting out less than 50% of the total tonage it was at the end of the cold war.
Remember, Russia still has deliveries to make on current orders before it could even get to Hugo Chavez and his proposed purchase. Why do you think he is being offered 5 older refitted Kilo's instead of 9 new Amurs? Because those Kilo's are built sitting in ready reserve to be suited, and can be churned back into service from a drydock, as opposed to from a factory line where there is no space to build a new submarine in Russia for a few more years.
I think you are a bit uninformed on the state of Russian submarine construction, or perhaps forgot? Russia has built around 20 submarines this decade for various customers (including themselves), and has an additional 10+ in the pipeline. By comparison, the US has built a total of 4 SSNs this decade so far.