Thread: World Naval Rankings

Originally Posted by nebula82

What about Russia & India?

Nebula82.

Russian Navy

The current Russian navy are the last remnants of the massive Soviet fleet of the 1980's. The Soviet fleet of the 1980's were the product of Admiral Gorshkov's expansion, which itself was the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis. This build up was to put as many hulls in the water in the shortest amount of time, neglecting support ships, dry docks, and every thing necessary to maintain such a fleet for long periods of time. Such thing did not matter though because these ships' life expectancy in combat with the NATO fleet is not expected to be long. They were designed to deliver a massive first strike againsts the NATO fleets and attempt to sail home. This was called the "battle of first salvo" doctrine.

What the Russians are currently doing is to use NATO naval doctrine (power projection) with ships that are designed for sea denial (first salvo doctrine). These ships are badly designed for it. They were never meant to be out at sea for long periods of time and their main weapons systems are one dimensional (designed to take out a carrier). Since the fall of the USSR, the Russian navy commissioned only a frigate and a couple of corvettes. The majority of its fleet are 80's era Soviet warships and they are breaking down faster than they can put them back together.

IMO, the Russian fleet looks formidable but in a war time scenario, they won't last long.

Indian Navy
I would put the Indian navy below that of the PLAN. Yes they do have carrier experience, have exercises with NATO navies, and have a longer blue water naval tradition than the PLAN. Their main weakness is that they have learned from the Russians the Gorshkov method of expanding a navy, put as many hulls at sea and disregard support ships, dry docks, etc.

You can see this in their ship development vs PLAN. In the PLAN, you can see gradual projection of warship evolution, from Luda in the 80's to PHASED ARRAYED 052C of today. The Indian navy also have this evolution but it is of a slower pace and most of their warships (the heavy hitters) are foreign built (UK and Russia).