Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, remains an unfulfilled promise from the Russian Navy. Supposed to run on that dirty and cheap fuel with characteristic black smoke emissions and high the propulsion system has been the Achilles’ heel of the carrier for years. Even after a costly refit set to replace the main boilers, gas turbines, and other key elements, the carrier now rests in dry dock, with no prospects for its future.
Moreover, by taking into account inefficient fuel and ecological threats, combined with an upgrade that was not complete, it is highly unlikely that this ship will see the waters again, making it questionable for Russia in terms of strategic value. The carrier had been seen at sea for the last time in 2018 being towed by a tugboat, and since then, has only been to the shipyards where it is set to get a refit. Most analysts believe the refit will not be enough to make the carrier of much value.
According to some reports, the propulsion system of the ship is said to be one of the significant changes in the refit. Kuznetsov is made up of gas turbines and not nuclear power.
However, the Russians deliberately made it such that it consumes a dirty and inexpensive fuel source referred to as mazut. Mazut is filled with high sulfur levels and is typically notorious in that it gives off plenty of black smoke emissions. It is one of the dirtiest fuels in the world and seriously injures human beings who breathe it, including the sailors of Admiral Kuznetsov.
The mazut-based gas turbine propulsion system of Admiral Kuznetsov spews forth particulates including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as well as other, lesser-known pollutants. The carrier was infamous for leaving large oil slicks in its wake that would linger and poison the surrounding aquatic environment for months after its transit. The Barents Observer published in 2020 that Admiral Kuznetsov’s “engines were old, and the black smoke was caused by incomplete combustion of mazut and engine lubricant.”
Having a large, billowing, easily identified smoke plume trailing your warship and leaving oil slicks in its wake is probably not the most strategically astute thing to do. As Moscow is now so patently wedded to defending Admiral Kuznetsov against all reason, the Russians know they must somehow deal with this glaring weakness. That’s why, TASS writes, Russia included “replacements of the main boilers, turbo-gear units, gas turbine, diesel generators, and the propeller auxiliary systems.”
Whether these changes will work or not is something that only time will tell. Propulsion system upgrades were going to be done in 2020, and Moscow planned to test the warship by 2022. Well, that did not quite pan out as planned. Admiral Kuznetsov remains locked down in the slip at Naval Yard No. 35 in Murmansk.
One reason the warship spent as long as it did at the dock is that it was an artifact of the late-stage Soviet Union, and the vessel sat unused for many years after the USSR’s collapse. But by the time it was completed, it was all a mishmash of almost-compatible systems. The quality of craftsmanship throughout the phases of development isn’t uniform, either, because some of the ship was built at a point when money and resources were available to the Soviets while other parts of the carrier were finished on a shoestring budget under the auspices of budget-limited post-Soviet Russia.
It’s little wonder, then, that the ship’s engine ran on such a cheap, inefficient, and dirty fuel as mazut. What is more astonishing is that the Russians waited for decades to rectify propulsion system woes. The Russians waited far too long. The integrity of the entire warship had been so badly compromised that it is highly unlikely that she will again hit the high seas.
Work on the refit of Russia’s lone aircraft carrier has been ongoing for years with no end in sight. Virtually wasting away at a succession of different shipyards, Admiral Kuznetsov has spent years in drydock “modernization” efforts. The beleaguered aircraft carrier may never enter service again. Even if the Russian Navy’s flagship sets sail again, its tarnished past, flawed design, and lack of exciting capabilities will sideline the vessel. It will turn out to be a liability rather than a resource.
Admiral Kuznetsov was set to leave the port of Murmansk after spending nearly a decade tied to the dock. According to Russian state-run media last summer, the country’s only aircraft carrier was nearing the end of its refit saga. It didn’t. The Soviet-era flattop remains dry-docked in Murmansk. As TASS said: “According to the adjusted plan, factory sea trials of the aircraft carrier should begin in the spring of 2024. If the tests pass without glitches, then the ship can be handed over to the fleet at the end of 2024. If something goes wrong during the tests, then a shift to 2025 is inevitable.”
Russia’s sole carrier was constructed in the Black Sea Shipyard during the Cold War and was formally launched in the mid-1980s. Designed to be a lead member of a two-ship Kuznetsov class, Kuznetsov remains an only child as the dissolution of the Soviet Union intervened. Laid down originally as “Riga,” then as “Leonid Brezhnev,” the name was finally changed to “Tbilisi” before it became Kuznetsov to memorialize Soviet Admiral Flota Sovetskoho Soyuza Kuznetsov. The Soviets conceived Kuznetsov as a Cold War-era heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser to serve in support of and defense of missile-carrying submarines and other aircraft, yet flaws in design, infrastructure problems, and possibly bad luck may have nipped this in the bud.
Whereas most modern carriers are powered by nuclear energy, the Kuznetsov has to be operated by a gloopy, tar-like substance known as mazut. Mazut was the fuel used during the Cold War era, in which the viscosity of this fuel source was of most popular. Mazut used to be fuel for older generation military and commercial vessels, but the many shortcomings that characterized the substance were what led manufacturers to instead settle for nuclear or gas turbine propulsion systems.
Kuznetsov was just not designed to sustain its expected lifespan. Lousy piping, which was installed in the construction of the carrier, prohibits the boilers from running at full load simultaneously. This feature has only complicated the inefficiencies of mazut, as proper boiler and piping installations are necessary for it to be adequately preheated and pressurized.
As Harrison Kass once noted above: “Mazut would be considered a Bunker B or Bunker C fuel”. They classify bunker fuels, a popular colloquialism for the fuel oil used in marine vessels, A, B, or C; classifications based on their boiling points, carbon-chain lengths, and viscosities. Grade A is the highest, with grade C the lowest, and less quality fuel emissions – like mazut’s do – usually contain large amounts of sulfur, consequently badly affecting both the environment and health.
Besides the mazut problem, other factors are limiting Kuznetsov’s carrier status. Instead of the most modern magnetic-powered catapults or, at least, steam-powered catapults, Russians prefer a simple bow ramp to carry out flight operations. Its foreign near-peers have already switched to these catapults that work much better. Kuznetsov used this system for the first and only time in combat back in 2016-2017 when she deployed to Syria. During this Middle East tour, two airframes were lost when arresting wires proved defective, so proved that the carrier was useless.
Kuznetsov’s Syria deployment is but one chapter in a desultory history. Between 2016 and 2022, the carrier suffered through multiple fires onboard, a falling crane, and even a crime of embezzlement relating to the shipyard at which she once underwent repairs. It now looks as though Kuznetsov will not return to service in the Russian Navy as scheduled for the end of this year. The constant invasion of Ukraine makes it less likely that a carrier is going to get enough in terms of resources, funding, and labor to let her sail the seas anytime soon. Perhaps Kuznetsov should be simply the best plan of action Moscow can make.