Russia looks to France for its gator needs
August 27th, 2009 | Blogs Foreign navies Science and technology Ships The greenside | Posted by Phil Ewing
Russia plans to buy several French Mistral-class amphibious helicopter carriers, like the Tonnerre, seen here // Marine Nationale
The ship-o-sphere is spinning after Wednesday‘s announcement that Russia will buy several Mistral-class amphibious ships from France, in one of the biggest foreign defense acquisitions modern Russia has ever made. Russia, and the Soviet Union before it, had a centuries-old shipbuilding tradition, but Moscow’s military leaders are apparently uncertain enough about their own yards that they’ve turned to the French for help.
You almost can’t blame them: Since the end of the Cold War, Russian shipyards have struggled to produce just a handful of surface ships or submarines, and even retrofitting an existing carrier for sale to India has become a study in frustration. When you consider that even the comparatively robust U.S. is building ships as much to keep alive its shipyards as meet its military needs, the picture of Russia’s shipbuilding industry looks even worse.
“From an industry perspective, a Mistral class built in Russia would immediately become the largest warship built from scratch outside the US or Europe in decades. I think that is pretty significant, in particular it suggests the Russian military has lost all confidence in its own shipbuilding industry,” wrote Galrahn.
Springbored has a different take: The sale of the French Mistrals is a sale U.S. shipbuilders missed out on, by producing potential competitors such as the San Antonio-class that foreign navies can’t afford.
“We should have been making and selling these things like hotcakes. But nooo…we had to go build a bunch of boutique, unsellable (and, in some cases largely inoperable) LPD-17s… Sigh.”
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Ладушки.Net » Blog Archive » Posts about Russia as of 27/08/2009 Says:
August 27th, 2009 at 1:17 pm[...] which had until then been the Soviet anthem with a new anthem a competition was announced. Russia looks to France for its gator needs – militarytimes.com 08/27/2009 Russia plans to buy several French Mistral-class amphibious [...]
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Sea Links « New Wars Says:
August 28th, 2009 at 5:04 am[...] Marines Seek French Carrier Design. More. More. More here. Even [...]
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The Scoop Deck – Pearl Harbor links Says:
February 10th, 2010 at 10:10 am[...] that deal in which France would agree to build at least one Mistral-class amphibious ship for the Russian navy, with the potential to license more copies to be built in Russia? Well, [...]
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The Scoop Deck – NATO chief says cool out about Russian gator sale Says:
March 4th, 2010 at 12:08 pm[...] Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has given his blessing, more or less, to the planned sale of French Mistral-class big-deck amphibious ships to Russia, according to this report, and has told [...]
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Russia Is On A Buying Spree For High Tech Weapons From The West « Read NEWS Says:
June 11th, 2010 at 3:37 pm[...] Russia Is On A Buying Spree For High Tech Weapons From The West Russia plans to buy several French Mistral-class amphibious helicopter carriers, like the Tonnerre, seen here // Marine Nationale [...]