December 7, 2024: Despite the sanctions and need to spend heavily on Ukraine operations, the Russian navy has been able to keep work going on the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov since 2023. This vessel is the pride of the fleet but was cursed with accidents and other delays during an earlier upgrade of the carrier so it could remain in service. Originally the plan was to have the carrier undergo a two year period of repairs, upgrades and modernization in a drydock belonging to the Russian navy. This was to begin in 2018 and shortly after that process began, the largest floating dry dock in Russia, PD-50, had an accident and sank. The Kuznetsov was afloat in the PD-50 at the time and survived with some damage from a collapsing crane. The PD-50 sank in deep water and most salvage experts agreed that it would be too expensive to raise the dry dock and repair it.

The navy could not afford to buy a new dry dock and admitted that this might be the end of the line for the Kuznetsov, which is overdue for some major maintenance and refurbishment. PD-50 was the only Russian dry dock that could hold the Kuznetsov. Many Russians saw this as just another example of the sloppiness and poor management that have crippled the military industries and the space program. An affordable solution was found for the Kuznetsov when two separate drydocks built parallel to each other could, if combined into one drydock, accommodate the Kuznetsov. In 2019 work began on the new drydock but getting the carrier back to the fleet was delayed until 2022. That was optimistic because an expensive engine room fire did so much damage that it delayed the completion of work on the carrier until 2024. Recently Kuznetsov left the drydock and must now spend a year having new equipment, including a lot of new electronics, installed. Then will come sea-trials. Problems will be found and repaired until there are none and the carrier can be turned over to the fleet. That might not be until 2026, because that’s been the pattern for the last few large ships Russia has overhauled and modernized.