Originally Posted by EagleStrike

Yeah i think i agree with russian subs being better but look what happened to that sub the Kursk

Yeah, but that was only due to lack of maintenance/funding. That's why Russia needs money from the rest of the world to make sure nothing like that happens again.

heres another important question, at this time do the Russians have an oprational aircraft carrier.

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/kuznetsov/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_...rier_Kuznetsov

Link to some info on the Kusnetsov. It is Russia's premier aircraft carrier.
The 2nd bit, the Wikipedia site is pretty good.

That ski jump is the main problem. It drastically reduces the payload of the aircraft that takes off with it. On top of that, Russian fighter/strike class aircraft in general have always had problems with hauling ordinance in good quantity.

"The ship has the capacity to support 16 Yakovlev Yak-41M (NATO code name Freestyle), twelve Sukhoi Su-27K (NATO codename Flanker) fixed-wing aircraft and a range of helicopters including four Kamov Ka-27-LD (NATO codename Helix), 18 Kamov Ka-27 PLO, and two Ka-27-S."
As you can see the aircraft carrying capacity of this carrier is puny compared to the American counterpart. According to this, it will be carrying about ... lets say 30 combat aircraft at most. The American one can carry more than 3 times that amount.

Kusnetsov can go 29 knots. Nimitz class can surpass 30 knots. Close, but it shows you that the Kusnetsov doesn't even have a speed advantage over the US carriers and in fact, is marginally slower.

By the way, the YAK-41 was abandoned and isn't going to be in production.

As with almost everything Russian nowadays concerning the military, it looks far better on paper where you don't see the rust and the broken parts that need to be replaced... that haven't been done so in 2 years.

so they basically don't have an aircraft carrier in operation

there is one operational carrier in the russian navy at the moment.

Yup the Kusnetsov.
But back on topic, no it's not even close to being on par with a US Nimitz class carrier.

the link said that carrier was sold to India

it said there was an unsuccessful attempt to sell it to india.

The government of Ukraine decided in June 1994 to scrap the vessel, after unsuccessful attempts to sell it of Russia, China or India.

Sad ain't it?

well i have a feeling it might have more to do with the funding needed to keep the carrier afloat then it being a poorly designed ship. i'm not completely familiar with the Royal Navy, but wouldn't it compare somewhat to the Invincible Class carriers?

look! One more person has voted for the Kusnetsov.
After everything I posted, I think it's fair to say it's ridiculous.
Stone vs Bow and Arrow... so if it's a Russian stone it'll beat the American bow and arrow right?