The growing military activity of the United States, NATO countries and their allies along the Russian borders indicates that they are preparing for a war with Russia.
This opinion was expressed in an article for the “Military-Industrial Courier” by the Deputy President of the Russian Academy of Sciences for Information Policy, Doctor of Military Sciences Konstantin Sivkov.
According to him, NATO countries and their allies are superior to Russia in forces and means. Therefore, in the event of a conflict, the Russian armed forces, including the Navy, will have to solve defensive tasks. Now, according to the expert, the most important for the fleet is a set of tasks aimed at protecting the water area of the oceans and seas adjacent to the coast. Sivkov noted that it is necessary to look for new ways of strategic use of the naval forces. He recalled cases when a weak fleet faced an enemy whose forces were superior to it.
“After all, this is the situation today for our Navy, since the American fleet has significant superiority. And if the existing tendencies in the rate of building up the ship staff, equipping with weapons and military equipment continue, in the near future, the Chinese fleet will gain significant superiority over us,” the expert warned.
He noted the relevance of the experience of building the strategic defense of the Russian fleet in the Baltic during the First World War and the experience of the Turkish fleet in the same period. As the expert pointed out, the success of the weakest fleet is possible if it relies on a powerful system of defensive positions in the island zones and narrows. Now, according to him, the situation at sea approached in its features the one that developed during the First World War.
Google News!Sivkov recalled that coastal missile systems have now appeared, for example, “Caliber” and “Onyx”, the firing range of which is comparable to the range of combat use of carrier-based aircraft and is about 300 kilometers. Sivkov also recalled the Zircon hypersound, the firing range of which is up to a thousand kilometers.
The expert noted that the carrier-based aircraft of American aircraft carriers can strike with large groups of aircraft at a distance of no more than 700 kilometers, therefore, in order to strike at important targets in the depths of Russia, it must approach the Russian coast at a distance of 450-500 kilometers. Thus, the aircraft carrier will be within the reach of long-range coastal missile systems.
“An alternative could be the use of coastal jump airfields for its aviation. This, on the one hand, will significantly reduce its operational capabilities, and on the other, it will eliminate the main advantage of carrier-based aircraft – independence from coastal airfields that can be destroyed,” he writes.
In addition, the expert recalled the broadband mines: they can be installed in deep-water areas. If these weapons are used at depths of up to five thousand meters, this will make it possible to create a “mine threat” in those places where foreign aircraft carriers can operate.
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