http://www.russiandefenseblog.org/?p=494

Before upgrading any weapons the cost of the upgrade and its results should be clearly understood, Russian Deputy Defense Minister for armaments Vladimir Popovkin said.

We are going into upgrading as into a dark forest, Popovkin said at hearings organized by the Public Chamber together with the Union of Russian Machine-Building on Friday.

Asked about the prospects of financing the repairs and upgrade of the heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov, Popovkin said that the price of the work exceeds $1 billion.

We will have to provide a billion now and when we start the upgrade we will have to spend one and a half billion more. A new [ship] costs two and a half billion but it will also have double the service life, he added.

Therefore before making such decisions everything must be properly calculated, he said.

Unofficial sources say that the repairs and upgrade of the cruiser were supposed to end at Sevmashpredpriyatiye in 2011 but even now it is clear that the deadline will be shifted.

Source: Interfax-AVN

The contract for Mistral/Rotterdam is valued at 1-1.5 billion for 4 ships, you could pretty much buy 4 LHDs and 4 more Gorshkov frigates for that price.

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Not really surprising I guess. RFS Peter The Great will be the only Kirov left standing it seems(although that has been pretty much been the case since it was commissioned).

If the numbers are accurate, yeah, I gotta agree, money would be much better spent on current naval construction procurement programs...............Back in the 1980's, the Soviets had a very real overhead satellite ELINT tracking capability, a lot of that has been eroded, which means that in the end, 8x 300km ranged Yakhonts on a Gorshkov FFG is just as capable as 20x 550km ranged Shipwrecks on a Kirov.......if the OTH capability isn't their to exploit the system at its fullest, it kinda loses a lot of its shine. Although I do fully support keeping Peter The Great up and running for the longest time possible, and thats seems like a win situation, Russia seems to put at least some fiscal priority into Peter.

Even in the press here people are questioning buying from a foreign source now that Russia's own shipyards have fallen on hard times. Not that I'll be complaining if they put in an order with Damen.

What would be the reason behind the move to buy some foreign equipment? Sure it's more advanced but it is also a lot more expensive and defense purchases are always laced with industrial politics which seems to be left out here.

If I am right USN plans to make a mid life upgreate for the Ticoderogas, and most of them have the same age as Nakhimov or older, so my question is why they want to scrap Nakhimov when at the same time the Russian navy is able to build only corvette sized ships and in very slow rate. The Russian officers look like they believe that earth is flat disk when the hole world knows that earth is global.

The Ticonderogas are more like the Slava. The Kirov's have operating costs of something like 4x a similar sized conventionally powered ship. I dont think a Ticonderoga upgrade costs anything like 2.5 billion a boat, not even close.

They said that 2.5 billion is the cost of a new ship with double life. DDG-1000 has a cost of 3.3 billion, so tell me what project of russian navy for a new surface combat is a destroyer sized with 2.5 billion budget? Now the only projects of russian navy are corvettes and a 4500t frigate, so what will replace Nakhimov? Does RN except Slavas and Kirovs has any equal to 22 Ticoderogas and to 60 Burges?

The upgrade will cost as much as a new boat which is why they are withholding funds. Naval parity with the US is not the goal and Im sure there is something on the drawing board larger than 4500 tons. Im also sure that they are not worried about actual hulls as thats that easy part, but subsystem development.

Let's assume that there are plans for a new destroyer sized ship we talk about paper studies only. The reality is that they can't even complete the second Steregushyy corvete, so a new destroyer will hit the water about 2035. Right now the only comperable ships not only to Burges, but to Korean KDXIII, the French Horizons, the British Darings are -even if you like or not- are the Kirovs and the Slavas. Russia is a great country and it s a shame to operate only with missile boats and corvettes. Thats my point. BTW, France reconsiders the propulsion of the new carrier to nuclear, as well as USN rethinks that the future CGX should turn into nuclear.

I believe that Ad. Visosky has sh1ts in his head. We talk about a ship that was active from 1989 to 1998, about 9 years!!! Is just like if USN put in service a new Nimitz carrier and decomicioning it after 9 years, this has no sence.

"The upgrade will cost as much as a new boat which is why they are withholding funds."

There are no new boats comparable to the Kirov and a new Kirov would cost well over 2.5 billion.

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not according to the MoD.

A new destroyer might cost 2.5b, since the 4500t Gorshkov is already over a billion, but a new cruiser with the size and capability of Kirov will be no less than $4 billion.

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they seem to disagree. Gorshkov is a 700-800 million dollar frigate like the Talwars. In fact it probably will just be a Talwar with a VLS.

For 1-1.1 billion you can order a Burke.

There are 60+ burkes out there and counting. If you build these hulls in single digits then its pointless to compare the cost. Gorshkov has turned into a billion dollar project, only if they manage to build 8 or more will those numbers start going down. The cost advantage of building in Russian shipyards is disappearing, Lada is no longer cheaper than the U214 and the Gorshkov carrier is $3+ billion. If the upgrade costs 2.5b then its a hell of a deal.

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Russia is wasting so much resources on their NAVY when most of these ships will be out of
commision and not replaced in the near future.

Russia needs to invest on their airforce and start mass production of PAK-FA and Su-35.

Retire all those rusting or semi-rusting ships and built nes corvettes and frigates.