If, as we have already discussed here, Russian naval planning is, today, somewhat unpredictable, planning concerning large offshore units, called “Blue Water Navy”, is, for its part, totally chaotic. Between industrial problems, the lack of reliability of the units produced, the difficulties in replacing Ukrainian turbines, and volatile financing, recent years have been very complicated for the Russian Navy's high seas fleet.
However, today, the horizon seems to be clearing up, thanks to more solid financing linked to the 2019-2028 GPV, an oil and gas price that has become profitable again, and shipyards and design offices which have modernized. . In fact, the replacement of high seas naval units from the Soviet era seems to be taking shape, and a coherent plan is beginning to take shape.
If the two large cruisers of the Kirov class will probably not have a replacement, the Slava cruisers, and the heavy destroyers of the Udaloy class will be replaced by the Lider class, a heavy destroyer of 14.000 tonnes, very heavily armed with 200 VLS, and nuclear-powered, while the Sovremenie will be replaced by the 22350M Super Gorshov heavy frigates, a heavier and reinforced version of the 22350 project currently about to enter service, equipped with 64 VLS for 6000 tonnes in load.
The numbers of units to be built are still subject to variation, but the 2019-2028 GPV has already recorded the construction of 8 heavy 22350M super Gorshov frigates by 2025, and the number of Lider seems to evolve between 8 and 12, 12 being the most often used value. Note that with 20 new generation heavy combat ships, the Russian Navy will replace previous generation ships 1:1.
It is interesting to note that, on the other hand, the location of these ships will change significantly compared to today. In fact, there is no longer any question of deploying heavy units in the Black Sea or the Baltic, but only in the North Sea and the Pacific. In addition, reference is often made to an identical allocation between the two high-seas fleets, which would constitute a significant change, with a very notable strengthening of the Pacific fleet.
For the Russian Navy too, it seems, the Pacific theater is becoming an area of prime importance...
To learn more about the subject, read the 2 articles in English (4 min each)