"The Russian Navy Is Back" Topic

"Considering that he earned his spurs in the culture of the KGB, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated surprisingly strong navalist tendencies over the past eighteen months. Adding irony to this new focus on the sea, his presidency began with allegations that he mishandled the disaster of the sinking of the "Kursk" submarine in 2000, just three months after he was inaugurated as Russian president. However, last week's deployment of Russian military forces to Syria confirmed that maintaining naval access has become a centerpiece of President Putin's foreign policy and may shed light on future Russian foreign policy goals. Two other recent developments confirm this trend of restoring Russian naval power: the annexation of Crimea in March of 2014 and the release of the Maritime Doctrine of Russian Federation 2020 in July of 2015.

The Russian annexation of Crimea restored firm Russian control over the port city of Sevastopol, which is the home of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet and Sevastopol Shipyard. Sevastopol Shipyard played a key role in modernizing the Russian Navy over the past decade—even though it was located on sovereign Ukrainian territory but leased back to Russia under the Black Sea Fleet Agreement of 1997…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

I'll believe it when they start pumping out ships.

I think he learned from Hitler. Too little to late for the German navy. Had they been stronger, Britain would have most likely fallen.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Strength of the Kreigsmarine V the Royal Navy irrelevant (it would have taken them 10 years to obtain anything like parity), and anyway, in the event the Boche couldn't achieve air superiority.

I think more subs early on would have made the difference. Germany would not have needed carriers. At the start of WWII Germany had the best air force in Europe.

Smoke and Mirrors ,starts lots of things ,finishes nothing.He can barely put 8 ships at sea at the same time,w/out one sinking.

'Had they been stronger, Britain would have most likely fallen.'

To quote John Wayne, 'Not hardly!'

Actually, I believe Britain would have fallen/surrendered.

The Home Guard was marching with broomsticks, pitchforks, and cricket bats, IIRC.

Most of their weapons had to be abandoned in France, so the Fall of 1940 was a very bad time indeed for the UK, defense-wise.

Luckily, Germany switched to bombing the cities, instead of the airfields and radar stations, just in the nick of time.

Agreed Mako11.

Agree also!

Amicalement
Armand

Easy to overestimate how little equipment the UK still had. Lots lost, but really still lots left:

'This data shows that there is enough equipment in the United Kingdom to fully equip around 10-12 divisions with artillery and small arms (there are more than enough rifles to equip the full 27). It is clear from the table that the most serious situation is that of anti-tank weapons, with only enough 2pdrs to fully equip just over 4 divisions.'

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The problem with the German invasion of England is people are only figuring on getting a German Army across the channel. That problem is insignificant compared to maintaining an army across the channel. A German Infantry Division needs about 800 tons of supplies per day when on the full offensive (80 tons while just doing nothing) and a Panzer Division requires 1,200 tons when on the offensive (50 tons at rest) Some of that tonnage they will be able to forage, but I imagine very little. All the British Army has to do is delay and bleed while the Navy and Air Force suicides against the supply line.

Yup, keeping the channel open and its ports intact would be the trick.

Russia is down to around 50 working surface combattants out of their 270 ship fleet. Time and heavy activity will whittle these down even more.

I think they've only launched 6-9 combat ships larger than corvettes since 1991.

Only 4 new subs have been launched, the rest were subs already under construction while the Soviet Union was still around.

I disagree that the Russian navy is back.

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One wargame I would have like to witness at least.

Why watch when you can play it?

You can buy SPI's boardgame, Seelowe, based on a hypothetical invasion of England on eBay for less than $14. USD 10 sets available from what I saw.

"Considering that he earned his spurs in the culture of the KGB, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated surprisingly strong navalist tendencies over the past eighteen months.

I wonder if they know that Putin's dad was a submariner…