Russia’s Conventional Alternative To Planned Nuclear-Powered Carrier Will Be Better Than UK’s Queen Elizabeth

Russia’s Krylov State Scientific Center will unveil the model of a new aircraft carrier with a conventional propulsion unit, touted to be better than UK’s Queen Elizabeth carrier, as an alternative to the Moscow’s planned nuclear-powered carrier, at the Army-2019 event held between June 25-30.

"This year, we will demonstrate a full-fledged aircraft carrier featuring a gas turbine unit with a displacement of about 60,000 tonnes. To a certain extent, it can be compared to the UK’s aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth. They are about equal by their displacement, but the conceptual project of the Krylov Center has an advantage by the number of aircraft, sea endurance and, most importantly, by the number of take-off places," Valery Polovinkin, scientific head of the Krylov State Scientific Centre was quoted as saying by TASS on Tuesday.

“The carrier will be four to six times cheaper than a nuclear-powered,” he added.

Efforts to design the hull form and to increase the deck area are on. "The latter factor will allow housing parallel take-off positions and we are attempting to boost supplies, in the first place, aircraft fuel supplies," the Centre’s scientific head said.

"This is a full-fledged aircraft carrier but with certain restrictions," Polovinkin stressed.

"In any case, this is an alternative proposal with the conventional power unit. Moreover, a standardized range of gas turbines has been created thanks to the successes of Saturn [manufacturer] and our gas turbine producers. We believe it is quite possible to hope that serial-produced turbine generators will appear in the near future and they will be used to power this ship [aircraft carrier]," Polovinkin said.

The conceptual project of a large aircraft carrier with a nuclear-powered propulsion unit, and the ability to carry up to 100 aircraft and displace about 100,000 tonnes was demonstrated at the Army-2017 forum. Last year, the conceptual project of a light aircraft carrier was presented at the forum, he said.