Of all the prospective aircraft carrier projects in Russia, the "Shtorm" aircraft carrier project can be considered the most realistic and capable of practical implementation.
This was stated in an interview with IA "TASS" by the former Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Navy, Vice Admiral (Retired) Vladimir Pepelyaev, in connection with the publication of his book "Aircraft Carrier". Pepelyaev recalled that in the 2010s, the Ministry of Defense commissioned the "Krylov State Research Center", the Nevsky Design Bureau, and aviation research institutes to develop aircraft carriers that could support the "Admiral Kuznetsov" in performing its tasks.
As a result of the design work, 6 variants of aircraft carriers were created for use within Russia, which even included a variant with a nuclear power plant, plus a seventh variant of an aircraft carrier for export — namely, "Shtorm."
The retired Vice Admiral believes that it is "Shtorm", which was recently reported by "Pervyi Tekhnicheskiy", "of all the existing preliminary designs today, is the most realistic". In the future, "any of the six variants can be taken as a basis when creating a prospective aircraft carrier", which were developed exclusively for domestic use. According to him, these projects individually are more like "proposals for the technical appearance of a prospective aircraft carrier", and individual developments, rather than a fully developed aircraft carrier project.
But the fact is that since the approval of the "Shtorm" project, new scientific and technical achievements have emerged in the field of naval weapons, military specifics have changed, and the "Admiral Kuznetsov" has gained experience in Syria. All this should be reflected in the design of the new Russian aircraft carrier of the future.
This means that with all its advantages, "Shtorm" needs "refinement".
In particular, in terms of the composition of the air wing, which should include an airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, in terms of the main power plant, acceleration and braking devices.
Earlier, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, in a recent interview with the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda", spoke about plans to create a new domestic prospective naval aircraft-carrying complex, "the use of which will increase the efficiency of solving various operational tasks".
For now, Russia has only one aircraft-carrying cruiser, the "Admiral Kuznetsov", which was commissioned in 1991. It is currently undergoing repair and modernization in Murmansk at the 35th Ship Repair Plant. It is expected that after replacing all the components, it will serve for an additional twenty years. The aircraft carrier is expected to return to the fleet after repairs in the first quarter of 2024.