Warship Technology: May 2019
The report, ‘Russia’s New State Armament Programme: Implications for the Russian Armed Forces and Military, Capabilities to 2027,’ contrasted GPV 2020, a state armament programme that saw the Russian Navy secure around 25 per cent of the budget, with the most recent plan, GPV 2027 – which will form the basis of Russia’s defence procurement and military priorities until 2027. The latter is believed to have resulted in a smaller allocation to the navy.
“In a decade’s time we will probably see Russia’s armed forces relying on a mix of legacy hardware, modernized Soviet systems and fully modern designs,” said the authors of the report.
“Modernization of Russia’s strategic nuclear triad is expected to remain a priority. While the navy is likely to receive less funding and prioritize the acquisition of smaller vessels, the ground forces can expect a larger share of funding than before. Meanwhile, the country’s aerospace forces will probably concentrate on filling existing gaps in procurement.”
Chatham House’s authors said the Russian leadership appears to have made a strategic decision to base naval construction around developing a ‘dual fleet’: combining potent new ‘green-water’ capabilities – that is, new weapons systems focused on the protection of coastal areas and on preventing enemy forces from accessing Russian territory – with long-range blue-water capabilities based around the Soviet-era legacy fleet of modernized Kirov class and Slava class cruisers, Sovremenny class and Udaloy class destroyers, and nuclear-powered submarines.
