The Russian Pacific Fleet (Pacific Fleet), as an integral part of the Navy and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation as a whole, is a means of ensuring the military security of Russia in the Asia-Pacific region.
Today’s objectives of the Pacific Fleet may be: to prevent or weaken naval attacks on its troops; assistance in defeating the advancing enemy grouping and holding key coastal areas; Ensuring regrouping by sea and maritime transport in line with the interests of the troops.
These goals are achieved through the joint efforts of the troops of the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet. At the same time, the fleet can destroy enemy naval groups that affect the defending troops; carry out and ensure the landing of amphibious assault forces; participate in the fire support of the troops; disrupting enemy transport; participate in the fight against enemy amphibious landings, the domination of the strait zones, blockade operations; transportation materials by sea.
The fleet of the second plan
Today, more than 70 ships form the backbone of the combat forces of the Pacific Fleet, from diesel-electric missile and torpedo submarines to a missile cruiser. The list of ships of the Pacific Fleet currently looks like this (here we will consider only combat units of the corvette class and above):
missile cruiser project 1164 “Varyag” (commissioned in 1989);
three large anti-submarine ships (multipurpose frigates): Marshal Shaposhnikov (1986), Admiral Tributs (1986), Admiral Panteleev (1992);
Four corvettes (Protection type) of project 20380: Perfect (2017), Loud (2018), Aldar Tsydenzhapov (2020), Sharp (2022);
project 20385 “Rumbling” corvette (2020);
five large landing craft: “Nikolai Vilkov” (1974), “Oslyabya” (1981), “Admiral Nevelskoy” (1982), “Peresvet” (1991), “Vladimir Andreev” (2023);
strategic missile submarine of the Kalmar project (project 667BDR) K-44 Ryazan (1982);
Five strategic missile submarines of projects Borey and Borey-A (projects 955 and 955A): K-553 Generalissimo Suvorov (2022), K-552 Prince Oleg (2021), K-551 ” Vladimir Monomakh (2014), K-550 Alexander Nevsky (2013), Emperor Alexander III (2023);
Five nuclear submarines with Antey cruise missiles (Project 949A and M): K-456 Tver (1992), K-150 Tomsk (1996), K-186 Omsk (1993), K-442 Chelyabinsk (1990, modernization in 2023) , K-132 Irkutsk (1988, modernization in 2023);
Two multipurpose nuclear submarines (project 885M) with Yasen-M cruise missiles: K-573 Novosibirsk (2021), K-571 Krasnoyarsk (2023);
two multipurpose nuclear torpedo submarines “Pike-B” (project 971): K-419 “Kuzbass” (1992), K-295 “Samara” (1995, modernization 2023);
five diesel-electric submarines “Halibut” (project 877): B-394 “Nurlat” (1988), B-190 “Krasnokamensk” (1992), B-187 “Komsomolsk-on-Amur” (1991), B-494 “Ust-Bolsheretsk” (1990), B-464 “Ust-Kamchatsk” (1990);
Five diesel-electric submarines of project 636.3: B-274 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (2019), B-603 Volkhov (2020), B-602 Magadan (2021), B-588 Ufa (2022) , “Mozhaisk” (2023).
At the same time, the vast majority of ships in the Pacific Fleet were built during the Soviet era and were actually out of service. And this is easily noticeable in the years when the combat units of the fleet entered service. This is why this list is so exhaustive.
As before Wrote “socialbites.ca”, in the 1990s and 2000s, the Russian Navy received an extremely small number of ships and boats. Almost all of them went to the Northern and Baltic fleets, as well as the Caspian fleet. In the 2010s, the renewal of these operational-strategic and operational formations accelerated, and after the 2014 Crimean events, the rapid rearmament of the Black Sea Fleet began. Pacific Fleet had the supporting actor role during this period.
The current ship structure of the Pacific Fleet does not meet the modern needs of the theater. The number of modern units in the combat composition of the Pacific Fleet does not even attract one fleet.
Pacific Fleet compared to neighbors
How note It is blasphemy for Russian experts to compare the Russian Pacific Fleet with the Chinese Navy. The running speed of the current Chinese shipbuilding assembly line is unmatched in peacetime. The inclusion of new combat units in the PLA Navy’s combat composition is so high that it is difficult to determine the number of Chinese ships currently in service at any given moment. In just a quarter of a century, the Chinese fleet has evolved from, at best, a coastal squalor with the quality level of the 1960s, to a modern ocean fleet second only to the American, and so far only powerful.
For example, the PLA Navy has 48 URO destroyers (not the Pacific Fleet), of which only the latest project 055 destroyers are 8. By the way, the displacement of the destroyer of this project is 12.3 thousand tons. For comparison: the displacement of the flagship of the Pacific Fleet missile cruiser project 1164 “Varyag” – 11.5 thousand tons. So the Chinese destroyer is bigger than our cruiser.
The PLA Navy has 48 URO frigates and 50 URO corvettes. Compared to five similar ships of the Pacific Fleet, the difference is huge. At the same time, China technologically surpassed Russia and almost all European countries in the development of large surface ships, reaching the level of the three most advanced countries in this field – the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
The Pacific Fleet does not look the best when compared to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (by the way, it is among the five most powerful navies in the world). The Japanese fleet includes four helicopter carriers, eight URO destroyers, 28 destroyers, 10 frigates and 23 submarines. More than impressive power, it should be noted. In the surface forces, the Japanese advantage over the Pacific Fleet is enormous.
The navy of the Republic of Korea also stood out compared to the domestic fleet. Although 30 years ago their navy was an American scrap metal dump built in the 1940s and 1950s, today the South Korean fleet is already more powerful than any European fleet, and almost all its ships are built at their own shipyards, mostly by their own projects. The ROK Navy has 12 destroyers, 10 frigates, six URO frigates and more than a dozen corvettes.
Today, the surface forces of the Pacific Fleet are even slightly inferior to the navies of Taiwan and Thailand, but it is difficult to imagine these countries as our competitors. But regardless of this, an unequivocally unsatisfactory assessment of the current state of the Pacific Fleet can be made without hesitation.
Comparing the capabilities of the Pacific Fleet with the US Navy in the Pacific makes no sense. The supremacy of the USA here is absolute.
Prospects for the Pacific Fleet
In 2024-2028, the Pacific Fleet expects to receive:
Three frigates of project 22350: Admiral Chichagov (2025), Admiral Amelko (2027), Admiral Yumashev (2026);
two projects 20380 corvettes: Grozny (2024), Bravy (2025);
four project 20385 corvettes: Vigorous, Diligent, Reasonable and Fast (2024-2027);
two large landing craft: Vasily Trushin (project 11711, 2024), project 23900 universal landing craft Ivan Rogov (2028);
Two multipurpose nuclear submarines (project 885M) with Yasen-M cruise missiles: Vladivostok (2025), Perm (2026);
A diesel-electric submarine of project 636.3 “Yakutsk” (2025).
This list looks good. However, our neighbors will not fall asleep, and their naval power is increasing at a rapid pace. Undoubtedly, everything possible is being done to increase the combat and operational capabilities of the Pacific Fleet in modern conditions, but in fact, this operational-strategic union of the Navy should be recreated in many respects and increased the composition of ships in the Pacific Ocean. done several times.
Presumably, as part of the Pacific Fleet, it is necessary to revive the operational squadron as a formation, recreate an aircraft carrier attack group, create an amphibious assault force formation to the modern level (both qualitative and quantitative), bring mines. – sweeping forces have submarine forces as part of fleets and squadrons to finally radically modernize coastal infrastructure.
To some, such plans may seem too bold and even beyond the capabilities of the country’s economic complex. However, one must proceed from the fact that the 21st century will be the Asian century and the Pacific Ocean will be the number one theater among all other oceanic theaters of war.