PROCUREMENT BLUES: Russia’s Shipbuilding Program: Postponed Blue-Water Ambitions.

Russia’s shipbuilding program for 2011–2020, under which the country plans to build over 100 new warships (Military Paritet, February 7, 2012), is reportedly causing “a very bad feeling” among some Russian naval experts (Topwar.ru, August 10, 2016). They describe the current status of the Russian Navy as a “ceremonial fleet” and have suggested that one third of the shipbuilding program has resulted in little more than a “donut hole” (Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie, December 22, 2017; March 3, 2018). The ongoing production difficulties appear linked to insufficient naval shipbuilding capacity and a problematic manufacturing process.

Forget a blue-water navy, Russia can’t even afford more than a couple hundred of its new T-14 tank, and is instead concentrating its efforts on further modernizations to its existing (and ancient) T-72 and T-90 models.