CVN NEWCON - New Russian Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier

At present, Russia has only one operational aircraft carrier, the Nikolai Kuznetsov, which was commissioned in the early 1990s and has recently re-entered service after a prolonged overhaul.

On 14 October 2008 President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia would launch large-scale construction of aircraft carriers within the next two years. “We need new aircraft carrying warships, this is a very important direction for the development of the Navy,” he said on board Russia’s only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov.

He added that the first aircraft carrier should be built by 2013-2015. “We have lost much ground in the 1990s, when we did not build any warships. Now we have to restore an [industrial] basis for aircraft carrier construction and for the Navy as a whole.” On 11 October 2008 Russia's President Dimitry Medvedev said he had instructed the Defense Ministry to develop a program with the aim of starting to build aircraft carriers within two years.

"We need to build new aircraft carriers, this is a very important direction for the Navy's development," the president said. "All great countries with powerful navies develop in this way." Prior to these statements, the first new aircraft carrier was not expected until around the year 2020.