[X Fretensis]

I would not buy any war ship built to Soviet standards. Had an occasion to go aboard a Kara class cruiser in the early 90s before the Soviet Union folded. It was an astonishing revelation into shody workmanship and poor design. Near as I could tell the Soviet naval designers had zero regard for the concept of water tight integrity or damage control. We saw door ways through compartment bulkheads that did not have water tight doors. Cable ways through bulkheads did not have stuffing tubes, the cables just passed through large openings. No fire fighting stations on the weather decks, and no fire fighting stations in nearly all of the compartments that we were allowed in. Never did see any semblance of emergency electrical cable system. The quality of welding was abysmal. Multi-pass weld with different pass counts in the same bead. Shell plating welds with dog shit and voids in the welds. Looks like the type of welds you would see in an apprentice 101 class, and would never be tolerated in the construction of an American naval vessel. I firmly believe that we could have sunk that cruiser with 5 inch gun fire alone, provided we got within minimum missile range. Obvious the concept of the Soviet Navy was that this ship had to stay afloat just long enough to launch it’s main battery weapons, after that, Oh well. Admiral Gorshkov will gladly present the captain and crew Hero of the Soviet Union medals, posthumously.

[Mister Da]

Tom Clancey toured a Soviet Cruiser. He said there were so many coats of paint on the gun turrets that he doubted they could rotate/elevate to firing position. He believed the ship was painted for every inspection, leaving many moving parts painted into a fixed position.

[bert]

Very interesting report.

Although I'm sure there were specifications it seems there was no welding quality control. The design flaws result from never having been in battle in a ship and realizing the damage control is essential to surviving the battle.

As a matter of interest, a Freeper once recommended the book Shattered Sword The untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully (Nov 2007). It is for me a revelation because it contrasts the American design with the Japanese design and determines that the design flaws you noted contributed to the sinking of the four Jap carriers.

[Straight Vermonter]

Munir Redfa defected from Iraq to Israel with his MIG-21 in 1966. When westerner military techs finally got a look at the plane they couldn’t believe that the plane was riveted together. The seams in the skin of the plane were not even flush.

[wetphoenix]

USN operates former Soviet ship.

[ansel12]

Great post, thanks.