The French Navy has the second largest and most combat-ready aircraft carrier in Europe, the Charles de Gaulle. The total displacement of the ship is 42 thousand tons, up to 40 aircraft, the ship is equipped with a nuclear power plant. Nuclear submarines of the "Triumfan" type have great strike capabilities, the fleet has four such submarines in total.
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The Triumfans carry M4S ballistic missiles with a range of 6,000 km. In the short term, they will be replaced by M51 missiles with a range of more than 10,000 km. In addition, there are six Ryubi-class multi-purpose nuclear submarines. In total, according to data from open sources, the French fleet has 98 warships and auxiliary vessels.
5. UK
Once Great Britain bore the proud title of "Mistress of the Seas", the fleet of this country was the largest and most powerful in the world. Now Her Majesty's Navy is only a pale shadow of its former power. |
HMS Queen Elizabeth. Photo: i.imgur.com |
Today, there is not a single aircraft carrier in the Royal Navy. Two, the Queen Elizabeth class, are under construction and due to enter the fleet in 2016 and 2018. The most interesting thing is that the British did not have enough funds for such important ships as aircraft carriers, so the designers had to abandon side armor and armored bulkheads. Today, according to data from open sources, the British Navy has 77 ships.
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The most formidable units of the fleet are four Vanguard-class SSBNs armed with Trident-2 D5 ballistic missiles, each of which could be equipped with fourteen warheads of 100 kT each. Wanting to save money, the British military bought only 58 of these missiles, which was enough for only three boats - 16 each. Theoretically, each Vanguard can carry up to 64 missiles, but this is uneconomical.
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In addition to them, the Daring-class destroyers, Trafalgar-class submarines and newest type"Estute".
4. China
The Chinese fleet is one of the largest, with 495 ships of various classes. The largest ship is the Liaoning aircraft carrier with a displacement of 59,500 tons (the former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag, which was sold to China by Ukraine for the price of scrap metal). |
Also in the fleet is strategic missile carriers- nuclear submarines of project 094 "Jin". The submarines are capable of carrying 12 Juilang-2 (JL-2) ballistic missiles with a range of 8,000-12,000 km.
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There are also many "fresh" ships, for example, destroyers of the 051C type, the Lanzhou type, the Sovremenny type, and the Jiangkai-class frigates.
3. Japan
In the Japanese navy, all capital ships are classified as destroyers, so real destroyers include aircraft carriers (two Hyuuga-class ships and two Shirane-class ships), cruisers, and frigates. For example, two Atago-class destroyers can boast a cruising displacement of 10,000 tons. |
But these are not the largest ships - this year the fleet will include a 27,000-ton Izumo-class helicopter carrier, and another one will be produced in 2017. In addition to helicopters, F-35B fighters can be based on Izumo.
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The Japanese submarine fleet, despite the absence of nuclear submarines, is considered the strongest in the world. It has five Soryu-class submarines, eleven Oyashio-class and one Harusio-class.
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Now Maritime forces Japan Self-Defense has approximately 124 ships. Experts note that the Japanese fleet has a balanced ship composition and is a combat system thought out to the smallest detail.
2. Russia
Russian fleet has 280 ships. The most formidable are the heavy cruisers of project 1144 "Orlan" with a displacement of 25,860 tons, there are only three of them, but the firepower of these ships is simply amazing. No wonder NATO classifies these cruisers as battleships.Three other cruisers are not inferior to them in armament - project 1164 "Atlant", with a displacement of 11,380 tons. But the largest aircraft carrier is the Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov, with a displacement of 61,390 tons. This ship is not only well protected by air defense systems, but also armored. Rolled steel is used as armor, and anti-torpedo three-layer protection 4.5 m wide can withstand 400 kg of TNT charge.
However, the fleet itself is being actively modernized: it is planned that by 2020 Navy Russian Federation will receive about 54 modern combat surface ships, 16 multi-purpose submarines and 8 strategic missile submarines of the Borey project.
1. USA
The US Navy has the largest fleet in the world, with 275 ships, including 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, no country has such an impressive force. It is in the Navy that the military power of the United States is mainly based. |
Soon the Nimitz should be supplemented by even more advanced ships - aircraft carriers of the Gerald R. Ford type with a displacement of more than 100,000 tons.
The US submarine fleet is no less impressive: 14 nuclear submarines Ohio-class, each carrying 24 Trident-2 ballistic missiles. Three of the most advanced submarines of the Sea Wolf type, the price of which was exorbitant for the United States, so it was decided to abandon the construction of a large series. Instead, cheaper Virginia-class submarines are being built, while there are only 10 of them in the fleet.
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In addition, 41 Los Angeles-class submarines remain in the Navy. The US Navy has a gigantic military power, which today is unlikely to be challenged by anyone.
Despite some growth in military shipbuilding, which emerged after 2015, Russia has not yet reached the level of 2007, when the combat capabilities of the Russian Navy were 65% of those of the United States. According to the naval portal Mil.Press FLOT, for last year this figure was only 47%. This is more than in 2016 and 2015. (45 and 44% respectively), but still the statistics leave much to be desired.
This indicator does not answer the question of who will win the war, since with the advent of nuclear weapons everything got a lot more complicated. However, the numbers make it possible to compare the fleets of the two superpowers and the dynamics of growth.
In 2017, Russian sailors received only two large warships - the Admiral Makarov frigate of project 11356 and the Perfect corvette.
Corvette "Perfect". Photo: mil.ru
In theory, the Project 22350 frigate "Admiral Gorshkov" of the Fleet of the Soviet Union, which is undergoing state tests, is on its way. But experts do not undertake to predict when the ship will be handed over to the Russian Navy. Deadlines have been pushed back too often.
With the ship of the same series "Admiral Golovko" the problem is even more serious. The frigate never received the engines that were previously supplied by the Ukrainian Zorya-Mashproekt.
A similar situation has developed with three frigates of project 11356. Alternative production of turbines in Rybinsk has not yet been established. And the ships will be commissioned at best in 2020-2021. The fate of the large landing ship Ivan Gren is also unclear - it was also planned to be transferred to the fleet last year, but this did not happen.
Landing ship "Ivan Gren". Photo: mil.ru
The nuclear missile carriers "Ryazan" and "Tula" who returned from the repair docks somewhat corrected the general situation. But these good submarines of the 1980s. cannot duplicate the new Borei submarines, which should form the basis of the strategic fleet.
At the same time, American sailors received new aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, two Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyers, two Virginia-class utility submarines, and three ships coastal zone LCS type. In addition, the second stealth destroyer of the Zamwalt class, the Michael Monsour, is being tested, although the date of its transfer to the US Navy is still unknown.
The destroyer Arleigh Burke. Photo: wikipedia.org
But it is absolutely certain that this year the Americans will receive three Arleigh Burke destroyers, two Virginia-class submarines, landing craft class "San Antonio" and three LCS.
Russia could significantly improve the situation with the very Mistrals, which, due to sanctions, never got to the Russian Navy. Now ships will either have to be purchased, for example, from China, or built from scratch, which is very difficult.
Coastal ship LCS 2. Photo: GLOBAL LOOK press/Deven Leigh Ellis
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is slowly but surely updating the fleet. For the time being, it was decided to abandon the construction of a new aircraft carrier for financial reasons. And all the forces and means are now thrown into new submarines and frigates, which must be completed at any cost. In addition, do not forget about the modernization of heavy nuclear cruisers"Peter the Great" and "Admiral Nakhimov", which are planned to be equipped with the most modern weapons.
