Russia's only aircraft carrier damaged in a dry dock accident.

Russia's Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. LA Times/AFP.

Russia's only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetov, has been damaged in a dry dock accident when a crane fell on it. LA Times. The floating dry dock suddenly took on water and sank, causing the crane to hit the carrier. Four people were injured in the accident and one may be missing. The dock sank due to a power failure. The carrier ended up with a hole in its deck and hull. The damage should be easy to repair, but the dry dock's damage is a concern as it was Russia's biggest one. Without the dry dock Russia's efforts to modernize and repair their navy will be significantly affected. The Admiral Kuznetov has a reputation as an unlucky ship as it has had several accidents an failures and lost two jets to accidents with the arrestor wire failing as planes were trying land on it.  

My Comment:

Very bad news for Russia. Their only carrier is out of commission for some time. Though Russia claims that the damage was minor I am not so sure they are telling the truth. Not only did a huge crane fall on their ship, it was also partially flooded and almost sank.That makes me think that the damage is a lot worse than they are letting on. 

As bad as the situation with thee Admiral Kuznetov is, the situation with the dry dock is even worse. This was their largest and most important dry dock and losing it for any long amount of time is going to be devastating. Though they have other dry docks, this was one of the better ones for their capital ships. 

This is going to make repairing the carrier much harder and will delay Russia's efforts to repair and modernize their fleet. Without that effort Russia's navy is going to have trouble deploying anywhere in case of a war or some other kind of disaster. And without a carrier Russia's ability to project force will be greatly diminished. 

From what it sounds like this accident occurred because Russia lost power causing the dry dock to flood. The ballast pumps were connected to the civilian power grid an they had a power failure. Power failures are a thing that happens so you would think that the Russians would have had backup generators. This seems like an accident that could have been easily prevented. 

Admiral Kuznetov has a reputation now as a cursed ship. They have had several major accidents, power failures and plane crashes. Part of that is due to the age of the ship as she was launched in 1985 and is pretty outdated. That being said, Russia has always had these kinds of maintenance problems. The ship is pretty much a joke when compared to US carriers and even the UK and French carriers have a better reputation.