Russian navy ponders investments in nuclear-powered surface ships.

• Author: Datla, Anand
• Position: Viewpoint

* The Russian navy recently announced plans to build either a nuclear powered destroyer or cruiser--depending on translation--by 2016.

The pronouncement, made at the 5th Maritime Defense Show in St. Petersburg, caused an uncomfortable surprise in many naval circles.

A move to build a nuclear surface ship would give Russia a capability that is not currently possessed by most navies around the world. These potential nuclear powered surface ships would be faster, not as dependent on supply ships for refueling, and have the ability to traverse greater distances. In terms of future technology capacity, it could also provide greater energy resources to charge directed energy weapons.

The Russian navy's ambition is worth examining because it suggests that the Russians have a different view of the cost versus benefits of fulfilling their evolving mission needs. These developments, further, should be analyzed in the context of planning and designing future U.S. combatant warships.

The Russian navy experience with nuclear surface ships offers many parallels. However, instead of focusing on either a nuclear destroyer or cruiser the Russian navy pursued battle cruisers. The Kirov battle cruisers were developed in the 1970s, but because of costs they were limited to four ships. These battle cruisers were comparable to older U.S. battleships in size but outfitted with missiles to use against large surface ships. Unlike the U.S. Navy, the Russian Navy has kept four of these ships and continues to use one of them for operations today. Costs have played a large role in their fate. The other three Kirov battle cruisers are waiting for upgrades and are presently not in use.

The desire to have a nuclear powered destroyer or cruiser is not new. During the 1970s the U.S. Navy built a number of nuclear cruisers and even considered pursuing a nuclear destroyer. Eventually, the effort to develop a nuclear destroyer was cut short due to cost-saving measures. It should be noted that at the time the move to not pursue a nuclear destroyer was controversial. Today, all the nuclear cruisers of the U.S. Navy have been decommissioned and only aircraft carriers are nuclear powered. The rationale behind decommissioning nuclear cruisers was that maintenance costs outweighed the return on capability.

Since the 1970s the technology behind building nuclear power plants on ships has greatly improved. It is still debatable though if the cost of building a nuclear surface vessel...