Since taking 51 vessels from Ukraine without resistance, Russia now has more warships than America. The U.S. Navy has 283 active vessels, and Russia had 280 warships until last week, when it began taking over Ukrainian vessels stationed in Crimea.
The last of Ukrainian’s 17 military vessels stationed in Crimea not already taken by Russia, the minesweeper Cherkassy, was sabotaged by its crew Wednesday after several unsuccessful Russian capture attempts. Tuesday night, gunfire, explosions and smoke were seen and heard coming from the vessel during a Russian attempt. Ten Ukrainian vessels, not stationed in Crimea, still remain in the possession of Ukraine.
Russia has also gained navy officers. Â About 12,000 of Ukraine’s 15,450 navy personnel were stationed in Crimea when Russia invaded at the end of last month. Most of the officers have joined the Russian navy or resigned, according to representatives of the Russian government.
The 204th Tactical Aviation Brigade, based at the Balbek airbase, had 39 Mig-28 fighters, which were seized by Russia in the early days of their invasion. Three hundred surface-to-air missiles were seized at the Fiolent airbase, as well.
A representative of the Russian navy gave an interview Tuesday. According to Yuri Borisov, deputy defense minister for the Russian Navy, the Russian navy will have 40 more warships, including submarines and support vessels, set up for combat duty this year. Borisov stated the increase would make “resolution of the whole range of tasks that the Navy assumed [and] become more combat effective in any parts of oceans in the world,” as reported by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS.
The warships will be equipped with anti-submarine and high-precision assault weapons and self-defense and airborne devices, according to the plans for the fleet development.
The vessels will be brought into military service for Russia’s navy in the near future, Borisov told reporters. Borisov also spoke “Yasen nuclear submarines of a new generation” and “modern multipurpose surface warships,” such as Lider head destroyers, corvettes and frigates. Borisov outlined plans for coast guard ships, small missile-carrying warships, anti-sabotage cutters, rescue ships, and support vessels such as icebreakers and floating cranes.
Relatedly, the Russian navy has been reported today to be conducting a massive exercise in the Mediterranean Sea, close to Cyprus. Ships from the Russian Northern Fleet are beginning joint exercises with large Russian Baltic Fleet ships. The Russian Navy may use Cyprus as a port during their exercise, it is reported, because Russia is allowed to refuel at Limassol.
The U.S. Navy has 283 active vessels plus many thousands of non-combat vessels. The force includes 10 Nimitz-class carriers, to which will be soon added two new Ford-class ships, which America is building. No other country has more than two aircraft carriers.
For comparison, the Chinese Navy, who earlier this year announced plans to build a second aircraft carrier, was reported in 2012 to have over 500 combat vessels and almost 150 major combat vessels, although some of these ships rank equally with what the U.S. would classify Coast Guard vessels. Â Iran, considered to be another possible future military opponent of America, had 30 submarines, two destroyers and six frigates when assessed in 2012.
By Day Blakely Donaldson
Sources:
ITAR-TASS
Time
Famagusta Gazette
Kyiv Post
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44 Responses
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very interesting topic, great post.
There are more sparrow s than sparrow hawks % yet. The hawk is more in danger !
you don know that Russia, like China, include tug boats, fishing boats, tankers, barges, and small patrol boats as part of their navy? You take those away and Russia only has half the effective force that USN has.
The us navy is clearly superior in numbers and technology to the russian navy. Unfortunately that superiority is negated when the commander in chief of those forces is too much of a vaginal orafice to deploy those forces in a timely manner, a weakness the russian government is clearly aware of.
Are you Joking?
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/05/27/russias-navy-more-rust-than-ready/
Horrible article dont give up your day job.
electronics and missiles are what makes us strong.
There is no such thing as a “MIG-28”
If you are counting a navy as objects that float and at one time or another could fire projectiles then you would still be wrong, The US navy would eat the Russian navy, based on the factors of cutting edge weaponry, tactical and strategic command and employment,
experience, readiness and the best training in the world.
No resistance huh? perhaps little is better put. Also, numbers aside you completely ignore quality and type, they have many rusting hunks and smaller fairly useless ships.
Russia Navy Larger Than U.S. Navy Now?????
Russia 280 active ships vs US Navy 283 active ships???????
This argument is subjective because the US Navy has 430 active ships, here is the comfirmed list of active US Ships:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_ships_of_the_United_States_Navy
The poster didn’t do his homework. Which is a shame because it makes other people ignorant.
The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined.
Does your count of russian ships include the many that are flyin ensigns so they can be considered “commissioned ” so the crews get paid, although they have been moored at the pier for over a decade in Murmansk and can’t even get underway? And let’s not really compare Russia’s carrier to western carriers. It needs to be followed around by ocean going tugs incase it breaks down at sea. Also it’s fighters cant even make it off the flight deck without having reduced fuel and weapons loads.
Russian navy is a pile of outdated rust. Propaganda from the Western Military Industrial Complex, trying to build up the Bogie Man” again to further their agenda.
And by the way, the Mig-28 Fighter was a fictitious Russian fighter jet from the movie Top Gun and doesn’t exist., just like the Russian “threat”.
@John Paul: STFU you don’t know what you’re talking about. If Russia is so big, how come they haven’t been a blue water navy since the 1980s? If we’re counting outdated rust bucket ships, let’s factor in the US reserves fleet which has a few hundred ships as well. Which put the USA over 600 ship. Ah, and let’s not forget the US Merchant Marines, Americas oldest Navy and they have 550 ships as well. Diuring wartime, the merchant marines, Us navy, and ready reserves come together which totals over 1,000 ships. Igorance is bliss John Paul Douglus, lmfao.
@Steven: You’re an idiot kiddo. Nato is fighting the war in Afganastan, not the USA. A failure in Afganastan is a failure for NATO. And Nato is the the UK and Europe too. Maybe you need to go back to the Third Grade.
I’ll take US quality over Rusian made rust buckets any day of the week. Most of the Russian navy can’t even float, it’s been at drydock being repaired for 10 years stright. Maybe Russia doen’t have the money or the repairman is screwing them, lol. Either way, it’s a joke, lol. US Ships have better jamming tech that’s current. Tech on Russian ships goes back to the 70s. Russian warships are floating coffins aginst modern navies. Only call of duty fanboys ranks Russia as being number one, but Janes fighting ships laughs every chance they get at Russias cold war era military. Heck, the Royal Navy could sink the Russian Navy. It would look like turkey shoot, but the Brits wouldwin
As a current officer in the USN, I’m insulted by all of this ignorance. First and Foremost, this article isn’t true. The Russian Navy is 54% operational with a majority of its ships rusting at port or being sold as scrap. In gross tons, the US Navy is 12x bigger than the next 12th largest combined. Russia wouldn’t last a week against the US 4th fleet, nor would Britain and France if you combined them all. Put it this way, the USN spends more money than the French military, Russian military, and British military combined. The USN spends about 180 billion yearly. I bet the farm, this article was written by a Putin cronie.
John Paul you have no clue go read Janes book on the U.S. Military . Plus the U.S. has been in wars and are battle harden . when was the last time Russia was in a war 1980.
Think before you speak bafoon.
The US and NATO Navies are still superior against Russian Navy in terms of quality and quantity, Western navy will win in conventional naval warfare..But Hello?! war between US and its Allies against Russia would be nuclear, and Russia have enough boomers to obliterate US and its allies…take a look at the bigger picture!
The number of ships dont really matter. In the big picture of things it boilds down to quality of personel, and quality of weapons systems. I would match one of our ships to many of either the russian or chinese ships. Not only that but most importantly we the brits , italians, germans to fight along side. The brits especially are extremely capable in all area of warfare.
They may have a lot of ships but the US owns the air and IMO air is what wins wars in the 21st century.
I bet the Ukraine wishes they had their nukes back, which the U S and Great Briton talked them out of , with promises to protect them from Russia. I wonder how long people will keep believing the Lying Governments.
They also have more horses and bayonettes
Let Russia spend it’s smaller resources to support a larger navy. I have faith in our navy’s ability.
Russia is bigger than people think, they did not have 280 warships, if you count all of the active navy vessels, they have 526 warships and they keep building and upgrading. And when I mean upgrading, I mean building more warships not building 17 Trillion Dollars of debt.
Big deal ! Russia has more vodka distilleries, more drunks, more guys on the space station, more Eskimos, more prisons, more potato farmers and probably even more hookers. If those haven’t allowed them to dominate the world, do we just have to wet our pants over their navy growing bigger, again?
The most porn in the world comes from the United States, and the second most comes from Japan. Out of the whole world in 2014, Russia had the least, doesn’t that tell you something?
It’s not about quantity. Quality of materials,technology, workmanship, and the abilities of those who use the technology, ships, submarines, planes, etc. To that end no one can touch us.
My friend Bertand Chateau sank the French Mediterranean fleet and got a medal for it. This was to prevent the warships from falling into Nazi hands. The Legion of Merit was bestowed by President Mitterrand himself.
Yeah, nice job with the article but this is a huge abuse of the facts. Both bumbers you are using are not an accurate representation of a navy. Also, do not count ships that are not part of the active fleets. Many of these ships are in storage and not immediately available for duty. The USN has a sizeable advantage boy just in numbers, but quality and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
I don’t feel like posting the correct figures right now, but this is definitely not it.
The only place a MiG-28 exists is in “Top Gun.”
USA is fighting wars in every corner of the world. Plus, they are busy defending Europe, Japan and Korea against real and perceived enemies. Each US fighter aircraft, military truck, tank, mortar, cruise missile etc costs much more than its Russian or other equivalent. On average, each US soldier earns more than the Russian or other equivalent. Of course, the US defense budget has to be much more than any country in this world. To use a budget to compare military ability is seriously flawed – look at the US in Afghanistan – spending billions and losing the war against the Taliban – who are spending hardly anything but winning!
This is a bit misleading, when you talk numbers vs numbers you most certainly should mention the fleets state of readiness and tactical/operational comparisons I.E. brown water vs blue water.
If you handed Iran 1,000 warships today, it would take decades for them to be able to operate them around the world at a fraction of the efficiency of the US Navy. It takes an infrastructure and training that costs a lot of money to maintain.
Tread very lightly this is no time for foolish talk we live in very precarious times and as mentioned recently from politicians this conflict is geopolitical. Europe could splinter and break up while Putin reigns in the support of Middle East partners, China and other regional countries.
Robert that website you offered is solely independent and warns it is only of entertainment use and purpose.
Please check your resources before posting irrelevant information.
Thank you.
you say that No other country has two aircraft carriers. yes they do ….India has 2 and Italy has 2 aircraft carriers But all this is just bla bla bla talk what is intres. her is defense budget spending thats is the kicker
USA has a budget of 612.500,000,000 pr. year
Russia has a budget of 76,600,000,000 pr. year
UK. has a budget of 53.600.000.000 pr year (little UK has almost the size of Russia )
http://www.globalfirepower.com/defense-spending-budget.asp
Thank you. The article reads, however, “No other country has more than two aircraft carriers.” UK, India and Italy each have two carriers.
Where is this info coming from PUTINS PROPAGANDA MACHINE??? the Russian navy is still with the 51 ships smaller than the USA it is about 70 ships smaller Also USA has 11 aircraftcarrieas and russia 1 take a look at the facts http://www.globalfirepower.com/navy-ships.asp Also the USA all its ships are up to date Russian ships are from the USSR for the most part After all we are talking about a nation that can not hold thier subs. aflote in pece time the Kursk is a good exs. of that and just last month one more sub. in Murmansk harbor just went up in flames LOL
T
526 warships in total belong to Russia, an American Historian can confirm it who has been a maritime historian for over 30 years. We have 283, while Russia has 526 and that number will get bigger. Russia’s Navy is 3rd. while North Korea has over 700 and China has over 900, the United States is small compared to those three other countries. Aircraft Carriers, yes we have 12 now, but Russia and China already have plans to compete against that number. Gotta love Western Media, always so biast.
I was in Zigi near Larnaca Cyprus on Sunday, where I saw many Russian sailors. I couldn’t see their ship, they must have used a tender