Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2017 December 17

= December 17 =

Russian navy
In World War 2, did the Russian navy have any carriers? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:2508:122:A2DD:3288 (talk) 03:15, 17 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Not according to List of aircraft carriers of Russia and the Soviet Union. Rmhermen (talk) 03:55, 17 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Soviet Navy in WW2 has list of what vessels they had. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:ACD6:943D:BA3A:3FD4 (talk) 07:22, 17 December 2017 (UTC)


 * What would they need them for? Clarityfiend (talk) 07:51, 17 December 2017 (UTC)
 * They might not have needed carriers, but they certainly wanted some; see Stalin's Aircraft Carriers by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D "General Secretary J.V. Stalin called for a major fleet build-up under the Third Five Year Plan (1938-1942)... The Project 71 ships approved for this plan were fairly small, 13,000-ton ships with a 630-foot flight deck, based on the same hull as the Chapayev-class light cruisers. They would have been almost identical in size to the British Colossus-class light carriers. The design specifications called for an air group of 15 fighters and 30 torpedo bombers, to be launched by a pair of pneumatic catapults... By 1943, wartime experience caused the TsKB design bureau to re-cast the carrier into a much larger ship, labeled Project 72. She would be 812 feet long, comparable to the American Essex-class, and displace 29,000 tons. Like Project 71, she drew heavily on the German Graf Zeppelin design, and like the German ship was projected to carry a very small air group for her size, 60 aircraft". It seems that they realised that they didn't really have the know-how and that there were other priorities. Alansplodge (talk) 15:32, 17 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Perhaps a more reliable source is Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact (p. 77) by Paul E. Fontenoy in the section headed Soviet Union Carrier Development in World War II, which seems to give much the same detail. Scope for an article perhaps? Alansplodge (talk) 15:37, 17 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks, all! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:0:0:0:64DA (talk) 11:00, 20 December 2017 (UTC)