The American Navy is thought of as the world’s most powerful, far greater than any other naval force. But now some sources hint at Russian Navy could be bigger soon – even as soon as in 2020, Russia will have one of the biggest naval forces in the world. Even bigger than the one of the United States of America.
How can the Russian Navy be the biggest?
Russian Steregushchy class – 30 ships of this class are planned.
This is because for a long time the Russian Navy has actually been (about) equally big as the US one (~300 ships), in terms of numbers. But by the Russian annexation of Crimea, they acquired 51 new ships, making Russia’s navy bigger than the American one. But it is of course not really honest to say that the Russian Navy is bigger than the US’s – a bluff. The Russian Navy is actually not bigger. They have specialized their Navy to be used in small canals and small seas (The Black Sea for instance) and therefore they have a big amount of small ships like corvettes, but a much much smaller battle fleet tonnage than the US. To show a contrast of the tonnage, here are the biggest naval forces in the world in terms of weight:
| Country: | Fleet Tonnage (tons): |
| United States of America: | 3,415,893 |
| Russia: | 845,730 |
| China: | 708,086 |
| Japan: | 413,800 |
| United Kingdom: | 367,850 |
| France: | 319,195 |
| India: | 317,725 |
| South Korea: | 178,710 |
| Italy: | 173,549 |
| Taiwan: | 151,662 |
Navy Fleet tonnage comparison
How can the US Navy be that much heavier?
The reason for the US to be on the top of this list, but still have a smaller number of vessels than Russia, is because they have a huge number of big ships, such as 10 aircraft carriers of 100,000 tons each, and 62 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, weighing almost 10,000 tons each. While Russia has only one aircraft carrier (Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov) of 55,000 tons and 13 destroyers, with the biggest one of about 7,000 tons.
The US Navy tonnage is actually bigger than the next 13 Navies – combined!
US Navy Fleet overview
The new Russian naval vessels
Russian Vladivostok of the French Mistral class
Now the Russians are planning on acquiring (even) more naval vessels for their Black Sea fleet – which would widen the gap in ship figures between the US Navy and the Russian even more. The 80 new ships (planned to be completed in 2020) will make the Russian Black Sea fleet alone contain 206 vessels. Russia has also made new acquisitions for their Navy the last years. For instance the French Mistral Helicopter Carriers Vladivostok (laid down for Russia in 2012) and Sevastopol (laid down for Russia in 2013), which they paid $1.7 billion for. Russia plans to have 4 of these very modern ships in the end – but with the crisis in Ukraine and the Russian backing of the separatists – these ships are finally on hold and won’t be delivered for now. The international community put a lot of pressure onto France which hesitated as the country is in a deep crisis with stubbornly high unemployment rates.
Russian supremacy – only on paper
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The USS Gerald R Ford is the biggest, and most capable warship ever built.
But even though this might sound scary to some Americans, they have little to fear. The American Navy is, as previously stated, bigger than the next 13 countries combined, and 11 of these are US allies or partners. The US is planning on keeping their 10 Nimitz carriers until 2040 (or more), and their new USS Gerald R Ford, which is the lead ship of the class with the same name, which is planned to be commissioned in 2016, will add to the US naval supremacy. And even though Russia has a bigger number of vessels, the current situation of the two biggest navies in the world is like a saying from a Swedish kids show – Five ants are more than four elephants.
Additional Reading:
- Learn about naval ship designations and their meanings here.
- Read a 3-part article series about the US Nimitz class aircraft carriers here.
- Read about the history of Russian aircraft carriers here.
Sources:
- Businessinsider.com
- Globalsecurity.org
- Rusnavy.com
- Navy.mil
Being big and heavier doesn’t mean capable. If an elephant can run away from ants then ants have won the battle and will be at peace.
Not a great analogy. If a elephant could run away from ants? The problem with that is it wouldn’t run away from ants, right? Ships built to protect canals could never challenge a destroyer. The seas belong Uncle Sam!
yeap ! correct
Doesn’t matter how many ships you have but how many you’d have left after Russia fire his hypersonic missiles. SPOILER: NONE. US has no defense against Russia’s hypersonic missiles, they admited it
The US navy doesn’t really have to get that close with their complement of F-35 with a range over 1090 kilometres the US navy doesn’t have to get that close, the Russian zircon missiles have a range of only 500 kilometres.
1200 kms
your an ignorant faggot with no knowledge of anything you are speaking about,the u.s submarine fleet alone is enough of a deterent to keep enemies worried,why is it that no one has ever tried to challenge the u.s navy?answer; its because they would be decimated,period!!!
Hypersonic missiles are NOT anti-ship missiles, and unlike US aircraft launched missiles does not have the guidance to follow a ship. The tactical ballistic missile Ukraine used has no guidance either to follow a ship, but the ship was stationary and they knew its location due to the tv program Russia broadcast about the ship.
right but the ukraine have no fleet,and little surface type sea drones have sunk many russian naval vessels,so modern weapons a fraction of the cost of a warship can sink many bigger ships costing billions,so a big navy is ,for now,very prone to huge losses.So what of the big navy now and tomorrow will sink for far cheaper weapons,who rules the seas then,EH ,oh like we did in days gone by,with fewer ships (2000 of them,we ruled the oceans of the world,and they wee defeated by the torpedo,etc etc etc.🤗🤗
If ever in the world an elephant ran away because of ants… it not even seen them…
Fooey, Russian hypersonic missiles is hype. Patriots shit them down like scuds. lOL
tonaz byl ważny do 2 wojny światowej oznaczał grubość pancerza okrętów w tym pancerników ale samoloty z lotniskowcow okazały się lepsze i pancerniki przstaly być budowane a lotniskowce do dziś sa najsilniejszymi okretami . obecnie ważne jest uzbrojenie i nawigacja . w tym USA sa lepsze . uzbrojenie lotniskowcow to samoloty i w tym USA przoduja .ilością i jakością samolotow
Fooey, Russian hypersonic missiles are hype. Patriots shot them down like scuds. LOL
lol fool
With a giant satellite rocket to orbit earth is the the truth from Russia
US. Bigger abd far better trained and equipped. Just take a look at Syria and the amount of malfunctions and down time of the Russians in the same theatre.
I just read the stupidest arguments about who’s the strongest lol. It has already been studied that only a small amount of the massive nuclear arsenals of the world placed in the right areas, would make the world uninhabitable. So who cares who’s the strongest. The biggest fool is the real question, who will push the button first? Who’s going to be the stupidest not the biggest of strongest lol.
For me usa have the biggest navy in the world,long live america
Russia best navy in world compared to fat ghamburger amercunts
U pigs don t have ships…just floating rusted things with flags !
thank you
r u talking about the US or the Russian navy
With a giant satellite rocket to orbit earth is the the truth from Russia
WTF do you mean??? Ghamburger amercunts. would have been funny if you did it right. Russia has always boasted too much too big, it crashed the Soviet Union, over spent and got wiped out in Afghanistan, Navy, Air force and it’s Army, all ill equipped, and lied to in believing they have biggest best equipment. look at the tanks they have deployed, rubber pads in place of explosive armor. bolts missing, parts falling off, Ukraine has taught us all about Russia. Their Navy is The Same.
Russia is not USSR. 3 USS carriers have the budget of the entire Russian flét
stuff america they’re fast running out of friends ‘wiggy trump’ has ruined whatever little trust remains from places like the u.k and france. the most worrying thing for the u.s is the fact that neither trump or his aids even know about he u.k royal navy was once by far, the greatest navy in the world, but look at it now AMERICA BEWARE, the treasury catches you up nomatter how big you think you think you are, when the money stops things go and FAST.
The point is – America needs very few friends. Most of “so called friends” have been milking America for years. Canada and Mexico will be on American side for ever and that is more than 50% of economic activity. In Europe they need only England, Japan and Korea in Asia and Israel in the ME. America doesn’t depend on international trade, so the friends depend on America to provide security.
Without nuclear weapons Russia would be a paper target. It is the third world country whose economy based in selling resources.
Very irrelevant answer , developing nations can do more in same amount than developed countries (basic economics). Even without hypersonic missiles Russian Navy has destroyers and cruisers with superior firepower. So considering 2nd or 3rd strongest navy a paper tiger is really a weak excuse (never denied that US Navy is still the strongest)
beware…. lmao says a swedish punk
Trump best president in 100 years Obama gave the ship away now he’s worth 300 million plus
Dems lost the world security narrative
When /if the US goes broke, watch your own nations follow suit. Friends and Foes
Stop the nonsense we all know America would destroy Russia in a war at sea or air. You all are just haters o and by the way if we even thought russia would use its zircon missile…well let’s just say..we’d probably hit them with everything we have..again mutual destruction. But a conventional war we’d kick Russias arse
Americans Cannot Intercept Zircon Missile, So Russia Are The Best
The F-35 Can be launched from 520 kilometres away from an aircraft carrier, take out targets, then get all the way back.
guys the russian navy has has about 80 combat ships and The US has Almost 190 and has 11 aircraft carriers vs 1 russian one.
most of Russias 55 subs are old compared to 66 us subs of which most of them are modern!
okay hell pig your russian shit sucks anything russian is ass like your shitty ak’s and your planes that blow up when u fly em like your fucking russian bear we been using since the second world war. U sell all your stuff to the sand people and it fails half the time. we give them retired jets and helicopters and they still do better then the brand new stuff you give them, like oh no u have one missile we can’t stop good luck making half away across the world. your cars suck. like if you try to bomb us with a the tu-95 bear good luck it is the loudest fucking thing on earth. we also have the most advanced aircraft with f-35 raptor and we have better tanks the m1a2 abrams is better than the t-90 which is your only thing close to being as good as the m1 and u only have like a 1,000 of them where as we have 5000 m1’s and u may have 20,000 tanks only like 3,500 would be active. until u make that armata-14 we are superior in every way and by that time we probably have the m3 by then.
Very good for a children’s playground analysis
The fighting capacity of the Russian Navy was only 45% of the United States.
Dont get me wrong, both are top strongest navies in the world.
Navy is a website for Russian defense, according to a flot.com analysis. This decreased from 47% in 2017 and 52% in 2014. The United States today.
US Navy argues that its missions are not sufficiently fulfilled by ships, such as China or Russia, as a preparation for war.
Admirals are concerned with new threats like Russian and Chinese hypersonic anti-ship missiles.
Russia has been run by Putin for decades and Putin is not a fool, he has made sure Russia has the best missiles in the world as it has held this edge since the end of world war 2. still today you may say Putin has made mistakes and put faith in people and ideas that have not gone so good, but Russian missiles the world does fear, and his people sleep ok at night knowing their skies are secure. meanwhile our military leaders are sleeping themselves when they are supposed to be keeping us safe, we have the world’s best air force and planes and technology, yet china gets by us with hot air balloons? ok, we discovered the balloons, what HAVENT we discovered? Make jokes about Russia if you dare, but this I am about to say is true and cannot be denied, Putin keeps his people safe, Xi keeps Chinese people safe, the fact that the world would refuse to trade with them both if they attacked us by surprise one night is the only thing that keeps us safe, otherwise we have no guarantees. our leaders are weak and compromised, our media is controlled, the only thing that’s really different between us and Russia is that Russians get the same guy year after year, while we delude ourselves into believing every four years we are in control and can vote our way to change what we like, so we should be perfect. bullshit. Americans Russians Chinese, none are really free, no free press or free speech. say the wrong thing In Russia, go to prison, same in china, in USA you just lose your means of supporting yourself and family and eventually will starve under a bridge together. scary thing is the people we don’t see who are truly in power have convinced us that we should fear each other. that is the greatest lie ever told.
Comment: Papa Bravo’s comment “Very Good for Children’s Playground analysis was the best, I served in The Greatest Navy on Earth stationed at Guantanamo during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kruschshev sent the Majority of the Russian fleet to try to run his missiles past a Blockade of Cuba consisting of One Carrier, Enterprise and 12 mixed class ships of Lt. Cruisers and Destroyers. Lt. John McCain, (War Hero) & Admiral’s son, sitting in the cockpit of an A-6 warthog never had to leave the deck to scare the shit out of an Entire Russian Fleet that turned tail back to Ports of St. Petersburg and Vladivostock, before Moscow “Nikita” waved the White Flag! Please, Give me a break!This
Isn’t even a comparison worthy of discussion! Neither Napoleon, Wellington nor Hitler’s Germany could defeat the Kaiser or Stalin by Land Attack in two Centuries of World Wars, But Russia has a Total of 7 Seaports five of which are strictly commercial exporting Timber, Mostly Coal and Petrochemicals. Russia Never has been Never will be a “SeaPower’ and Our Great President Biden should use Two Carrier and Two Submarine groups, one in the North Sea and One in the Bering Sea of Japan Poised to Strike Russia if it moves on Ukraine rather than simply threaten “sanctions” He hasn’t done so to Avoid a World War because he is a Master of Foreign Policy in the Use of Diplomacy for Peace! The Entire World Should be listening to Biden, Not the B.S. of Putin or Trump!
Chuck Glover 19 February 2022
this comment certainly aged well
Comment: If my previous comment is too long and requires “Moderation” please delete all exclamation marks and everything after the words “This isn’t even a comparison worthy of discussion. (ending with a period rather than exclamation point.. I would like it signed as simply:
Chuck Glover 19 February 2022
Chuck 19 February 2022
I typed a long comment regarding the 1962 Blockade of Cuba by America’s pre-eminent Navy against Russia’s aggression in trying Communize the Western Hemisphere in Cuba after American U-Two Stealth Planes caught Russia with its pants down sending its limited Navy Fleet with missiles to “provoke” the USA into Nuclear war. We needed only one Carrier and 12 mixed class destroyers and carriers to chase the Russian Fleet back to ports such as of St. Petersburg and Vladivostok. “Little man, Little Brain’ Putin (like Nikita Khruschev) is now also attempting to provoke global conflict with 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s Border, Putin’s Navy was recently put to shame by my Irish fishermen cousins, who forced the Russian fleet commanders to move away from Irish Fishing Grounds. Bottom line: Russia is Not, Nor will it ever be a Major Naval Seapower. It has only 7 “Seaports” bordering on North Sea, Arctic Ocean and on southeast Coast of the Bering Sea of Japan; mostly commercial ports from which it exports Timber, Coal, and some petrochemicals. It is largely a landlocked 3rd class nation of Frozen Siberian tundra and comparison of its Navy to America’s Navy isn’t even a Comparison “Worthy” of Discussion.
Chuck Glover, American Navy Veteran Cuban Missile crisis; 19 February 2022
When U r a 10 year old trying to wag your tail by spreading misiinformation with false credibility
Aleksey Argozhov
Captain, Regional FSB special forces of the Russian Armed Forces
Капитан Регионального спецназа ФСБ ВС РФ
Chuck- 19 February 2022
To Other Commenters listed above. The key to understanding this website and having your comments published can be found in the Website Name: Duh.
MIGFlug.com (slanted) can Only be Russian Sponsored but very well done promotional Website advocating for and on behalf of Vladimir Putin. Duh,
What was I Thinking? If you want to have a True and Honest Discussion, before you come back to MigFlug.com you might want to try studying the American Version of such a website: It Called Jane’s Fighting Ships. Jane’s is not a woman, It’s the Last Name of the person who also publishes: Janes Fighting Tanks, Janes Fighting Planes/Aircraft, and Janes Fighting War Machines.
I hear you, the is this statement that say strength respect strength, the Russians has simple respect for you, not that they are afraid of America,
The taliban gave you sleepness night in 20years, rice Vietnamese farmers you couldn’t fight, you have been fighting terrorism for 22 years now nothing has change, let me not talk about Iran that chases your ships away or shoot your drones down anytime they want, and you believe your foolish self you will role over russia like a mushroom
Many empires have had the arrogance of the united state it believes no one can challenge it, until one day it will be defeated.
Ask who brought the fall of napoleon, it was the Russians
ask Nazi Germany, it was the Russians
ask imperial japan why it never dare to fight or win a war against the Russians but it had the courage to attacked usa,
ask the turks( ottoman empire) i can name you countless. go and learn the history of the Russians. Many of you Americans has this idiotic perception about Russians because they are quiet people and doesn’t talk much as you do.
When U r a 10 year old trying to wag your tail by spreading misiinformation with false credibility
Aleksey Argozhov
Captain, Regional FSB special forces of the Russian Armed Forces
Капитан Регионального спецназа ФСБ ВС РФ
Forget Russia. The question should be who is making ships fastest? I presume that is China.
Well this didn’t age well
Hahaha yes we have to agree!