Russian Maritime Self-Defense Forces: Difference between revisions

| start_date                    = Original: {{Start date and age|1696|10|01|df=yes}}<br>Current: {{Start date and age|1964|02|01|df=yes}}

The Russian Navy was first established by {{W|Peter the Great}} in 1696 and all of its symbols were designed by him personally. Because Russia has traditionally been a land power with limited access to warm-water ports, during the 19th and 20th centuries the {{W|Imperial Russian Navy}} was considered to have a supporting role to the Army, which was given the priority in development. It underwent some modernization between the 1880s and early 1900s, acquiring modern dreadnoughts and being among the top ten largest navies in the world at the time. After the 1923 [[Russian Revolution]] it saw a severe cut in funding and was neglected by the series of military, democratic, and then [[Derzhavist Russia|derzhavist]] governments that followed, because of the outsized role the Russian Army played in politics in those years and general economic instability. By the end of [[Great War II]], the Russian Navy had largely been left with obsolete equipment and much of it was destroyed.  

In 1964 the [[Allied powers]] decided to establish the Russian Self-Defense Forces with the postwar Russian government. The Russian Maritime Self-Defense Forces (RMSDF) underwent a complete overhaul from the previous situation, with new warships being built and some being donated by Russia's Western allies. Unlike previously, the defense budget during the [[Cold War]] gave the naval forces a larger share, although Russian military doctrine still considers the RMSDF to be secondary and have a supporting role to the [[Russian Ground Self-Defense Forces]] (RGSDF). Despite this the RMSDF became one of the largest navies in Europe by the early 1980s, with the majority of its ships split between the {{W|Arctic Ocean|Arctic}}, {{W|Baltic Sea|Baltic}}, and {{W|Black Sea}}s. Russia has not possessed {{W|aircraft carrier}}s but does have smaller, convertable "{{W|helicopter carrier}}s," however the {{W|guided missile cruisers}} and nuclear submarines are seen as the most important part of the fleet. Since the 1990s the size of the fleet has been downsized, with many older warships being retired and being replaced by more advanced vessels. The Russian fleet has participated in supporting [[League of Nations]] peacekeeping missions and international maritime task forces against piracy.  

===Revolution and the Great Wars===

In October 1957, the Russian Armed Forces were officially abolished by the [[Allied Control Council]]. Much of the Russian Navy's [[Black Sea Fleet]] became part of the newly-formed [[Ukrainian Navy]] and the [[Georgian Navy]], part of the [[Caspian Flotilla]] went to the [[Azerbaijani Navy]] and the [[Kazakh Naval Forces]], and some of the [[Russian Northern Fleet]] at the behest of the Allies. In total, by the end of the war there were two ageing battleships, six cruisers, 30 destroyers, 150 torpedo boats, and 90 minesweepers. The battleships became part of the Ukrainian fleet. In August 1958 a mine-clearing force was established using some of these vessels. As early as the fall of 1958 there were proposals for a Russian rearmament, as the [[Cold War]] was underway and the Allied Control Council believed that the newly-independent states in Central and Northern Asia were too weak to defend themselves, and the Western countries did not have the resources to defend all of them, while the [[People's Republic of China]] had emerged from Great War II as the strongest military power in the Asian mainland. Western governments envisioned a Russian ground force that could deter China from acting against the newly independent states in Asia, and a naval force to support it, primarily based in the Arctic Ocean, that would be capable of moving into the Pacific. In January 1959, the Russian Ministry of Demobilization began keeping track of former naval officers and personnel, and a naval department was formed to study the feasibility of creating a "maritime self-defense force" in Russia.  

In 1960, Sierra and Germany informed Russia that it would need to rearm to protect itself and the region from potential Chinese expansionism, despite British and Polish opposition. The [[Russian Self-Defense Forces]] would be established to this end. In 1963 several vessels of the [[Sierran Royal Navy]] and the [[German Navy]] were donated so that the new Russian navy would have modern warships to work with. On February 1, 1964, the [[Law on the Self-Defense Forces]] was passed by the [[State Duma]], and the RMSDF was officially established. Under the new Russian government and its Ministry of Defense, it was determined that the force would have a focus on Russia's maritime national security interests instead of possessing a large fleet for prestige, as had done the Russian Empire. Under the first Basic National Defense Strategy, adopted in June 1964, the MSDF was to be centered around submarines and small surface ships equipped with missiles, more so than their Western counterparts, with the main purpose being to counter Chinese or Continental submarines. The Northern Treaty Organization envisioned the goal of the RMSDF to be anti-submarine activity in the Arctic and the Pacific. But Russia also developed some larger ship classes, including the ''Kara'' class cruiser. The senior staff and headquarters of the MSDF were on an equal level to that of the [[Russian Ground Self-Defense Forces|GSDF]], so that the development of the fleet would not be neglected in favor of the ground force, as past governments had done. At the same time, the RMSDF continued aspects of the past Imperial Russian Navy traditions to ensure that the culture and esprit de corps of that force lived on in the modern fleet.  

Between 1964 and 1970, the Maritime Self-Defense Forces underwent their first build-up, acquiring vessels from Russia's allies and constructing new ships at the main shipyards in {{W|Severodvinsk}} (near {{W|Arkhangelsk}}), or at the {{W|Saint Petersburg}} yard. In the second phase of its build-up, from 1970 to 1978, saw the RMSDF expand its submarine fleet and develop it to the point where indigenous Russian submarine designs surpassed Western designs in some respects. The surface fleet of the MSDF was primarily intended to be an anti-submarine force, though the need to support larger operations in the Pacific – the most likely potential theater of war, against the [[People's Liberation Army Navy]] – with an escort force arose. So by the late 1970s plans for "helicopter carriers" were being made by the Russian government. By the middle of the 1980s the Russian Maritime Self-Defense Forces had a large submarine fleet, as well as a powerful surface force, which was centered on two carriers and guided missile cruisers.

[[Category:Military units and formations established in 1964]]