Russia to rival Western naval power with revived fleet

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Russia is to revive its once-mighty navy by building several aircraft carriers and updating its fleet of nuclear submarines.

Although it once challenged the might of the U.S. military during the Cold War, the Soviet navy has become a shadow of its former self.

But with a strong economy booming from oil exports, Russia is trying to raise its profile on the world stage by modernising its armed forces.

Speaking during Navy Day festivities in St Petersburg yesterday, navy commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said five or six aircraft carrier battle groups will be built in the near future.

'We are aspiring not only to introduce new technologies, not only to compete with the West, but to take new steps which would allow us to look at submarine technologies of the middle of the 21st century,' he added.

Currently, Russia has only one aircraft carrier - the Soviet-built Nikolai Kuznetsov - which, although launched in 1985, did not become fully operational until ten years later due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Russia will also modernise its Arctic Wind class nuclear submarines, the first of which was launched in February and is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year.

Two more submarines of this class are also being built.