With less than a month remaining, it seems highly unlikely that the Russian Navy's flagship aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov will return begin its sea trials in 2024. Whether the carrier's refit is even completed next year is still anyone's guess. The Kremlin has repeatedly suggested the carrier will rejoin the fleet, and be more capable than ever.
Whether that latter fact is true is also an unknown, and unfortunately the one man who might have the insight on the carrier is no longer with us. United States Navy Admiral Donald Lee Pilling, who passed away from Leukemia in May 2008, had the distinction of being among the few Americans to have walked the deck of the carrier.
How an American Admiral Was on Russia's Carrier
It is almost hard to remember but there was a time when relations between Washington and Moscow were almost friendly.
On January 7, 1996, as Russia was still recovering from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Admiral Pilling was among a small group of U.S. Navy officers who were given a tour of the........