forever is a very long time. we will not see a super power russia in the next 50 years, but with the price of oil constantly going up, (which russia has alot of) we could see a super power russia emerging in the distant future, how distant only time can tell.

russia must hit rock bottom before it starts to float up agian

..become a super power until it reverses it's negative birth rate, and then it will take 2 or 3 generations..

Actually Roman I think the number of operational subs is accurate i don;t hyave the exact numbers but somethng like 15 SSBNs, 20 SSNs, 10 SSGNs, 15 SSKs. They don;t see a lot of sea time but there are maintained at least minimally sea worthy. Its not that impressive though they had 250+ 15 years ago. Historian the Kirov was an amazing design. Largest non-carrier surface warship built post WWII. Nuclear propulsion, with oil-fired backup. One of the first designs to use Phased Array Radars and VLS systems. Absolutely huge magazines. As to how well it would have done in actual combat I have no idea.

what about the tesla coils? lol

"Quick question NewGuy, just how effect was the Kirov design? It was rather unique, so I wonder if it was actually a good design or not. Thanks. " FH, It is (perhaps I should now say 'was', I guess) a serious threat in some circumstances. Early on, for example, point defense systems could not cope very well with the near-vertical final attack dive of the SS-N-19s, because the Phalanx did not work at > ~80 deg and there was a more-or-less "blind-spot" directly above the ship as far as FC radar went, so you had to kill them early. Bith issues were rectified, and with the later models of the SM-2 the SS-N-19s were much less a threat to a CBG. The Kirov's air defense system is very good, the long range defense is not nearly up to Aegis/AM-2 standards, but the short-range defense is excellent. It has some areas of vulnerability that we could exploit, which I can't detail of course. I have heard that currently the 1 or 2 (depends upon which source you use) of them that are still (or more precisely back) in service have some problems with certain major systems that are not operational, so they are working at somewhat reduced efficiency, but would still pose a significant threat to less capable navies. A good friend of mine, served on a 688I in the Pacific, loved to brag that the crews of the Kirov's were the guys most likely to first learn of the effects of multiple Mk-48 hits on a modern warship ;-) NewGuy "It is good that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it." Robert E. Lee

does anyone know if there are any production plans for the su 47's and the mig 1.42's?

Mig 1.42 has been relegated to the role of a technology demonstrator aircraft. There is some ambivalence about whether Su-47 will be produced - most likely not. However, Su-47 is most likely going to be used as a basis for the development a new Russian fighter, but supposedly without the forward swept wings (I wonder why - I thought they were successful).

maybe europe would be intrested in buying the desighnes

not many countries can out perform russai in a long term war. most important things are: -natural recources, russia has plenty of that. -numbers, russia has a large army, and in a full out war, it can recruit civilians, like in world war 2. -size, russia's size makes it alot a much longer process to tkae over, and to capture it's recources, millitary base, giving russia time to mass produce weapons, and recruit more people. -russia builds all of its own weapons, therefor in an all out war it is able to re generate it's weaponary that has been destroyed without relying on other countries. very usefull id supply routs are blocked.