Tag Archives: carrier Varyag

Carriers on the move from the Liaoning to Hampton Roads

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The first clear images of the Type 002 carrier, Shāndōng (17) have been released as the vessel was commissioned yesterday into PLAN service. The vessel, China’s second semi-operational flattop after the old Soviet-made Liaoning (ex-Varyag), and the first to be domestically-built, is conventionally-powered.

From the South China Morning Post

With a 70,000-ton displacement, she is larger than any other carrier in service save for nuclear-powered U.S. Nimitz and Ford-class supercarriers and is roughly about the same size as the old Forrestal-class CVAs– but only carry about half of the airwing. It is further argued that her airwing, restricted to a ski-jump, cannot maintain the same sortie rate as a U.S. ship.

Her commissioning was attended by President Xi Jinping, and it is expected the PLAN will have a four carrier fleet within a decade.

Meanwhile, PCU John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), the U.S. Navy’s newest nuclear-powered Ford-class carrier, was quietly launched into the James River this week.

Chinese in the Naval Air Business now

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These photos were released today by the Chinese military of the first “Official” landings and take offs from the 53,000-ton PLAN ship Liaoning CV-16.

The pilot who achieved the first landing was allegedly Dai Mingmeng.

Originally laid down as the Admiral Kuznetsov class multirole aircraft carrier Riga for the Soviet Navy, she was launched on December 4, 1988 and renamed Varyag in 1990. The ship was purchased in 1998 by the People’s Republic of China (reportedly for use as an amusement park) and towed to Dalian Shipyard in north eastern China. After extensive refit and sea trials, the ship was commissioned into the PLAN as Liaoning on September 25, 2012. Now with her hull 27 years old, she has landed her first carrier-capable fighter aircraft. The crew looks very professional and very…..NATO…down to the color coded float-coats.

The plane with the groovy camo is a Shenyang J-15 ( also known as Flying Shark) which is thought based on a reversed engineered Ukrainian supplied and Russian-designed Sukhoi Su-33 and is fitted with domestically produced radars and weapons. Its a Gen 4.5 fighter and allegedly has a 10% superior thrust to weight ratio and a 25% lower wing loading than the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet– the plane it would most likely fly against. The PLANAF only has 16 of these planes so far in one experimental squadron on a patchwork carrier, while the USN has about 500 F-18E/F’s in 33 squadrons ready to fly from 10 experienced nuclear aircraft carriers.

….for now….