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CV-16 Liaoning started life as the sister ship to the current Russian flagship Admiral Kuznetsov. Designed in Soviet Russia, this 65,000 ton vessel carries upto 26 fighters and 22 helicopters. Currently she is officially a training vessel as it is hard to learn how to operate a super carrier from scratch.
Construction started on the then soviet carrier Varyag in 1985. She was launched in 1988, but due to monetery difficulties of the late soviet state she was only around 85% completed when the soviet union broke up, most of the structure was done but she never had any engines, weapons or means of power generation. The Ukraine didn't need or want a super carrier and so she was left to rot for over 8 years.
In 1998 the Ukrainian government sold the ship at auction for $20million to travel company from Hong Kong who wished to turn her into a floating casino/hotel in neighboring Macau. And after much negotiation with the Turkish government to allow the hulk to be town through the Dardanelles, in 2001 she began a 5 month journey to China.
Officially the company who bought her were not awarded casion liecense in Macau so their plan was off. Thus began another 5 years of rotting, this time in Dalian. In the early part of 2005 she was taken to dry dock and examined by experts from PLA and hull treatment began. The next 6 years a slow refit and modernization began for the ship, giving her engines and all systems necessary to operate.
Finally in late 2011 she began her sea trials. The Chinese government said she will be a "scientific research, experiment and training." She now sports an upgraded array of sensors, an improved engine system and a full complement of J-15 aircraft, a Chinese version of the Russian SU-33.
Whilst not as well equipped as the American Nimitz class and the crews are certainly not as experienced she is the 2nd most powerful class of carrier in the world. With at least 5 home built carriers in the work and crews training constantly on this ship, all we can say is that China is growing stronger.
Read and enjoyed all your posts!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if China will be able to capitalize on their carriers in a timely manner, it took the United States decades of accidents and crashes and countless flight hours to understand the complexities of carrier ops. One thing is for sure though China is a rising naval power.
Great articles, keep up the good work!
Helo mate really nice blog,but I disagree about it being part of the 2nd most powerfull class of CV in the wolrd. It's true it is the 2nd biggest but the French "charles de Gaulle" is a much more modern and avanced carrier. And most of all it is a nuclear powered one which gives him a huge advange in autonomy.
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The fact is we dont know what Liaoning's power plant is, all the reasearch material i read was before she went to China, she may be nuclear, we dont know. And the de Gaulle is powerful but Liaoning has atleast 15,000 tons on her(again pre china) and a five knot speed advantage. The Chances are is that China has massively upgraded her from what she was in the Ukraine, its just not public information. Its debatable and the de gaulle is certainly at this point more capable. But I was going off raw numbers and not counting experience of crews.
ReplyDeleteWhere are you getting those numbers? I haven't seen anything semi official saying that China has actually laid down or issued orders for 5 carriers. I know China has orders for 2 modern carriers and then this 1 old one so they'd have 3 carriers by roughly 2020 but definitely not 5 home built ones.
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