CHINA SAID TO BEGIN BUILDING FIRST AIRCRAFT CARRIER IN AUGUST 2005/06/28 21:39:54
Taipei, June 28 (CNA) China will begin to build its first aircraft carrier in August at a cost of 30 billion yuan (about US$362 million), according to a report by China's www.Boxun.com. The report said the carrier, which the web site claims will have a displacement of 78,000 tons, will be built by the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai although this has been denied by Zhan Guangqin, deputy chief of China's Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense. The unconfirmed report quoted an unnamed engineer at the shipyard as saying that Russian experts will help with the fitting of a steam-turbine propeller that will give the giant vessel a top speed of 32 knots. It claimed that the carrier will go into service in 2006 at the earliest and that it will take two more years to combine the operations of the vessel with those of jet fighters to form a combative force. Weapons experts, however, pointed out that it seems "too optimistic" to build an aircraft carrier in just one year and to develop a battle group in three years. (By Han Nai-kuo) ENDITEM/J
July 19, 2005: The mystery, of what China is doing with the former Russian aircraft carrier Varyag, continues. The Chinese appear to be doing some kind of work on the Varyag, one of two Kuznetsov class that Russia began building in the 1980s. Originally they were conceived of as 90,000 ton, nuclear powered ships, similar to American carriers (complete with steam catapults). Instead, because of the cost, and the complexity of modern (American style) carriers, the Russians were forced to scale back their goals, and ended up with the 55,000 ton (full load ) ships that lacked steam catapults, and used a “ski jump” flight deck instead. Nuclear power was dropped, but the Kuznetsov class was still a formidable design. The thousand foot long carrier normally carries a dozen navalized Su-27s (called Su-33s), 14 Ka-27PL anti-submarine helicopters, two electronic warfare helicopters and two search and rescue helicopters. But the ship can carry up to 36 Su-33s and sixteen helicopters. The ship carries 2,500 tons of aviation fuel, allowing it to generate 500-1,000 aircraft and helicopter sorties. Crew size is 2,500 (or 3,000 with a full aircraft load.) Because of the expense, and risk of accidents with an inexperienced crew, the Kuznetsov doesn’t get to sea much. But the Russians have had enough experience with Kuznetsov to encourage them to get develop plans for two more, larger, carriers. These new ships, which are not expected until the next decade, may look like current carriers, but will probably be quite different inside. For one thing, the Russians will arm the “2010” carriers with more missiles and robotic aircraft (combat UAVs.) Even the Kuznetsov had twelve aircraft size P-500 “Shipwreck” anti-ship missiles. These were launched from tubes mounted beneath the flight deck. The Kuznetsovs also had 24 anti-aircraft missile launchers, as well as 30mm close-in guns, anti-torpedo decoy rockers and lots of radars and electronics. Thus the Chinese have much to learn from how the Varyag, and it’s 3,800 compartments, and 16 kilometers of internal passageways. The Kuznetsov was designed based on decades of Russian experience building, and operating smaller carriers. The Russians had also obtained much technical data on the most modern U.S. carriers. Thus the Varyag is a huge depository of useful information on how to build an aircraft carrier. And that’s apparently how the Chinese are using it.
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