Naval Air: <b>July 19, 2005</b>

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 the Kuznetsovs 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 doesnt 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 its 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 thats apparently how the Chinese are using it.