Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag towed to Dalian Shipyard in North Eastern China

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[Bob Evans]

Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag towed to Dalian Shipyard in North Eastern China

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Varyag was to be a Kuznetsov-class multirole aircraft carrier.  She was known as Riga when her keel was laid down at [Nikolayev South] (formerly Shipyard 444) on December 6, 1985, and she was launched on December 4, 1988, but she was renamed Varyag ("viking") in late 1990.

Construction stopped by 1992 with the ship structurally complete but without electronics.  Ownership was transferred to the Ukraine as the Soviet Union broke up and the ship was laid up unmaintained, then stripped.  In early 1998, she lacked engines, a rudder, and much of her operating systems.  She was put up for auction.

In April, Ukrainian Trade Minister Roman Shprek announced the winning bid -- US$20 million from a small Hong Kong company called the [Chong Lot Travel Agency] Ltd.  Chong Lot proposed to tow Varyag out of the Black Sea, through the Suez Canal and around southern Asia to Macao, where they would moor the ship and convert it into a floating hotel and gambling parlor.

However, considerable evidence suggested that the future of Varyag is linked to the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and its program to develop a Chinese aircraft carrier.

Before the auction was closed, officials in Macao had warned Chong Lot that they would not be permitted to park Varyag in the harbor.  The sale was carried out anyway.  Chong Lot is owned by a Hong Kong firm called Chin Luck (Holdings) Company.  Four of Chin Luck's six board members live in [Yantai, China] where a major Chinese Navy shipyard is located.  Chin Luck's chairman is a former career military officer with the People's Liberation Army.  (It is not unusual in China for a company that actually is involved in tourism or travel to be controlled by former PLA officers.)

However, China's interest is puzzling.  Due to the poor condition of the hulk, it is thought highly unlikely that the PLAN will commission the carrier; rather, many analysts suggest that the PLAN intends to examine the carrier as a model for an indigenous carrier to be built later.  Others counter that the carrier does not represent modern technology; the PLAN could probably have learned all they needed from Varyag without towing it all the way to China.

Whatever plans have been made, in mid-2000, a Dutch tug with a Filipino crew was hired to take Varyag under tow.  However, Chong Lot could not get permission from Turkey to transit the dangerous Bosporus strait -- in addition to safety issues, the Montreux Treaty of 1936 does not allow aircraft carriers to pass the Dardanelles -- and the hulk spent 16 months circling in the Black Sea.  High-level Chinese government ministers conducted negotiations in Ankara on Chong Lot's behalf, offering to allow Chinese tourists to visit cash-strapped Turkey if the travel agency's ship were allowed to pass through the straits.  On November 1, 2001, Turkey finally relented from its position that the vessel posed too great of a danger to the bridges of Istanbul, and allowed the transit.

Escorted by 27 vessels including 11 tug boats and three pilot boats, Varyag took six hours to transit the strait; most large ships take an hour and a half.  The Russian press reported that 16 pilots and 250 seamen were involved. At 11:45am on November 2, she completed her passage and made for Gallipoli and Çanakkale at 5.8 knots.  She passed through the Dardanelles without incident.

On November 3, Varyag was caught in a force 9 gale and broke adrift while passing the Aegean island of Skyros.  Turkish and Greek sea rescue workers tried to re-capture the hulk, which was drifting toward the island of Evia.  The seven-member crew (three Russians, three Ukrainians and one Filipino) remained on board as six tugboats tried to reestablish their tow.  However, after many failed attempts to reattach the lines, a Greek coast guard rescue helicopter landed on Varyag and picked up four of the seven crew.  One tug managed to make a line fast to the ship later in the day, but high winds severely hampered efforts by two other tugs to secure the ship.  On November 6, Aries Lima (reported as both Dutch and Portuguese), a sailor from the tug Haliva Champion, died after a fall while attempting to reattach the tow ropes.  On November 7, the hulk was taken back under tow and progress toward the Suez Canal resumed at some three knots.

The Chinese Foreign Minister announced plans to visit Egypt in late December 2001.

The aircraft carrier sailed into Chinese waters on February 20 2002, and is being towed to Dalian Shipyard in Northeastern China.

[willyone]

Lets not let the Chinese down. They are counting on us to supply them with the money to use in our destruction. So get out to China Mart and shop like there is no tomorrow. because there just may not be.

[Bob Evans]

(:^>

[Orangedog]

Nice to see the latest item that the Chinese picket up at the Russian yard sale. This particular sale was nice and public because, let's face it, an aircraft carrier is pretty hard to hide. Hard to tell what else has been sold to them.

It looks like whatever the Chinese couldn't steal from us (or aquire as "gifts" from x42 and company), they can buy from what used to be the Soviet Union.

[Francohio]

Hey don't sweat it. The Russkis know from nothing about carriers. Probably one of those ski-jump jobs, or a carrier for that funky combloc VTOL naval fighter.

I wouldn't worry about the Chicom developing catapults ... on the other hand if your local Wal-Mart runs out of bungee cord ... then, I might worry.

Can they tow it fast enough to launch planes?

[MadRobotArtist]

They got all of their technology from the Clinton administration to make this aircraft carrier seaworthy. The transfer of sensitive technology took place in 1998. I wrote an article about this in 1998, and early 1999. They got the technology in exchange for campaign funds. They got 4 cray supercomputers, satellite navigations systems, as well as plans for our missile systems.

They bought it under the pretense of turning it into a so called floating casino, but instead have given it a refit. It will be an aircraft carrier, within 2 years. It will be an attack grade carrier as well. All thanks to the Russians and the Clinton Administration.

[green team 1999]

VTOL cruiser Minsk, Project 1143 "Krechet", underway. Second of the Kiev class Taktycheskiy Avionosnyy Kreyser (TAKR; Tactical Aviation Cruisers), this ship served in the Pacifc. She went to South Korean shipbreakers in 1995 with her sister Novorossiysk; both had suffered major fires. Surpisingly, however, Minsk has been resold to Chinese interests, and is now moored in a Chinese port, reportedly for use as a casino/entertainment complex.

information at some point is not accurate,one or two carriers?
minsk was operational in the pacific,the other one never finish,so how many the chicoms got?

[Orangedog]

It's not the Russian carrier itself that concerns me, but the technology it takes to build one. Having the husk of a former super-power's flat top will save the Chicoms years in developing one from scratch. While Soviet hardware is the most advanced, it's functional.

In 10 years they will be able to nuke any city in the U.S. I mean, with them having that kind of capability, how many carriers would they really need to become an even more serious national security threat?

[Bob Evans]

I forgot to mention the two Typhoon class missile subs ... one of which is somewhere off the Pacific Coast

[John H K]

They bought it under the pretense of turning it into a so called floating casino, but instead have given it a refit. It will be an aircraft carrier, within 2 years. It will be an attack grade carrier as well. All thanks to the Russians and the Clinton Administration.

Why are you writing about a subject you clearly don't have the foggiest understanding of?

I'd love to see your "articles"...would be good for a laugh. The Varyag is BEYOND a complete hulk. Operating an aircraft carrier is unbelievably complex and it isn't a simple matter of slapping some planes and equipment on the Varyag.

I'll bet you $1000 the Varyag is never in operational service as an Aircraft Carrier with the PLAN...willing to take that bet?

Ten years, absolute minimum, before the PLAN has anything resembling an operational aircraft carrier for fixed wing aircraft.

Look, NOBODY likes Clinton, and nobody likes the tech transfer. But the entire PRC military, to put it plainly, sucks, and will suck for some time.

But because they're obsessed with making Clinton even worse, people feel compelled to fabricate junk about the PRC military being better and scarier than it is.

[hoot2]

"Whatever plans have been made, in mid-2000, a Dutch tug with a Filipino crew was hired to take Varyag under tow"

disguise it as a 'nafta truck'; n smuggle the "whole world" into the u.s.

[Husker24]

I believe I heard something about the Russians selling a carrier to India, this must be the other carrier.

[John H K]

While Soviet hardware is the most advanced, it's functional.

Common myth that Soviet stuff was simpler than US stuff, but more reliable and rugged. Applies to small arms but not major weapons systems. Their Naval vessels, and aircraft were FAR more unreliable, and fragile than ours; their tanks had incredibly unreliable, and complicated autoloaders that often tore the arms off crew members.

Much of it NEVER worked. At all. The machinery of the Kuznetsov and Kiev classes (Varyag is Kuznetsov, Minsk is Kiev class) was unreliable...of course, Varyag has never HAD any machinery. And the search radar of the Kuznetsov class was a COMPLETE failure; never worked at all.

[Jhoffa_]

Why develop your own, when you can just buy the technology and xerox it?

[rightwing2]

China Reform Monitor No. 431, February 25, 2002
American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, D.C.
http://www.afpc.org

Editor: Al Santoli

CHINESE OFFICIALS HARASS DISSIDENTS, CENSOR BUSH SPEECH; AIRCRAFT CARRIER "CASINO" HEADED TO CHINESE NAVAL BASE

February 24: The mystery of a Soviet-built aircraft carrier bought by a Macau company to be a "floating casino" took a new twist when it was revealed that its destination was Dalian, the site of one of the mainland's key naval shipyards, the South China Morning Post reports. The 60,000-ton Varyag, was released following a two-year diplomatic tussle after Beijing offered Turkey a US$ 361 million passage fee - despite denials from Beijing it was behind the Varyag purchase from Ukraine. A Turkish source said: "It was quite clear that the Chinese Government was very determined to see that the Varyag reached Chinese waters - there was involvement at the very highest levels." Foreign diplomatic and military observers believe Beijing is footing the bill because it is planning to use the Varyag as a template for future PLA navy carrier designs. Senior naval officers have made no secret of their ambitions to project China's burgeoning military power with the use of large aircraft carriers.

Copyright (c) 2002, American Foreign Policy Council

The article you posted only gives part of the story. This excerpt from the China Reform Monitor provides the rest. Ever since 1997 when Communist China purcased the Varyag, the PRC has floated the blatant disinformation story that the ship was purchased as a floating casino--propaganda so obvious as to be absurd on its face. When I worked at the Center for Security Policy in a few years ago, I challenged the current Executive VP's lame belief in the veracity of this ChiCom propaganda. Since 1999, I have been arguing that the PRC purchased the Russian supercarrier, Varyag, to use as the model to build her own class of 60,000 ton aircraft carriers. Several months after I presented this hypothesis, several articles came out about a new ChiCom plan to build a new class of 60,000 ton aircraft carriers. Now we learn that despite the fact that a ChiCom front company bought Varyag for only $20 million, they were willing to pay the Turks $361 million to let it pass through the Bosporous Straights. Now, its showing up at one of the four main ChiCom shipbuilding yards after having passed through the ChiCom controlled Suez Canal. So much for the 'mystery' of the fate of the Varyag. This so-called 'mystery' has now been completely resolved by the course of events.

[rightwing2]

information at some point is not accurate,one or two carriers? minsk was operational in the pacific,the other one never finish,so how many the chicoms got?

The ChiComs scored a total of four of the six Russian aircraft carriers--Minsk, Novasibirsk, the supercarrier Varyag, and now Kiev as well. It is conceivable that given time one or more of these carriers will be refitted for use by the PLA Navy. Only Admiral Gorshov and the supercarrier Admiral Kutzenov remained in Russian possession. Kutzenov is flagship of the Russian Northern 'Red Banner' Fleet while Gorshov has been sold to India and is being refitted in a Russian port. As I have stated previously, these carriers were purchased for the purpose of assisting in the ChiCom design of their own class of 60,000 ton carriers for the PLA Navy. They had previously acquired the Australian carrier, HMS Melborne, but have since scrapped it I believe.

[John H K]

Ever since 1997 when Communist China purcased the Varyag, the PRC has floated the blatant disinformation story that the ship was purchased as a floating casino--propaganda so obvious as to be absurd on its face

Considering they already have a Soviet Carrier, the Minsk, that is a floating museum/entertainment complex, why was it absurd on its face?

[MadRobotArtist]

Actually the ship was over 60% completed. They towed it to a shipyard. It's seaworthy as is. They had the majority of the mechanics done on the ship in 1996. This ship has been worked on since 1998 when they bought it. How long does it take America to produce a warship? Sure, it takes a while, when you're building from the ground up. Of course these people bought their ship over 60% complete.

Regarding any articles I wrote, I posted them here to Free Republic. I also used to have a website that had a lot of the stuff I'd rant about on there as well. Do me the favor of looking for what the Clinton Administration sold to the Chinese. Then start looking at what those items are used for, and then think about how they would be used for getting an Aircraft carrier operational. The little snippet of that list I wrote is just a tiny part of all the stuff they've acquired over the years during the Clinton years.

If you're thinking that what I wrote is laughable, think again. In 1996, John Deere Co, gave, literally gave the Chinese government tractors, and farm equipment and now the Chinese can out produce our country in grain, and produce. John Deere and Co, got a new office and new plant in China. Imagine the Chinese having the ability to field a battleship, or an aircraft carrier with that kind of zeal behind them, as they've managed with farming. It can and eventually will happen. I'm not making any bets, but I can see on the horizon a conflict with the Chinese a brewing, and we can thank Bill Clinton for a lot of this.

I'm not Clinton bashing at all either, I'm stating a fact. The Chinese bought influence in our government, and they got what they paid for.

[John H K]

There was no Soviet Carrier called the "Novasibirsk". There was the Novorossiysk, which was scrapped in South Korea.

What the Chinese can learn from these sorry decrepit hulks is how NOT to design an aircraft carrier. Anyone who thinks these ships can be refurbished and put back into service clearly doesn't have the foggiest idea of what they are talking about..would be faster and cheaper to build a completely new ship.