FYI, my latest on the PLAN activities with the Varyag.
They sold it for $20 million?
Maybe the US should have bought it just to keep it out of Chinese hands.
Great post/pics. Thanks.
The Russians, the Indians, and now the Chineese are using SU-33s for their carrier operations. I understand that the aircraft, like the F-15 and F-16, has a greater than 1 to 1 thrust ratio, hence the ski ramp and lack of catapult gear.
Landings are arrested, I presume? If so, does that mean that due to the lack of an angled deck that bolters go along the length of the flight deck and back off the ski ramp again?
Does that also mean that fewer aircraft can be carried aboard because the entire length of the flight deck must be cleared of parked aircraft to accomodate bolters?
It's hard to take the rest of your post on your authority, when the first clause is just flatly wrong. Check your dates.
Ah so.
What did the Chinese rename the Varyag?
My guess is that, lacking anti-missile defense capability, the flotilla with the longest range missiles would win. I have serious doubts that the Chinese are so equipped, yet. Having been in the radar electronics business and witnessed the transfer of production to Asia, it won't be long before they can make the components, but putting whole systems together is another matter.
For an aggressor, it is most advantageous to concentrate on building up their economy and industrial base first (which they have been busily doing ever since getting permanent Most Favored Nation status)
If you are the one who chooses the time and place to strike, you can defer military spending until it's almost showtime
Just FYI, the USSR did not dissolve in 1988. Otherwise interesting reading.
Also found an interesting site: Varyagworld.com ^
In November 1998, Cheng Zhen Shu, chairman of Chong Lot Travel Agency, has said that Varyag would become a multi-functional entertainment centre, with 600 room hotel, casino, discotheque, restaurants and night-clubs, and has called it Ocean Entertainment Centre.In May 2005, the Varyag was placed in dry dock and, in early August, it emerged painted in People's Liberation Army Navy gray.
At that time Macau's casino magnate Stanley Ho announced the construction of Oceanus, an $800 million entertainment complex in Macau, with 600 room hotel, casino, cinema, retail and apartments, scheduled to open in 2009.
It seems Stanley Ho lost the Varyag in transoceanic subterfuge and decided to have a new one.
Nowadays, presence and mystery of the Varyag is a cost-effective way that cause maximum intimidation against unsinkable aircraft carrier Taiwan.
Looks like the ChiComs are going for a blue water navy in competition to us. And there weren't anymore enemies after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
bookmark for later printing.
bttt for surface warfare
It will make an excellent reef in the Straits of Taiwan!
That is a lot of new ships, tanks, and planes that will be sporting the red star of China.
Unlike in your books, I do not believe we are prepared - financially, infrastructurally, and most importantly, culturally - to lose a few carriers.
Thanks for posting such a good thread
