Taiwan makes cruise missles and torpedos, don’t they?
Well when you consider the US has had aircraft carriers since the 20’s and there is no country on the planet more adept and experienced at carrier ops than we are and we STILL have aviation mishaps at sea, I can hardly wait to see the Chicom’s learning curve on their first cruise. Bet they lose at least 1/3 of their airwing.
Click on pic for past Navair pings.
Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
The only requirement for inclusion in the Navair Pinglist is an interest in Naval Aviation.
This is a medium to low volume pinglist.
The Taiwanese need to develop some classes of weapon named, say, Temujin, Mongke, Qublai...
Quite a saga so far. Twenty-five years old and it has yet to put to sea as an operational vessel.
What aircraft are they going to use on this thing anyway?
*
Red Dragon ping
The first PLA carrier is going to be used for training more carrier staff and pilots and develop their own carrier operations experience. That will take time, but as the staff and pilot pool increases and experience is accumulated, China will build a US style carrier because it represents the state of art. If China wants to symbolically emulate power why imitate secondary powers like France and Britain who have medium size carriers that are insufficient to maintain a no fly zone over Libya when a US style carrier can? If the PLA has ambition to build a stealth fighter it is ambitious enough to build a US type carrier. The Russian carrier Varyag is only the first stepping stone to something much larger and complicated.
In the past, I would consider Chinese not a major threat unless it builds US style aircraft carrier navy. The last carrier navy we ignored was Imperial Japan, and we know how that story ended.
Okay, Looking up Varyag/Shi Lang, I find the sister ship—the Admiral Kuznetsov—currently serving, has a complement of 12 Su-33 (carrier version of Su-27) and 5 Su-25UTG/UBP (carrier version of Su-25 Frogfoot) and a clutch of Kamov Ka-27 variant helos.
So I can only assume that the Chinese version will carry something similar. You can’t just take any old fighter aircraft and stick a tailhook on it. Carrier aircraft have to be designed for the job from the wheels up, although the Varyag ski jump design exists to spare the planes the stresses of catapult launches.