Posted on 10/21/2015 4:54:17 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
BEIJING -- China this week hosted a visit to its sole aircraft carrier by senior U.S. Navy officers amid tensions over reported plans by Washington to challenge Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The delegation of 27 commanders and captains boarded the Liaoning on Monday and held discussions on "exercise management, personnel training, medical protection and strategies in carrier development," the Chinese navy said on its official microblog.
That was followed Tuesday morning by a visit to the navy's submarine academy, where further dialogues were held, the navy said.
The visits appear to reflect the growing momentum of military exchanges between the sides, despite occasional flare-ups in tensions and Washington's complaints over what it calls the Chinese military's lack of transparency.
The visits follow reports that the U.S. Navy plans to sail a warship inside the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit of one of China's newly constructed islands formed by piling sand atop existing reefs and atolls. That would demonstrate Washington's refusal to recognize China's claims in the South China Sea, especially artificial islands that the U.S. insists cannot be classified as sovereign territory.
China claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and its maritime features, while five other governments also claim it in part or in whole. China's growing assertiveness and a renewed U.S. focus on Asian military affairs are seen as fueling a rise in tensions in the region, which is home to key shipping lanes, rich fishing grounds and a potential wealth of mineral resources.
Both China and the U.S. appeared to want to keep this week's visits low-key, with China's official Global Times newspaper not reporting on them until Wednesday. The U.S. Navy's official website made no mention of them.
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I bet the US navy folks after being on US super carriers were like this is a POS, with a new paintjob and cheap electronics.
Probably, the only difference between theirs and ours is the paint job.....
There are pictures and videos of the Chinese doing aircraft drills on the new carrier. The J15 barely, and I mean barely, fits one on the elevator down into the bay. They have to have several people watching to make sure the nose actually misses the wall and the wheels stay on the elevator. It takes the Chinese 3 to 4 times as long as for our planes, which easily fit on the elevators, sometimes 2 can be put on at the same time. There is a world of difference between ours and theirs.
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And look at the sea state in the background of the picture- nearly calm by carrier standards.
Imagine putting that aircraft on/off that elevator in rough seas, at night.
The aircraft is tied down as well.
But a mod is probably already in works to extend the landing 10 ft. or so. Depending on the internal structure, the landing extension can probably cantilevered off of the existing structure without issue. The Russians build them tough.
One other thing struck me as odd. The graphic depicts a chaff/decoy launcher. Why? Just how effective would that be given the carrier has the RCS of a barn? Actually, the RCS of a barn would probably be a two or three orders of magnitude improvement. Unless you can launch about a ton of chaff and build a wall a few hundred feet long...probably not worth the space and maintenance.
obamic officers there to tell them how and what they can improve upon?
The Chinese carrier has a decidedly smaller airwing than ours do, and they’ll use it very differently. More aligned to providing defensive air cover for their other ships and some light strike stuff, but not really full up power projection like we do with ours.
The need for them to conduct alpha-like strikes is limited, if it exists at all. Cyclic ops for CAP with a small airwing (one that launches vua deck runs off a ski jump, not catapult) means they aren’t dependent on moving aircraft between the hangar and flightdeck as much.
Plus the Varyag is their “training wheels” carrier. A learning tool. We shouldn’t worry too much about it, focus instead on the carrier capability they’ll have 15-20 years down the road that will incorporate the lessons being learned today.
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