Replies

Let's parse this, folks:

This vessel is essentially a hulk. It has no engineering plant; ripping the ship open to insert an entire engineering plant is not going to be easy. If it isn't a nuclear plant, then a LOT of space is going to be needed for bunker capacity.

In the end, it's a piece of crap, of questionable hull integrity, with a notional engineering plant, and it's going to operational in less than four years.

Sure thing...

Well, the Chinese navy could simply tow the carrier around to wherever they need it (grin)...

For $20 million, it would probably make a good investment in offshore floating condos/apartments. Tow it to Hong Kong, Tokyo, or San Francisco.

Heck, it's probably cheaper to pay the $20 million and build out rooms on that old hulk than it would be to convince San Francisco bureaucrats to issue permits for new Bay apartments.

It's probably got enough room for the equivilent of 10 stories worth of condos, too.

Further parsing:

There's plenty of room for bunkerage on an aircraft carrier, especially since it's not going to be steaming over to Los Angeles. As for the engineering plant, I'll have to check with my shipbuilding friends as to how long it would take to put a new plant in there, but considering that we're not entirely sure that the original nuke plant was ripped out, we can't discount the fact that it can go under its own power inside of 4 years (after all, the ChiComs do have a couple of nuke subs).

The fact that it was able to be towed from the Black Sea to China shows that it does have decent hull integrity. That having been said, I wonder what a spread of Mk48 ADCAPs will do to said integrity (sadly, that's about the only thing left in the arsenal that'll put a decent dent in its hide).

IF it's operational, I see it as capable of providing a one-time secondary attack axis. I won't go further into what mix of aircraft I'd expect to see (let's just say that if they're smart, it, and the 18 SS-N-19 Granit missiles that it carries, would provide a devastating 2 punch).

You nailed that one! This puppy is not going to have much range since oil-fired boilers and fuel-oil bunkers are going to be installed. Something has to give, like aviation gas, weapons stores, watertight bulkheads, crew space, etc.

All of this adds up to a small, short-range carrier with a reduced air wing component. This will be a training vessel, and not much more than that.

"construction of Chinese aircraft carriers is one of the top desires of Chinese youth."

Or, something to eat.

Or, a car.

Or, to Strike Hard in the Nether Regions of a Comrade of the Opposite Sex.

Or, to be left out of the doctrinal tirades so as to become "gloriously rich".

The Revolution of Rising Expectations: sure.

The People's Struggle for Anti-Hegemonic Aircraft Carriers: uh, no.