China Hands Over Its First Aircraft Carrier to the Navy

[+GKABS 8,788]

 

Edited December 21, 2019 by GKABS

[+Erik 1,812]

The Shandong is powered by oil fired boilers spinning eight steam turbines all copied from the Liaoning which are Soviet designs. Dispite Russia's insistence that the engines were removed it's apparent then and now they were not, no surprise. Her launch and recovery systems, acquired from the HMAS Melbourne, will put significant stresses on the Shandong's fixed wing aircraft. Let's hope they beefed up those acquired aircraft designs. I congratulate the PLAN/CNS for graduating to first commission first class problems but her launch now in their economy is a huge strain. Strong money says they should be dialing back their carrier program to a more maintainable expense but I doubt they will. I instead venture they'll raise taxes on the already over taxed population of China. All that aside the Shandong's 70,000 tonne displacement along with her carrier group will be able to make her presence known in any part of the World they wish to project into. After all the USN does like to have targets should our relations devolve that far. 

 

[MigBuster 2,884]

Note

CV-16 = Laioning

CV-17 = Shandong

 

 

[+Erik 1,812]

Shandong is Laioning's almost twin sister. Granted she can carry 8 more aircraft with a bigger displacement and more fuel on board. Her deck is 10% bigger and the super structure is noticeably smaller. Her radar systems are said to be of notable improvement giving her more situational awareness. The true test of the Laioning will be under pressure in high movements of launch and recovery. The Laioning's biggest draw back is her inability to carry latest generation fighters.

[Sokol 444]

hi,

cv-16 / Laioning was acquired by China from the Ukraine, and not from Russia.

both Chinese ships belong to the Soviet Kuznetsov-class, though markable improved and without the Kuznetsov's ship-2-ship-missiles. this class is in no way comparable to the USN-attack carriers, since the Kuzemntsov's main task is not power projection around the globe (and attacking various countries by doing so), but defense of the fleet, i.e. of the strategic submarines.

cheers

sokol

 

[+GKABS 8,788]

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier, the Type 002 Shandong (CV-17), was commissioned on Tuesday at a naval base in Sanya on the southern island of Hainan during a ceremony attended by President Xi Jinping, according to local media reports. Xi inspected an honor guard during the ceremony and met with PLAN personnel aboard the carrier, the Global Times reported on December 17.

The Shandong was launched in April 2017 and began sea trials one year later in April 2018. The carrier conducted a total of nine sea trials. During its last sea trial in November, the Shandong passed through the Taiwan Strait and entered the South China Sea. In comparison, the PLAN’s sole operational aircraft carrier, the 60,000-ton Liaoning, a retrofitted Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov-class multirole aircraft carrier, completed 10 sea trials before being commissioned in 2012.

The Shandong is based on Soviet Navy carrier designs:

The 65,ooo-ton Type [002] carrier was launched at the DSIC shipyard in April 2017.

The Shandong has been fitted with a so-called ski-jump assisted Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) launch system also installed aboard the Liaoning. STOBAR-launched aircraft have a more limited operational range and carry lighter payloads than fighter jets launched from so-called Catapult-Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) systems used on U.S. Navy carriers. (STOBAR systems put a lot of strain on the airframe of fighter jets during take-off.)

The [future] Shandong will be able to carry up to 24 Shenyang J-15 multirole fighter jets and a variant of the fourth-generation Sukhoi Su-33 twin-engines air superiority fighter, as well as around ten rotary wing aircraft including Changshe Z-18, Ka-31, or Harbin Z-9 helicopters.

The Shandong will be able to accommodate up to 32 fighter aircraft in total, according to senior PLAN officers.

With today’s commissioning, the PLAN is now operating two aircraft carriers, although it will take the Shandong around a decade to be combat-ready, while the Liaoning primarily serves as a training platform for Chinese naval aviation. It may also take a decade or two for a next-generation carrier-based strike aircraft to be deployed aboard the PLAN’s flattops. Chinese pilots and aviation personnel will also need to gain additional experience in operating aircraft from carriers.

The Shandong will likely be beset by so-called “first-in-class problems,” technical and engineering issues that will only become apparent once the ship will begin conducting operations, which will impact the carrier’s reliability. Stashwick also noted that China’s future carrier force may be limited to four hulls due to the massive costs associated with building these huge flattops.

Additionally, the PLAN will also have to gain further experience operating a carrier strike group (CSG). A future PLAN CSG will most likely be composed of Jiangkai-II-class (Type 054A) frigates, Luyang-III-class (Type 052D) destroyers, Renhai-class Type 055 destroyers, and one to two Yuan-class (Type 039A) or alternatively Song-class (Type 039) submarines in addition to support vessels.

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The Shandong will be homeported in Sanya.

for more info.

 

Edited December 22, 2019 by GKABS

[+Erik 1,812]

17 hours ago, Sokol said:

hi,

cv-16 / Laioning was acquired by China from the Ukraine, and not from Russia.

both Chinese ships belong to the Soviet Kuznetsov-class, though markable improved and without the Kuznetsov's ship-2-ship-missiles. this class is in no way comparable to the USN-attack carriers, since the Kuzemntsov's main task is not power projection around the globe (and attacking various countries by doing so), but defense of the fleet, i.e. of the strategic submarines.

cheers

sokol

 

This is just a re-statement of everything that's been said.

In fact I can't find anywhere that someone said the Laioning was acquired from Russia. We just discussed this in another post entirely and my statement above said the design for the engines and turbines was from the Soviet Union since the Soviet Union designed the vessel and commissioned Ukraine to build it. Just because Ukraine built it doesn't mean it wasn't supposed to be under the Soviet Union's control and it was until 10 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union when the Ukrainian ship yard was forced to sell her as scrap. The conditions of that sale were governed by the now newly formed Russia.

The same type of purchase happened in Australia where they sold the HMAS Melbourne as scrap to the Chinese but it was instead dissected for the usable components that were still on board.

 

[Sokol 444]

Hi Erik,

sorry if I misunderstood your sentence "dispite Russia's insistence that the engines were removed...".  Russia had no part in the sale of the former "Varyag" to the Chinese, who rebuild the ship as "Liaoning" (cv16). The original "Varyag" was not "ordered" but built by the Soviet Union, since the Ukraine was an integral part of the Soviet Union.

again, sorry for any misunderstanding ;-)

may these ships always have a handful of water under their keel, but may there never be a war between the superpowers USA and Red China.

Sokol

 

 

[+Erik 1,812]

Sure. Great. Thanks. 

[Skyviper 1,101]

Call me an idiot .. because I am. Anyway here's my question. If the STOBAR system means your aircraft will have limited range and lighter payloads, why use it? I understand that cost wise STOBAR systems are cheaper. Better to save money when and where you can. On the other hand tho why not use the CATOBAR system? Yeah it's more costly but don't the advantages out weigh the cost in the end? Or do their engines not have the power to generate what's needed to run the CATOBAR system?

What gets me is that I remember hearing reports on the news about China becoming the tech capital of the world ... so one would think they'd be using the new electromagnetic systems.