China Restores Soviet Aircraft Carrier: Expert

[Meteour]

China Restores Soviet Aircraft Carrier: Expert

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 19 Jan 2011 08:21


BEIJING - China has nearly finished restoring an old Soviet aircraft carrier bought in 1998, which will be used for training and as a model for a future indigenously built ship, an expert said Jan. 19.

The Varyag, a Kuznetsov-class carrier, was originally built for the Soviet navy, but construction was interrupted by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

Its immense armored hull, with no engine, electrics or propeller, was bought by China in 1998 and towed from Ukraine's Black Sea coast to China.

"They have fixed the inside at 100 percent," said Andrei Chang, head of the Kanwa Information Centre, which monitors China's military.

According to Chang, the renovation process has included fixing the boilers, electricity, electronic systems, living quarters and engines. The hull and deck of the ship have also been refurbished, other experts have said.

China has never officially announced it was renovating the 990-foot long aircraft carrier.

The carrier, currently based in the northeast port of Dalian, could make its first sea trip "very soon," Chang told AFP, adding the refurbishment of the ship had taken place "at unexpected speed."

But he said the ship's radars still needed work, and the fighter planes that will train on the carrier are still being tested.

The refurbished ship will be used as a model for China's first indigenously built aircraft carrier, which, unlike the Varyag, will be nuclear-powered. Construction on this ship could start soon, he said.

The modernization of China's army has caused concern abroad.

Last week, the Chinese military sent its first stealth fighter - the J-20 - into the skies, just as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Beijing to patch up frayed defense ties.

Around the same time, Adm. Mike Mullen, head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that China's new weapons program, including the J-20, appeared to be directed against the United States.

The PLA - the largest army in the world - is hugely secretive about its defense programs, which benefit from a big military budget boosted by the nation's runaway economic growth.

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[Ramseth]

World power is not based on army or air force. How far on earth can your army or air force get to without a navy? Even as near as between China and Taiwan has been a problem. ROC survived on Taiwan in 1949 because PRC didn't have a navy then. Japan could keep bullying China on mainland because they had a navy, one of the most powerful in the world then. In the first Sino-Japanese War (Jiawu), the Japanese navy destroyed the entire Chinese navy. That was the beginning of how Japanese could land troops in China but China couldn't vice versa. The Romans and Mongolians went on foot and horses and conquered quite some continental empires in their times. The British went in ships and covered the whole of the earth.

 

[longbow]

Ironically, in the past, because of lack of ships, there was little technological transfer. So you can have 200 Spanish Conquiscador conquer Latin America. When you have one group carrying rifles and cannons vs poor quality bow and arrows .....

But now not as easy. That Hezbolleh sniper can take out your soldier at 300 meters and then dissappear into the populace. Sniper has that home advantage where a few snipers can pin down an entire brigade.

Cheap RPG and Land mines can cripple, tens of millions in hardware.

World power is not based on army or air force. How far on earth can your army or air force get to without a navy? Even as near as between China and Taiwan has been a problem. ROC survived on Taiwan in 1949 because PRC didn't have a navy then. Japan could keep bullying China on mainland because they had a navy, one of the most powerful in the world then. In the first Sino-Japanese War (Jiawu), the Japanese navy destroyed the entire Chinese navy. That was the beginning of how Japanese could land troops in China but China couldn't vice versa. The Romans and Mongolians went on foot and horses and conquered quite some continental empires in their times. The British went in ships and covered the whole of the earth.

 

[longbow]

I think Chinese carriers can be useful for evacution purposes. For example China has large investments in Sudan and thus have a few thousand Chinese contractors in Sudan. In an emergency, they could park their carrier off the coast and send into army to secure area and allow for evacaution of personnel.

 

[Ramseth]

Once PRC can assemble an aircraft carrier battlegroup and park it outside Taiwan on the Pacific side (not the Straits side), that's the end of ROC whenever PRC wants it.