User:Rincewind42/sandbox/Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

Liaoning (16), is the first Type-001 aircraft carrier of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The ship, whose home port is Qingdao in Shandong province, is principally a training and testing platform for future Chinese aircraft carriers. It was commissioned by the PLAN on September 25, 2011 when the name, hull number and type were announced for the first time. The name Liaoning comes for Liaoning province in the Northeast of China, where the ship was fitted out.

The Liaoning was originally intended as a aircraft carrier for the USSR navy. I was laid down in a Ukranian ship yard just before the USSR broke up. The ship was then named the Riga (Russian: июня) and was designative Project 1142.6 (Russian: Проект 1143.6; NATO reporting name: Admiral Kuznetsov class). She was launched on December 4, 1988. In 1990, the unfinished ship was renamed Varyag (Russian: Варяг).

With the breakup of the USSR in 1991, the Varyag languished in the Ukrainian shipyard for the best part of the decade. In 1998, the Varyag was stripped for her engines and armament and sold to a Chinese firm, with the purpose of being converted into a floating casino off the coast of Macau. The empty hulk was transported to China but the casino deal fell through and the ship was eventually docked in the north-eastern port of Dalian where she remained for another decade.

In 2010, the news and media began reporting that work on the Varyag had been started. Rumors circulated in the press that the Chinese were fitting the ex-USSR hulk out as a aircraft carrier. The ship was completed in mid 2011 and after sea trials was commissioned by the PLAN. At the same time, China revealed prototype versions of their new J-15 carrier based fighter aircraft. Senior PLAN staff stated that the new ship, now renamed the Liaoning 16 would be a testing and development platform for training PLAN personnel, air crews and developing carrier based naval tactics.

History

 * USSR project 1142.6


 * Launch 1988


 * Renamed Varyag 1990


 * Ukrainian shipyard


 * Stripped of engines and armament


 * Sale to Chinese firm


 * Transporting


 * Bosporus issue


 * Greek island near disaster


 * Suez canal issue


 * Toed round Africa


 * Macau casino failed


 * Transport and docking in Dalain


 * Rumours of work starting


 * Sandblasting and painting


 * Dry dock


 * Sea trials


 * Commissioning


 * First flights


 * Transfer to Qingdao home port


 * Foreign reactions

Description

 * Original USSR specifications


 * Liaoning specifications and facilities


 * Crew and training


 * Air compliment

Liaoning (16), is the first aircraft carrier commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Originally laid down as the Admiral Kuznetsov class multirole aircraft carrier Riga for the Soviet Navy, she was launched on December 4, 1988 and renamed Varyag in 1990. The stripped hulk was purchased in 1998 by the People's Republic of China and towed to Dalian Shipyard in north eastern China. After being completely rebuilt and undergoing sea trials, the ship was commissioned into the PLAN as Liaoning on September 25, 2012.

History
The Liaoning ship has spent a piece of its' near-30 year life with the Soviet, Russian,Ukranian, and now, Chinese navies.

Origin
Design of the carrier was undertaken by the Nevskoye Planning and Design Bureau. The ship was laid down as Riga at Shipyard 444(now Nikolayev South) in Mykolaiv, Ukraine on December 6, 1985. Launched on December 4, 1988, the carrier was renamed Varyag (Varangian) in late 1990, after the famousRussian cruiser.

Construction had ceased by 1992, with the ship structurally complete but without electronics. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, ownership was transferred to Ukraine; the ship was laid up, unmaintained, and then stripped. By early 1998, she lacked engines, a rudder, much of her operating systems, and was put up for auction.

The hulk of the carrier was purchased from Ukraine in 1998 under the pretext it would be used as a floating casino, and towed to China.

She has since been refitted by the PLAN as an aircraft carrier for "scientific research, experiment and training."

Soviet and post-Soviet role
While designated an aircraft carrier by the West, the design of the Admiral Kuznetsov class implied a mission different from carriers of the United States Navy, Royal Navy or French Navy. The Russian-language term used by her builders to describe the Soviet-era ships is "тяжёлый авианесущий крейсер" tyazholiy avianesushchiy kreyser(TAKR or TAVKR)—“heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser”—intended to support and defend strategic missile-carrying submarines, surface ships, and maritime missile-carrying aircraft of the Russian fleet. As such, the Soviet Union and later Russia argued that these ships are not aircraft carriers under the Montreux Convention and not subject to the tonnage limits imposed on these ships in traveling through the Bosphorus.

Fixed-wing aircraft on the other ship of the class, Admiral Kuznetsov, are essentially constrained to air superiority operations. Were Varyag to have become operational with the Soviet, Ukrainian, or Russian Navy, it would have also carried out anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations, as well as carrying anti-ship missiles.

Sold at auction
In April 1998, Ukrainian Trade Minister Roman Shpek announced the winning bid of US$20 million from Chong Lot Travel Agency Ltd., a small company based in Hong Kong. They proposed to tow Varyag out of the Black Sea, through the Suez Canal and around southern Asia to Macau, where they would moor the ship and convert it into a floating hotel and gambling parlor. It would be similar to the attractions Kiev in Tianjin and Minsk at Minsk World in Shenzhen.

Before the auction was closed, officials in Macau had warned Chong Lot that they would not be permitted to berthVaryagin the harbor. The sale was carried out anyway. Chong Lot is owned by Chin Luck (Holdings) Company of Hong Kong. Four of Chin Luck's six board members live in Yantai, China, where a major Chinese Navy shipyard is located. Chin Luck's chairman is a former career military officer with the People's Liberation Army.

Towed to China
In mid-2000, the Dutch International Transport Contractors tugboat Suhaili with a Filipino crew was hired to takeVaryag under tow. Chong Lot could not get permission from Turkey to transit the dangerous Bosphorusstrait; under the Montreux Treaty of 1936 Turkey has obligations to permit free passage, but has certain sovereignty and refusal rights. The hulk spent 16 months under commercial tow circling in the Black Sea. High-level PRC government ministers conducted negotiations in Ankara on Chong Lot's behalf, offering to allow Chinese tourists to visit cash-strapped Turkey if the travel agency's ship were allowed to pass through the straits. On November 1, 2001, Turkey finally relented from its position that the vessel posed too great of a danger to the bridges of Istanbul, and allowed the transit.

Varyag was escorted by twenty-seven vessels, including eleven tug boats and three pilot boats, and took six hours to transit the strait; most large ships take an hour and a half. The Russian press reported that sixteen pilots and 250 seamen were involved. At 11:45 a.m. on November 2, the hulk completed its passage and made forGallipoli and Çanakkale at 5.8 kn. It passed through the Dardanelleswithout incident.

On November 3, Varyag was caught in a force 9 gale and broke adrift while passing the Greek island ofSkyros. Sea rescue workers tried to re-capture the hulk, which was drifting toward the island ofEuboea. The seven-member crew (three Russians, three Ukrainians and one Filipino) remained on board as six tugboats tried to reestablish their tow. After many failed attempts to reattach the lines, a Greek coast guard rescue helicopter landed on Varyag and picked up four of the seven crew. One tug managed to make a line fast to the ship later in the day, but high winds severely hampered efforts by two other tugs to secure the ship. On November 6, Aries Lima (reported as both Dutch and Portuguese), a sailor from the tug Haliva Champion, died after a fall while attempting to reattach the tow lines. On November 7, the hulk was taken back under tow and progress resumed at about three knots.

The Suez Canal does not permit passage of "dead" ships — those without their own on-board power source —so the hulk was towed through the Strait of Gibraltar, around the Cape of Good Hope, and through the Straits of Malacca. The tugs towing the hulk maintained an average speed of 6 kn over the15200 nmi journey, calling for bunkers and supplies at Piraeus, Greece; Las Palmas, Canary Islands; Maputo, Mozambique; and Singapore en route. They entered Chinese waters on February 20, 2002, and arrived March 3 at Dalian Shipyard in northeastern China. China continued to assert thatVaryag would be a casino. When Macau awarded new casino licenses in February 2002, Chong Lot was not among successful bidders. The hulk was tied up at Dalian. The total cost of acquiring the hulk was over US$30 million: US$25 million to the Ukrainian government for the hull, nearly US$500,000 in transit fees, and some US$5 million for the towing.

Modernization and refit
In 2008, Robert Karniol, the Asia editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, said: "The Chinese haven't seen this type of carrier before and it could be very useful to them. They are trying to vacuum up as much know-how as they can". Liu Huaqing, a senior admiral of the PLAN and proponent of naval modernization, has spoken of the 21st century as the "century of the sea" and called for naval modernization over several decades. At the same time, there has been resistance within the PLAN towards Liu Huaqing's vision for an extensive Chinese navy, leading to constant debates between developing aircraft carriers andsubmarines.

The Varyag was moved in early June 2005 to a dry dock at Dalian (38.935°N, 121.6141°W). Her hull was sandblasted and scaffolding erected around her. Her islandwas painted in a red marine primer that is used to treat corroded metal. On October 24, 2006, the Kommersant online daily newspaper reported that Russia planned to sell up to 50 Su-33 fighters to China through Rosoboronexport, in a $2.5 billion deal. In March 2009 Moskovskij Komsomolets reported that these negotiations had collapsed over Russian fears that China might begin producing cheaper export versions of the Su-33 with Chinese avionics and systems, undercutting Russian exports, in the same way as with the J-11B (Chinese version of the Su-27).

Jane's Fighting Ships had previously stated that the ship would possibly be named Shi Lang and assignedpennant number 83. Jane's noted that both the name and pennant number were unconfirmed. Shi Lang was a Ming-Qing Dynasty admiral who defeated Koxinga's descendants' navy and conquered Taiwan in 1681. Jane's Navy International noted in October 2007 that "refurbishment work and fitting out is continuing and the vessel is expected to begin initial sea trials in 2008". At the end of 2008, the Asahi Shimbun reported that the carrier was "nearing completion". On April 27, 2009 the carrier was reported to have been moved into another dry dock, "apparently to install engines and other heavy equipment". A new radar mast was installed on the superstructure by December 15, 2009.

In 2009, at the Wuhan Naval Research facilities near Huangjia Lake in the southwestern suburbs of Wuhan, the PLAN constructed a full scale logistics and training deck and island mockup.

Sensors that have been observed are Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) and Sea Eagle radar. Weapons observed have been the Type 1030 CIWS, and the FL-3000N missile system. It has also been observed that the old anti-ship missile tubes have been plugged and will not be used, thus freeing up more internal space for hangar or storage use. Russia plans to do the same when it modernizes its sister ship Kuznetsov. The Kamov Ka-31 has been confirmed as purchased and operational with the PLAN, and may form the Airborne early warning and control basis for the ship's air wing.

On June 8, 2011, the Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, Gen. Chen Bingde confirmed that Beijing was building an aircraft carrier, marking the first acknowledgement of the ship's existence from China's armed forces. He said that the refurbished Soviet carrier "is being built, but has not been completed." The ship would be used for training and as a model for a future indigenously-built ship. Qi Jianguo, assistant to the chief of the PLA's general staff said "All of the great nations in the world own aircraft carriers —they are symbols of a great power." On July 27, 2011, the Chinese Defense Ministry announced it was refitting the vessel for "scientific research, experiment and training."

Sea trials and handover
On 10 August 2011, the ex-Varyag began sea trials. An RSIS analyst noted that China still had a long way to go to make it operational, but was determined to do so. On 15 August 2011, she docked in Dalian, completing its first four-day sea trial. On 29 November 2011 the carrier left port for its second set of trials. In December 2011 the ship was photographed by satellite while undertaking sea trials. The carrier completed its eighth sea trial between 7 June and 21 June 2012 and returned to Dalian. In July 2012, the ship set out for the longest sea trials so far, 25 days, and there was speculation that this would have involved testing the launching and recovery of aircraft.

According to the China Times, the carrier completed sea trials in early August 2012 and loaded Shenyang J-15aircraft and KJ-88, YJ-83K, and YJ-91 missiles in preparation for weapons systems trials. Reuters analysis suggests the role of the ship will be mostly training and evaluation ahead of the building of domestic carriers, with only a limited operational role. Flight control software, avionics, weapons and radars remain to be developed. Reuters reports PLA officers stating the carrier is far from operational with extensive further trials and exercises required.

On 23 September 2012, the aircraft carrier was handed over to the People's Liberation Army Navy, and was commissioned on 25 September 2012. Currently, there is no official confirmation on any operational aircraft on the carrier, however some aircraft were identified inside the hangars according to a Chinese news report. Further, a Chinese Navy pilot successfully landed his J-15 jet fighter on the carrier deck, performing an arrested landing with a tailhook. At the commissioning ceremony, the carrier was officially namedLiaoning. The ship was named in honour of the Liaoning province, in which she was retrofitted.

On 26 December 2012, the People's Daily reported that it will take 4 to 5 years for the Liaoning to reach full capacity, mainly due to training and coordination which will take significant amount of time for Chinese PLA Navy to complete as this is the first aircraft carrier in their possession.

As it is a training ship, the Liaoning is not assigned to any of China's operation fleets.

Aircraft handling
On 4 November 2012, it was described in an article on the PLA official newspaper PLA Daily that J-15s had performed carrier touch-and-go training. On 25 November 2012, Chinese media announced that five J-15s had made successful arrested landings on theLiaoning. The first pilot to land on the Liaoning was revealed to be Dai Mingmeng.

In June 2013, a second round of flight tests began on board the Liaoning, with personnel from the fleet air arm of the Brazilian Navy providing carrier training support to the Chinese Navy. Five Chinese pilots were certified the next month for carrier operations.

The U.S. Department of Defense notes that the J-15 will have below normal range and armament when operating from the carrier, due to limits imposed by the ski-jump takeoff and arrested carrier landings.

Soviet Background
The ships construction was originally part of the USSR's desire to build a aircraft carrier based navy. Stalin had initiated plans that the post war fleet rebuilding of the 1940's should include aircraft carriers these did not come to fruition. According to Norman Polmar, Nikita Khrushchev, who was Stalin's successor, wrote: "Aircraft carriers, of course, are the second most effective weapon in a modern navy (after submarines). I'll admit, I felt a nagging desire to have some in our own navy, but we couldn't afford to build them. They were simply beyond our means." . It was not until the 1980's that the USSR would construct it's first aircraft carriers, the Kiev-class, of which four were built under the Soviet project 1143. The design of the Kiev-class ships limited the type of aircraft that could be used to those with vertical/short take-off and landing (VSTOL) capability as the ships had no catapult nor ski-jump launchers nor arrester wires for landing.

Following on from the experience of the Kiev-class, the USSR started projects 1143.5 and 1143.6. These would become the Admiral K-class aircraft carriers. This new class was to be conventionally powered with ski jumps to assist take-off and arrester wires for landing. In the late 1980's, the Soviets also started planning project 1143.7 which was to be a significantly larger, nuclear powered aircraft carrier with catapults and arrestor wires. However, in 1991, the USSR broke up. Only the first of these ships, the Admiral K, had been completed and commissioned into the Soviet fleet. The fate of the other projects was uncertain.

USSR project 1143.6
The ship that would later become the Liaoning started life as Project 1143.6. Design of the carrier was undertaken by the Nevskoye Planning and Design Bureau. The ship was laid down at Nikolayev South Shipyard (formerly Shipyard 444) in Mykolaiv, Ukraine on December 6, 1985. She was launched on December 4, 1988. The ship was initially given the name Riga but this was later changed to Varyag (Varangian) in late 1990—a name that has been used on several Russian and Soviet naval ships including with the famous Russian cruiser Varyag of 1899. The NATO reporting name for the class was derived from the Varyag's sister ship the Admiral Kuznetsov.

During construction, there was some confusion over the clasification of the new ship. During an interview form Pravda on Octover 19, 1989, Admiral Chernavin made reference to the ship as an "aircraft carrier". On Ocotber 22, Pravda published and article starting that the previous article had been incorrect as the ship should be classed as a "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser". The issue at hand was of restrictions within the Montreaux Convention of 1936 that would prevent an aircraft carrier form passing through the Turkish Straits or the Bospherus to exit the Black Sea.

The USSR broke up in 1991 and the new Russian armed forces were left short of finances. The Russian Dfence Ministry stopped funding the Varyag carrier project in late 1991. The unfinished hulk was handed over the Ukranian ship yard.

Macau casino failed
