Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag
Coordinates: 38°56′06″N 121°36′50″E / 38.934961°N 121.61383°E
 | |
| Career (Soviet Union) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Varyag |
| Namesake: | Varyag |
| Builder: | Nikolayev South Designer: Nevskoye Planning and Design Bureau |
| Laid down: | 6 December 1985 |
| Launched: | 4 December 1988 |
| Completed: | Construction stopped in 1992 when 60% complete |
| Career (China) |  |
| Acquired: | Purchased from Ukraine |
| Status: | under refit |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Admiral Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | 33,000 t (32,000 long tons) currently 53,000 to 55,000 t (52,000 to 54,000 long tons) standard 66,000 to 67,500 t (65,000 to 66,400 long tons) full load |
| Length: | 1,000 ft (300 m) o/a 900 ft (270 m) w/l |
| Beam: | 240 ft (73 m) o/a 125 ft (38 m) w/l |
| Draft: | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Propulsion: | Currently no engines are installed As designed: Steam turbines, 8 boilers, 4 shafts, 200,000 hp (150 MW) 2 × 50,000 hp (37 MW) turbines 9 × 2,011 hp (1,500 kW) turbogenerators 6 × 2,011 hp (1,500 kW) diesel generators 4 × fixed pitch propellers |
| Speed: | 32 knots (37 mph; 59 km/h) |
| Range: | 3,850 nmi (7,130 km) at 32 kn (37 mph; 59 km/h) |
| Endurance: | 45 days |
| Complement: | 1,960 crew 626 air group 40 flag staff 3,857 rooms |
| Armament: | Speculated HQ-9 long-range air defense missile, YJ-91 As designed: • 8 × AK-630 AA guns (6×30 mm, 6,000 round/min/mount, 24,000 rounds) • 8 × CADS-N-1 Kashtan CIWS (each 2 × 30 mm Gatling AA plus 16 3K87 Kortik SAM) • 12 × P-700 Granit SSM • 18 × 8-cell 3K95 Kinzhal SAM VLS (192 vertical launch missiles; 1 missile per 3 seconds) • RBU-12000 UDAV-1 ASW rocket launchers (60 rockets) |
| Aircraft carried: | Shenyang J-15 As designed: × 26 fixed wing aircraft × 24 helicopters |
Varyag (Russian: Варяг) was to be an Admiral Kuznetsov class multirole aircraft carrier. She was known as Riga when her keel was laid down at Shipyard 444 (now Nikolayev South) in Nikolayev December 6, 1985. Design of the carrier was undertaken by the Nevskoye Planning and Design Bureau. She was launched December 4, 1988, but she was renamed Varyag (Varangian) in late 1990, after the famous Russian cruiser.
Construction stopped by 1992 with the ship structurally complete but without electronics. Ownership was transferred to Ukraine as the Soviet Union broke up and the ship was laid up unmaintained, then stripped. In early 1998, she lacked engines, a rudder, and much of her operating systems. She was put up for auction.
Currently the ship is being examined and repaired by China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) after purchasing it at auction for US$20 million. It was widely reported that the ship would become a casino in the Chinese SAR of Macau. This has been proven incorrect as the ship is docked in Dalian and painted PLAN grey. The Chinese Navy has reportedly named the carrier Shi Lang and did receive delivery of the ship in October 2010. Defense News and Intelligence sources claim that the ship has been refitted and will be put through Sea Trials in the summer of 2011.
Role
While designated an aircraft carrier by the West, the design of the Admiral Kuznetsov class implies a mission different from that of either the United States Navy, Royal Navy or carriers of the French Navy. The term used by her builders to describe the Russian ships is "тяжелый 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. This designation allows the Soviet/Ukrainian Navy to circumvent the refusal by Turkey to let aircraft carriers pass the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Fixed-wing aircraft on Admiral Kuznetsovs are essentially constrained to air superiority operations. Were Varyag to have become operational, 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—US$20 million from a small Hong Kong company called the Ltd. Chong Lot 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.
However, considerable evidence suggested that the future of Varyag was linked to the People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and its program to develop an aircraft carrier.
Before the auction was closed, officials in Macau had warned Chong Lot that they would not be permitted to berth Varyag in the harbor. The sale was carried out anyway. Chong Lot is owned by a Hong Kong firm called Chin Luck (Holdings) Company. 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. However, the large involvement of former PLA officers is not necessarily a sign that the firm is a cover organization, because, for historical reasons, it is not unusual in mainland China for a company that actually is involved in tourism or travel to be controlled by former PLA officers.
Due to the poor condition of the hull, it was thought highly unlikely that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) would commission the carrier; rather, many analysts suggested that the PLAN intended to examine the carrier as a model for an indigenous carrier to be built later. Others countered that the carrier did not represent modern technology; the PLAN could probably have learned all they needed from the Varyag without towing it all the way to China.
Towed to China
In mid-2000, the Dutch tugboat Suhaili with a Filipino crew was hired to take Varyag under tow. However, Chong Lot could not get permission from Turkey to transit the dangerous Bosporus strait; 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 1 November 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.
Escorted by 27 vessels including 11 tug boats and three pilot boats, Varyag took six hours to transit the strait; most large ships take an hour and a half. The Russian press reported that 16 pilots and 250 seamen were involved. At 11:45am on 2 November, she completed her passage and made for Gallipoli and Çanakkale at 5.8 knots (10.7 km/h). She passed through the Dardanelles without incident.
On November 3, Varyag was caught in a force 9 gale and broke adrift while passing the Greek island of Skyros. Sea rescue workers tried to re-capture the hulk, which was drifting toward the island of Evia. The seven-member crew (three Russians, three Ukrainians and one Filipino) remained on board as six tugboats tried to reestablish their tow. However, 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 6 November, 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 7 November, the hulk was taken back under tow and progress resumed at some 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 knots (11 km/h) over the 15,200-nautical-mile (28,200 km) journey, calling for bunkers and supplies at Piraeus, Greece; Las Palmas, Canary Islands; Maputo, Mozambique; and Singapore en route. They entered Chinese waters on 20 February 2002, and arrived 3 March at Dalian Shipyard in northeastern China. China continued to assert that Varyag would be a casino. However, 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 $30 million USD: $25 million to the Ukrainian government for the hull, nearly $500,000 in transit fees, and some $5 million for the towing.
Latest developments
Analysts believe that the PLAN will use Varyag as a training platform for carrier take-offs and landings. 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 and submarines.
Nevertheless, the Varyag was moved in early June 2005 to a dry dock at Dalian (38°56′29″N 121°38′41″E / 38.9414°N 121.6447°E). Her hull was sandblasted and scaffolding erected around her. The most visible modification done to the Varyag is that her island has been painted in a red marine primer that is used to treat corroded metal. On 24 October 2006, the Kommersant online daily newspaper revealed Russia plans to sell up to 50 Su-33 fighters to China through Rosoboronexport, in a $2.5 billion deal. However, 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).
Also recent photos in the Dalian Shipyard have shown that a yellow anti-skid primer was added to the flightdeck. Then the final flight deck turf layering was added on top of it. The vessel has also been painted in the standard PLA Naval colours. This may indicate that the PLA Navy intend to use the ex-Varyag as an operational carrier at some point in the future.
Jane's Fighting Ships states that Varyag may have been named Shi Lang and assigned pennant number 83. Jane's notes that both the name and pennant number are unconfirmed, however. Shi Lang was a Ming-Qing Dynasty admiral who 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 Varyag was reported to have been moved into another dry dock, "apparently to install engines and other heavy equipment". A new radar mast has been installed on Varyag's superstructure as of December 15, 2009.
In 2009, at the Wuhan Naval Research facilities (near the in the southwestern suburbs of Wuhan), the PLAN constructed a full scale logistics and training deck and island mockup of the Varyag.
As of 2011 the ship is still docked in Dalian shipyard, and is being fitted out with combat sensors, and defensive weapons. The vessel is also beginning to run power as well. Recent photos have shown steam and exhaust coming from the ship's island, further suggesting her engines and propulsion will be operational soon. Sensors that have been observed are Active Phased Array Radar (APAR) and Sea Eagle radar. Weapons observed have been the Type 730 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 the Varyag's sister Kuznetsov.
According to Vice Admiral David J. Dorsett of the U.S. Navy, sea trials of the refitted Varyag may start in late 2011. An RSIS analyst has noted that China still has a long way to go to make it operational, but is determined to do so.
The 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.
See also
References
External links
- varyagworld.com
- Transformation of the Varyag into a PLAN Aircraft Carrier
- Varyag article on sinodefence.com
- Actual physical location in the World
- Satellite Photo of Varyag in in Dalian, China from Google Maps
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_aircraft_carrier_Varyag
