Aircraft carriers are majestic vessels that symbolize the military power of the state. Today we will get acquainted with the heavy aircraft carrier cruiser Varyag, whose story was quite interesting and confusing. A ship was created in the USSR, it was being completed in Ukraine, and now it is in service with China. And now, first things first. Let's start with the history of the ship.
Start of construction
On December 4, 1985, the Black Sea Shipbuilding Plant launched the lead cruiser of the “11435” project. The empty slipway (platform for construction) was not empty for long - soon they laid on it a similar TAKR (heavy aircraft carrier cruiser). This ship was named "Riga". Unlike the lead cruiser built for the Northern Fleet, the new TAKR was calculated on the use of the Pacific Fleet. It was built on the same project as the head model, the full name of which, by the way, sounds like “Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov”. However, there were some adjustments. The main one is the replacement of the electronic complex with a more modern one.
Launching
November 25, 1988 "Riga" was launched. It was afloat that the construction was supposed to be completed. June 19, 1990 the ship received a new name - "Varyag". The aircraft carrier was built quite rapidly, keeping up with the schedule. However, at the end of 1991, when the partition of the Soviet Union began, construction stopped. In 1992, when the ship was 68% ready, it was mothballed. Neither Russia nor Ukraine were able to continue financing the project. Moreover, he could not even be saved. When the protection of the ship was abolished in 1993, equipment began to be stolen.
Sale
To the ship brought at least some benefit, they decided to sell it for scrap. In 1997, an international tender was announced. The highest price - $ 20 million - was offered by a travel company located in the Portuguese colony of Macau. In March of the following year, the cruiser passed into her possession. According to the company, she was going to use the huge hull of the ship to create a floating entertainment center. Later it turned out that the company was shell. And the Macau colony itself is owned by Portugal on a leasehold basis until the end of 1999. Thus, today it is already reliably known that the Chinese naval forces have become the actual buyer of the Varyag.
Ship towing
It took a lot of money and time to tow such a large ship across three oceans. The procedure was complicated by the fact that no power plants and control systems were installed on the ship. The vessel was taken out of the factory in June 2000. Due to problems with the Turkish authorities, the ship remained towed in the Black Sea until November 2001. In the Aegean, the ship fell into a storm and broke away from the tugboat. After some time, the hitch reunited, and the ship sailed around Africa through Gibraltar. Then, through the Indian Ocean and Singapore, he entered the South China Sea. On March 3, 2002, having traveled a distance of 15,000 miles, the Varyag was moored in the Chinese port of Dalian.
Further fate
Since the ship was sold as scrap metal, no design and construction documentation was attached to it. Therefore, for three years, Chinese engineers studied it. In 2005, work began on the completion and reconstruction of the Varyag vessel. The aircraft carrier, according to preliminary data, was to become a training vessel for young pilots. Unofficially, the Varangian will be renamed Shi Lan in honor of the naval commander who captured the island of Taiwan in 1681.
Completion and reconstruction
The Soviet aircraft carrier cruiser Varyag was made very high quality. During the downtime, it became corroded, but the main parts (housing, casing, boilers and screws) were preserved in good condition. Cables, electrical equipment and everything else that could be stolen, was carried away from the ship during its storage in Nikolaev. Therefore, in order to bring the ship into combat condition, the Chinese had to do a lot of work. Since they did not have any documents, the electrical system had to be developed from scratch. And it was also necessary to equip the cruiser with weapons. To do this on a finished ship was much more difficult than to recreate it.
Chinese shipbuilders should pay tribute. They coped with the task and in August 2011 began testing the running characteristics of an aircraft carrier. For almost a year, the ship was tested at sea and only occasionally called at the port of Dalian to eliminate crew complaints.
In early September 2012, ammunition was loaded on board the cruiser for weapons testing. Already on September 25 of the same year, the aircraft carrier officially joined the ranks of the Chinese Navy. In honor of one of the Chinese provinces, the ship received the name "Liaoning." Since then, there has been no mention of the educational status of the vessel. Today, he, apparently, is considered a full-fledged combat unit.
An interesting fact is that the Soviet aircraft carrier cruiser serves in the same waters for which it was originally intended, only under a different flag. Now we will analyze the technical side of the vessel.
Armament
The cruiser did not receive weapons, which were supposed to be installed on it according to the Soviet project. It was equipped with the minimum set of weapons necessary for self-defense. Similarly, American ships of this class are equipped.
Domestic engineers suggest that the mines under the main strike complex of the ship were dismantled and converted for storage of fuel and ammunition for the air group.
The heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Varyag, whose photo looks very impressive, received an anti-aircraft weapon of local production during completion for the Chinese Navy. In terms of capabilities and composition, it is several times inferior to that which was assumed by the project. As for aviation weapons, China has created a special version of the J-11 fighter for its aircraft carrier. By the way, this model is a copy of the Soviet Su-27. The redesigned J-11 received a new name - J-15.
In addition to aircraft, helicopters Z-18 and Z-9 will be located on the deck. For the long-range radar patrol, China purchased Ka-31 helicopters from Russia. In general, the cruiser’s air group consists of 24 multi-role fighters, 6 anti-submarine helicopters, 4 AWACS helicopters and 2 search and rescue helicopters.
Communications and other equipment
During the construction, it was decided to put the Forum radar complex (RLC) on the Varyag (an air cruiser, which did not become the new pride of the Soviet countries) instead of the Mars Passat installed on the parent ship. Therefore, the places for the antenna posts of Mars Passat were patched up.
When completing the ship in China, RLK type 348 antenna arrays of Chinese manufacture were installed in these places. Thus, the Liaoning is even more similar to the lead ship than the failed Varangian. The aircraft cruiser also received a rotating antenna of the Chinese Sea Eagle radar station.
As for the aviation technical part, Liaoning retained all the features inherent in the Soviet project. Among them, it is worth highlighting: three starting positions with gas baffles and removable delays, a springboard instead of catapults, an optical landing system, as well as four cable-type aerofinishers with hydraulic brake machines.
In the stern of the ship, at the left edge, according to the American model, an open post of the head of the visual landing was installed. In Soviet TAKR, the post is a glazed closed cabin, which is better suited for the Northern and Far Eastern climates.
Service
In 1991, the Soviet Union began forming a crew for the cruiser under construction. A ship commander has already been appointed. They became the captain of the first rank Vladimir Vysotsky. Previously, a man commanded the ship Minsk. In 1993, the crew was disbanded.
On November 4, 2012, the Liaoning aircraft carrier that entered service became a place for training pilots of maritime specialization and testing the J-15 fighter. On November 5 of the same year, for the first time in the history of China, the aircraft landed on the deck of the ship with a cable hook.
In December 2013, one of the Liaoning’s escort ships nearly collided with the USS Cowpens in the South China Sea. Both sides accused each other of misunderstanding.
On November 7, 2014, the Minister of Defense of America Chuck Hagel visited the Liaoning cruiser. Arriving on an official visit to the PRC, he asked about the opportunity to look at the first Chinese aircraft carrier. After a two-hour tour of the ship, Hagel positively described the level of training of the cruiser’s crew. However, according to him, the Chinese still have much to learn in the field of carrier-based aviation.
In September 2015, a number of media reported that the Liaoning arrived in the Mediterranean Sea and docked at the Syrian port of Tartus. This news is supposed to be nothing more than misinformation. The fact is that such a dimensional ship is almost impossible to pass unnoticed through the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Craft in art
"Varangian" - an aircraft-carrying cruiser, which until 2000 stood in Nikolaev near the construction wall, became the basis for the plot of the fantastic story "Business trip". The plot revolved around the fictional unfinished aircraft carrier Dmitry Pozharsky. Since Soviet times, he defended in the city of Primorsk, and was later put up for sale. According to the story, a shot from a cruiser’s gun in 2017 caused an armed uprising, the purpose of which was the return of Soviet power.
Fantastic story "Operation Spear" A.I. Pervushina was also published under the name Cruiser Varyag. The aircraft carrier cruiser, the characteristics of which we examined today, according to the plot of the story, was formally sold to a travel agency, but actually went to the shores of Antarctica to search for a magical artifact. In the campaign, the aircraft carrier group of the naval forces of America opposed the ship, which also wanted to find treasure.
So, the aircraft carrier “Varyag”, whose photo causes some sadness, became the personification of geopolitics incomprehensible to creative and ordinary people.
Conclusion
Today we learned how difficult the history of the Varyag ship was. The aircraft-carrying cruiser, the description of which we now know, could become the property of the Soviet, Russian or Ukrainian army if, due to negligence, it was not sold insignificantly to strategic rivals.