CV-17 Shandong (002 carrier) Thread I ...News, Views and operations

[Intrepid]

We don't know for sure if the PLAN have reserved any plans for the Type 001A to have catapults in the possible future, though the trend points towards it being highly unlikely.
As for the Liaoning, the verdict is a 100 per cent no.

It was reported, Varyag was prepared for catapults, Kuznetsov not.

 

[Deleted member 13312]

It was reported, Varyag was prepared for catapults, Kuznetsov not.

Any evidence for that ? Because all reports points that never at any point was the Kuznetsov class planned to have a catapult refit. It was the Ulyanovsk that was supposed to have it.
And there is ample evidence to why that is not the case. The Kuznetsov claasses were to have their own AShM capabilty, so the whole front of their deck is reserved for 16 giant VLS tubes.

 

[snake65]

It was reported, Varyag was prepared for catapults, Kuznetsov not.

Yes, there was space reserved for one catapult on the angled deck. Source - Valery Babich, Head of design bureau of Nikolaev shipyard, 1979-1991

 

[Hendrik_2000]

Latest pic

 

[asif iqbal]

Really CV-16 was meant to have cats ??

I must say I did not know that

 

[Intrepid]

Really CV-16 was meant to have cats?

Varyag was intended to be retrofitted with a catapult in the event of major repairs if the technology was available by then.

STOBAR was only a makeshift solution because the Soviets initially did not want to raise the necessary money and time to develop for the CATOBAR technique..

 

[Deleted member 13312]

Yes, there was space reserved for one catapult on the angled deck. Source - Valery Babich, Head of design bureau of Nikolaev shipyard, 1979-1991

To be the devil's advocate here, a single catapult would not have significantly increase the Liaoning's capability by much. And even then, the time and cost spend retrofitting them means that it would only be done under the most extreme of circumstance. In which case, you might as well build a CATOBAR to replace it.

 

[Intrepid]

A single catapult on the angled deck would enable the aircraft carrier to act as a training ship for all flying components of an on-board squadron.

 

[Lethe]

Unless they actually planned ahead and already built in the upgrade options into 001A, much like the RN QE class.

Well the UK eventually backed out of fitting catapults to QE, and that was while she was still under construction!

Of course it was mostly a cost-savings exercise for the UK (looking at F-35B vs. F-35C price) so a more performance oriented analysis may have come to a different conclusion.

 

[Deleted member 13312]

A single catapult on the angled deck would enable the aircraft carrier to act as a training ship for all flying components of an on-board squadron.

And would not that training be better done on board a fully CATOBAR carrier ? I find it hard to believe that the PLAN would be willing to pour that much money into either CV-16 or CV-17 just so it can be a more glorified training carrier.