By Dr. Lajos F. Szaszdi
In August 2005 a report appeared in the press about the
People’s Republic of China’s apparent efforts to repair and possibly even
complete the rusting and unfinished hull of the former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag.[i] This ship, sister to the Russian Navy’s Admiral
Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, was up to 70% finished when it was
allowed to cross the Turkish Straits in tow bound for China in the fall of
2001.2
Already in 1992, it was reported that both the Chinese and Indian navies
were interested in the vessel, inherited by Ukraine after the fall of the
Soviet Union, with the idea to complete it for their own fleets.3
Although allegedly the Varyag was sold for scrapping to China, it
was claimed later that the carrier would become a “floating casino,” having
been purchased by a Macao-based tourism firm.4
However, it would appear that the avowed intention to
convert the ship into a casino was a cover to conceal the actual plan of
acquiring the aircraft carrier to support the development of a Chinese carrier
force. In this regard, it has been
reported that by 2005 the Varyag was repainted with Chinese naval
markings and naval gray coating, “flying the PLA Navy colours,” and that “other
work . . . appears to be continuing and that the condition of the vessel is
being improved,” with the repairs being conducted at Dalian shipyard.5
Dalian, which is not far from historic Port Arthur, is on the southern
end of the Liaodong Peninsula, which juts into the eastern part of Bo Hai Bay
in northern China. Due to its strategic
location, Dalian can receive Russian-made weapons and ship systems for the Varyag
from the Russian Far East through rail communications and by sea. Moreover, General Liu Huaqing, former
commander of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), wrote that his country
acquired from Russia the design plans of the Varyag, a claim
corroborated by Russian sources to Jane’s Defence Weekly. Huaqing also stated that his country’s
“defense industry employed Russian aircraft carrier designers to come to China
. . . .” He claimed that “meanwhile, a
certain amount of aircraft carrier design documents were also introduced into
China.”6
The Admiral Kuznetsov class
The Admiral Kuznetsov has a displacement of
43,000 tons light, 59,100 tons full load, and 65,000 tons maximum.7
It was claimed that the Kuznetsov class was capable of operating an air
group of up to 52 aircraft, including two squadrons with 18 Su-33 (the basic
naval version of the Su-27 air-superiority fighter), two squadrons with 18
MiG-29K, and 16 helicopters including 11 Ka-27 ASW helicopters, 3 Ka-29 AEW for
airborne early warning operations, and 2 Ka-27 for SAR (search and rescue) missions.8
On paper, however, only two fighter squadrons have been assigned to the Kuznetsov,
for a total of 24 Su-33, carrying in addition just 12 helicopters that in the future
will include 8 Ka-27 for ASW operations, 4 Ka-29 AEW, and 2 Ka-27 SAR.9
Considering the Kuznetsov’s reported light ship displacement of
43,000 tons and China’s acquisition of the Varyag, it is noteworthy that
the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Intelligence stated in a 1997 report that China
was “developing [a] 40,000 ton aircraft carrier” at the time.10
It may be that for China building such a ship from scratch could have
proved too expensive then, so a partial solution in terms of obtaining an
aircraft carrier with that displacement was to buy the hull of the Varyag.
The Su-27KUB: A fighter for the Varyag
The most likely candidate to become the leading fighter
in the Varyag’s air group, if the carrier is ever commissioned, is the
Russian Su-27KUB, which is also identified as the Su-33UB.11
It is considered to be “the aerodynamically most advanced among all
Sukhoi designs,” a multirole fighter developed for aircraft carriers, with
enlarged wings when compared to the basic Su-27 design, a side-by-side two
crewmen cockpit, and with thrust-vector control (TVC) nozzles in its twin engines
for superior maneuverability.12 Revealingly, during the recent MAKS 2005 Air
Show in Moscow, “the Su-27KUB was on display for one day only, and its single
flight display was performed just before sunset with only the strong Chinese
delegation watching it.”13
The Su-27KUB can be armed with the Beyond Visual Range
(BVR) Russian air-to-air missiles R-77 (AA-12 “Adder”) with 75 km of range, the
improved R-77M version possessing greater range, and possibly with a
rocket/ramjet version of the R-77, capable of a range of 150 km designed to
engage airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft.14 The Su-27KUB can carry the Russian-made
rocket/ramjet Kh-41 “Moskit” anti-ship cruise missile, having a range of 250
km, a maximum speed of Mach 3 and a 320 kg warhead.15 Another Russian cruise missile that can
arm the Su-27KUB is the anti-radiation Kh-31P (AS-17 “Krypton”), designed to
attack the naval AEGIS AN/SPY-1 radar and the AN/MPQ-53 surveillance and
tracking radar of the Patriot SAM system.16 The Kh-31P appears to be in Chinese service,
and it is a rocket/ramjet missile with a range of 200 km and a maximum speed of
Mach 3. An improved version of the
anti-radar weapon developed for China, known as the KR-1, reportedly has a
maximum range of 400 km.17 The Varyag’s air group could also
sport a future AEW version of the Su-27KUB, displaying “a phased-array mounted
on the spine, between the composites antenna tailfins.” The Su-27KUB fighters would possibly be made
at the Sukhoi KnAAPO plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in the Russian Far East.18
The twin-seat fighter features a modern “glass cockpit”
with five multifunction displays (MFD), a helmet-mounted display (HMD) system,
and may carry the NIIP N014, “a solid-state, phased array radar, with enhanced
air-to-ground and over-water capabilities.”19 The N014 “electronically-scanned” “multi-mode
fire control radar” was seemingly intended originally for the Mikoyan MiG MFI
or1.42 fifth-generation fighter project, having the capability of engaging BVR
simultaneously 6 air targets while tracking 20 other aircraft.20
In addition, the Su-27KUB has been tested with the advanced NIIP N011M,
a phased array “multimode, multi-frequency” fire control radar that can be used
also by the Su-30MK, Su-30MKI and the Su-35 multirole fighters.21
The N011M radar has a 200 km surface detection range and the capability
to operate in “ground mapping and terrain-following/terrain-avoidance” modes, being
able of detecting “large” aircraft of the AWACS kind up to 400 km away.22
In this regard, it seems that one of the roles the Su-27KUB is intended
to fulfill is that of long-range interception of airborne early warning and
control aircraft (AEW&C).23
In addition, the Sukhoi fighter has a fly-by-wire (FBW)
flight control system, and among its advanced avionics it features “a unique
digital processor with a speed of several dozen billion operations per second”
(BOPS) designed for this aircraft in particular, and which “will give the fire
control radar extremely high resolution.”24 The Su-27KUB to be exported to China will
feature a longer “tail-sting” that will be upward-folding to save space. According to Jane’s, this “tail-sting” may
carry a “rear warning radar.”25 This rear-looking radar might be the
lightweight X-band Pharaon, being developed by Phazotron through an order
placed by Sukhoi. The Pharaon was
designed to be the main fire control radar of light fighters or to be carried
by heavier fighters in their “sting-tail,” having been described as possessing
“comprehensive air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities.”26
The Su-27KUB enlarged wingspan is reportedly 12 percent
greater with 16 meters, and with 70 square meters in area, than the dimensions
of the Su-33, with a wingspan of 14.70 meters and a wing area of 62 square
meters.27
The wingspan of the Su-33 with its wings folded is 10 meters.28
The Su-27KUB wingspan with folded wings is 11.5 meters.29
Thus, the Su-27KUB would occupy more space, considering the larger wingspan
of the fighter even with the wings folded,30
than the Su-33. Because of the Russian
Navy’s demand for the Su-27KUB to be equal in gross weight to the Su-33, to
avoid an increase in weight for the new twin-seat naval fighter composite
materials have been used extensively in the aircraft, particularly in the wings.31
A proposed fighter air group for the Varyag
In any case, if it is ever commissioned into the PLAN
and becomes operational, the Varyag could have more space capacity to
carry aircraft if provisions are made to safely park a practical number of them
on the flight deck. In contrast, the Admiral
Kuznetsov does not have many places where aircraft can be securely parked
on the flight deck, since the ship’s air component were to be stored in the
hangar.32
Moreover, the Varyag’s hangar will have more cargo
capacity if the forward missile battery with 12 S-N-19 long-range anti-ship
cruise missiles in canted launchers under the flight deck, as in the Admiral
Kuznetsov,33 is not installed in
favor of more internal space. In
addition, it might be that the Su-27KUB’s radar radome could be folded upwards
like in the case of the Russian Navy’s Su-33,34
for the purpose of saving more space in the Varyag’s hangar. However, the Chinese Varyag might
carry formally an air wing of two squadrons of Su-27KUB for a total of 24
multirole fighters, probably deploying aboard in peacetime only one squadron
with 12 of the aircraft.
The Varyag might also operate another squadron of
a navalized version of the new Chinese J-10 (F-10) multirole fighter,35 which in terms of weight and
performance is reportedly in the same category level like the Eurofighter and
the French Rafale.36 If a naval J-10 fighter air wing ever deploys
on a PLAN aircraft carrier, it will very likely be composed by what someone
dubbed the “Chinese Super-10 fighter,” an advanced version of the J-10 featuring
“a more powerful engine, thrust vector control, stronger airframe and passive
phased-array radar.”37 The proposed radar, new engine, and thrust
vector control system of the “Super-10 fighter” are Russian, with the thrust
vector nozzles shifting “in both pitch and yaw,”38
which will give the latest J-10 type super maneuverability in air combat. The full complement of fighters carried in
wartime by the PLAN Varyag could be of two squadrons of 12 Su-27KUB each
plus at least another with 12 J-10, provided that measures are adopted to increase
the stowage capacity of the aircraft carrier above that of the original design
of the Admiral Kuznetsov class.
The Kiev class ships of China
The Varyag, however, is not the only Soviet
aircraft carrier in China. After it was stricken from the Russian Navy in 1994,
the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) carrier/guided-missile cruiser Kiev
was towed to China supposedly for scrapping in 2000.39
Yet, the Kiev was sent instead to a dockyard for repairs and to
condition the ship as a tourist attraction and theme park, being sent
eventually to Tianjin Port, located by the Hai River, whose waters flow into Bo
Hai Bay.40
The aircraft carrier Minsk was stricken from the Russian Navy in
1993 together with the Novorossiisk, also of the Kiev class. Both
warships were sold to a South Korean company one year later for scrap metal.41
In 1998 the Minsk was sold to a Chinese company for scrapping,
but the carrier was re-sold in turn to a Chinese entertainment company, which
converted the vessel into a tourist attraction and theme park, like the Kiev.42
The company running the Minsk, moored in the southern city of
Shenzhen, became bankrupt this year.
Perhaps not coincidentally, a Chinese company owned by the state, CITIC
Shenzhen Group, purchased the ship at an auction held the last day of May. The Minsk will continue for the time
being as a “military-theme park.”43
The fate of the Novorossiisk is more of a
mystery. Reportedly, the carrier was
sold to an Indian company for scrapping.44 However, the website of the Russian firm FMP,
specialized in industrial coatings for tanks and metal structures, claimed to
have treated “tanks for potable water of aircraft carrier ‘Novorossiysk
hydraulic works in China, Korea, Marocco (sic).”45 Has the Novorossiisk been converted
into a “floating” hydraulic works company in China?
The three Kiev class ships had a displacement of
42,000 tons full load.46 The Modified Kiev class Admiral
Gorshkov was sold by Russia to India on January 2004. Heavier than the Kiev class, the Gorshkov
has a full load displacement of 44,570 tons and a maximum displacement of
48,500 tons. It will be modernized and
rebuilt with the addition of an aircraft carrier through-deck with a bow
ski-jump.47 The Kiev class ships in China could
also be transformed into through-deck aircraft carriers like the Admiral
Gorshkov, which is scheduled to enter Indian Navy service in
2008-2009. The Gorshkov will
carry an air group comprising between 16-20 MiG-29K fighters and 6-8
helicopters.48 If the PLAN decides one day to repair,
rebuild and modernize the Kiev class ships now in China and convert them into
through-deck aircraft carriers, as Russia is doing with the Admiral Gorshkov
for India, in terms of number of aircraft the Chinese Kievs’ air group might be
similar to that being planned for the Indian Navy’s Gorshkov. However, the fighters in the Kiev or Minsk
would most probably belong to a navalized “Super-10” version of the J-10,
instead of being MiG-29K as those that will form the fighter component of the
Indian Gorshkov.
Motives behind a PLAN aircraft carrier program
China’s acquisition of Soviet aircraft carriers might
have been motivated by a desire to deny rival powers their possession,
particularly India. The apparent repair
of the Varyag might be motivated by the Indian Navy’s future
incorporation of the Gorshkov and of a new aircraft carrier to be built
in India, the 35,000 tons Air Defense Ship (ADS), with between 14-16 MiG-29K
and some 20 helicopters.49 The need to ensure its sea lines of communication
across the Indian Ocean to Near Eastern markets, and in particular to the
region’s and Sudan’s vital oil supplies, might be a strong reason for a Chinese
aircraft carrier program. A PLAN
aircraft carrier will provide its naval forces engaged in out-of-area operations
with sea-based fleet air defense and naval air strike capabilities. Also, a task force centered on the Varyag
could be employed in tightening a naval blockade against Taiwan or to reaffirm
China’s right to disputed islands and territorial waters, such as the Spratlys
in the South China Sea. Moreover,
Japan’s plans to build four 18,000 tons full load aircraft carriers, called
helicopter destroyers, plus South Korea’s planned fleet of four multi-purpose
amphibious ships of 18,860 tons full load with a flight deck and capacity for
10 helicopters,50 might have led China not
to be left behind in deploying an aircraft carrier. Prestige and national pride in light of other
Asian powers’ acquisition of aircraft carriers or aviation ships with a flight
deck would be added incentives for the Chinese to deploy an aircraft carrier,
so as not to be less than their neighbors.
A Chinese aircraft carrier capability built around the
Varyag and its Kievs could trigger a regional naval race to build bigger
and more capable aircraft carriers to match those of the PLAN. It is thus recommended that the U.S. Navy
continue to deploy a permanent presence of at least one carrier in the Far
East, as a guarantee of our commitment to our allies’ security in the region,
in the face of a Chinese naval buildup.
Thus, the deployment of the Navy’s carrier battle groups in the Pacific
Ocean should be maintained to ensure the security of the United States’ friends
and allies in the western Pacific. This
permanent naval presence should remain in place to check a regional naval arms
race that can be caused by a sense of insecurity triggered by China’s emergence
as a naval power.
[i]Yihong Chang and Andrew Koch, “Is China building a carrier?,” Jane’s
Defence Weekly 42, no. 33 (17 August 2005): 7.
2Ibid.;
A.D. Baker III, comp., The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the
World 2002-2003. Their Ships, Aircraft, and Systems (Annapolis, Md.; Naval
Institute Press, 2002), 611.
3Stephen
Chumbley, ed., Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1947-1995
(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1995), 374.
5Ibid.;
Tomasz Szulc, “Strong Signals from MAKS 2005,” Military Technology 29,
no. 11 (November 2005): 75.
7Baker
III, 610; Eric Wertheim, comp., The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets
of the World 2005-2006. Their Ships, Aircraft, and Systems (Annapolis, Md.:
Naval Institute Press, 2005), 602. A.S.
Pavlov gives a maximum displacement of 67,500 tons. See A.S. Pavlov, Warships of the USSR and
Russia 1945-1995, ed. Norman Friedman, trans. Gregory Tokar (Annapolis,
Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1997), 87.
8Ibid.;
Wertheim, 605. On the original fighter component of the Admiral Kuznetsov
class, see Yefim Gordon, Flankers. The New Generation (Hinckley,
England: Midland Publishing, 2001), 89. Combat Fleets of the World
claims that the Admiral Kuznetsov could operate 52 aircraft, distributed
as 36 Su-33 fighters and 21 helicopters, of which 16 would be Ka-27 ASW
helicopters. Five additional helicopters would fulfill other roles. This data,
however, seems to be inaccurate. See Baker III, 611; Wertheim, 603.
10Office
of Naval Intelligence, Worldwide Challenges to Naval Strike Warfare
(Office of Naval Intelligence, February 1997), 27.
11Tomasz
Szulc, “MAKS 2005 News,” Military Technology 29, no. 11 (November 2005):
70; Paul Jackson, ed., Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft 2004-2005, 95th
ed. (Coulsdon, Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, 2004), 443.
14Robert
Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air Launched Weapons, no. 40 (Coulsdon, Surrey:
Jane’s Information Group, 2002), 63-64.
16Martin Streetly, “Disrupt, disable, destroy,” Jane’s Defence
Weekly 42, no. 50 (14 December 2005): 27; Martin Streetly, ed., Jane’s
Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems 2001-2002, 13th ed.
(Coulsdon, Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, 2001), 115; Hewson, 194.
18Paul
Jackson, ed., Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft 2002-2003, 93rd
ed. (Coulsdon, Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, 2002), 407.
19Jackson,
Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft 2004-2005, 444; Gordon, 120; Streetly, Jane’s
Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems 2001-2002, 244; Wertheim, 604.
20Streetly,
Jane’s Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems 2001-2002, 244; Yefim
Gordon, Sukhoi S-37 and Mikoyan MFI. Russian Fifth-Generation Fighter
Technology Demonstrators (Hinckley, England: Midland Publishing, 2001), 43,
22.
26Edward
Downs, ed., Jane’s Avionics 2002-2003, 21st ed. (Coulsdon,
Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, 2002), 416.
37Henry
Ivanov, “China working on ‘Super-10’ advanced fighter,” Jane’s Defence
Weekly 43, no. 2 (11 January 2006): 5.
40“Aircraft
carrier Kiev,” China Daily, 14 September 2003 [newspaper on-line];
available from http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-09/14/content_263946.htm;
Internet; accessed 10 March 2004; “Former Russian Carrier to Stay in Chinese
Park,” People’s Daily Online, 19 April 2001 [newspaper on-line];
available from http://fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn/200104/19/print20010419_68082.html;
Internet; accessed 10 March 2004; Merriam Webster’s Geographical Dictionary
(1998), s.v. “Tianjin.”
42“Soviet-era
Aircraft Carrier Goes Under Hammer in China,” MosNews.com, 17 February
2006 [news site on-line]; available from http://www.mosnews.com/money/2006/02/17/minsk.shtml;
Internet; accessed 17 February 2006.
43“Bankrupt ‘Minsk’ aircraft carrier theme park not to relocate,”
Keralanext.com, 8 May 2006 [news site on-line]; available from http://www.keralanext.com/news/?id=680209;
Internet; accessed 10 May 2006;
“Former Russian aircraft carrier sold
for 128.3 mln yuan,” People’s Daily Online, 1 June 2006 [newspaper on-line];
available from http://english.people.com.cn/200606/01/print20060601_270353.html;
Internet; accessed 1
June 2006; AP, “Ex-Soviet aircraft
carrier-turned-theme park,” Baku Sun [newspaper on-line]; available from
http://www.bakusun.az:8101/cgi-bin/ayten/bakusun/show.cgi?code=9716;
Internet; accessed 3 June 2006.
44Baker III, 611.
45“Protected
Projects,” VMP antikorrozionnie pokritiia [corporate site on-line]; available from http://www.coldzinc.ru/english/pp.shtml;
Internet; accessed 23 August 2005.
46Chumbley,
374. The 1993 edition of Combat Fleets of the World gave the figure of
43,000 tons full load for the three aircraft carriers of the Kiev class.
See Bernard Prézelin, ed., The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the
World 1993. Their Ships, Aircraft, and Armament, trans. A.D. Baker III
(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1993), 506.
47“R
Vikramaditya [ex-Gorshkov] Aircraft Carrier,” GlobalSecurity.org, 10
June 2005 [information site on-line]; available from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/r-vikramaditya.htm;
Internet; accessed 22 February 2006; Baker III, 291; Wertheim, 282-83.
48“R
Vikramaditya Aircraft Carrier;” Rahul Bedi, “Indian Navy strives for regional
dominance,” Jane’s Defence Weekly 42, no. 51 (21 December 2005): 31;
Baker III, 291; Wertheim, 283; Rahul Bedi and
Jamie Hunter, “India considers
acquiring UK Sea Harriers,” Jane’s Defence Weekly 43, no. 7 (15 February
2006): 6.
49Rahul
Bedi, “India’s air defence ship gains new momentum,” Jane’s Defence Weekly
41, no. 32 (11 August 2004): 12.
No comments:
Post a Comment