"Varyag" is an aircraft carrying cruiser. Description, characteristics, photo

The aircraft carriers are majestic ships that symbolize the military power of the state. Today we will get acquainted with the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Varyag, the history of which was quite interesting and confusing. A ship was created in the USSR, completed in Ukraine, and now it is in service with China. And now about everything in order. Let's start with the history of the ship.

Start of construction

On December 4, 1985, the Black Sea Shipbuilding Plant launched the 11435 cruiser. The freed up slipway (platform for construction) was empty for a long time - soon it was laid on a similar TAKR (heavy aircraft carrier). This ship was called "Riga". Unlike the main cruiser built for the Northern Fleet, the new TAKR was calculated for use by the Pacific Fleet. It was built on the same project as the head model, the full name of which, incidentally, sounds like "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov." However, there were some adjustments. The main one is the replacement of the radioelectronic complex with a more modern one.

Descent to the water

On November 25, 1988 Riga was launched. The construction was to be completed on its own. June 19, 1990 the ship received a new name - "Varyag". The aircraft carrying cruiser was built quite swiftly, keeping pace with the schedule. However, at the end of 1991, when the division of the Soviet Union began, the construction stopped. In 1992, when the ship was ready for 68%, it was mothballed. Neither Russia nor Ukraine were able to continue financing the project. Moreover, it could not even be saved. When the protection of the ship was abolished in 1993, the equipment was stolen.

Sale

To the ship brought at least some benefit, he decided to sell it to scrap metal. 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 moved to her disposal. 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 fake. And the Macau colony itself is owned by Portugal on a leasehold basis until the end of 1999. Thus, for today it is already reliably known that the actual buyer of the Varyag was the Chinese naval forces.

Towing of a vessel

To tow such a large vessel across the three oceans, it took a lot of money and time. The procedure was complicated by the fact that powerplants and control systems were not installed on the ship. The ship was withdrawn from the shipyard in June 2000. Due to problems with the Turkish authorities, the ship remained in tow in the Black Sea until November 2001. In the Aegean Sea, the ship got into a storm and pulled away from the tug. After a while, the coupler was reunited, and the ship traveled around Africa via Gibraltar. Then through the Indian Ocean and Singapore, he landed in the South China Sea. On March 3, 2002, after traveling 15,000 miles, the Varyag was moored in the Chinese port of Dalian.

The further destiny

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 carrying cruiser, according to preliminary data, was to become a training ship for young pilots. It was unofficially said that the Varyag would be renamed Shi Lan, in honor of the naval commander, who captured the island of Taiwan in 1681.

Completion and reconstruction

The Soviet aircraft carrying cruiser Varyag was manufactured very qualitatively. During the downtime, it was covered with corrosion, but the main parts (shell, shell, boilers and screws) remained in good condition. Cables, electrical equipment and everything else that could be stolen, was carried off the ship during its storage in Nikolaev. Therefore, in order to bring the ship into combat condition, the Chinese had to do a great job. Since they had no documents, the electrical system had to be developed from scratch. And it was necessary to equip the cruiser with weapons. Doing this on a ready ship was much more difficult than creating anew.

Chinese shipbuilders should pay tribute. They coped with the task and in August 2011 began testing the performance characteristics of the aircraft carrier. For almost a year the ship was on trial in the sea and only occasionally stopped at the port of Dalian to eliminate the criticism of the crew.

In early September 2012 on board the cruiser loaded ammunition, for testing weapons. 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 was named "Liaoning". Since then, there has been no mention of the training status of the vessel. Today, it seems to be a full-fledged fighting unit.

Interesting is the fact that the Soviet aircraft carrying cruiser serves in the same waters for which it was originally intended, only under a different flag. Now let's analyze the technical side of the ship.

Armament

The cruiser did not receive weapons, which had to be installed on it under a 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 for 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, was equipped with anti-aircraft weapons of local production for the Chinese Navy. In terms of capabilities and composition, it is at times inferior to that which was intended for the project. As for aviation armament, 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 converted J-11 received a new name - J-15.

In addition to aircraft, the helicopters Z-18 and Z-9 will be located on the deck. For long-range radar surveillance, the PRC purchased Russian Ka-31 helicopters from Russia. In general, the composition of the cruiser's air group consists of 24 multi-purpose fighters, 6 anti-submarine helicopters, 4 helicopters of DRLO and 2 search and rescue helicopters.

Communication and other equipment

On the "Varyag" (an aircraft cruiser that never became the new pride of the Soviet countries) during construction it was decided to put the radar complex (RLK) "Forum" instead of the "Mars-Passat" on the main ship. Therefore, places for antenna posts "Mars-Passat" were sealed.

When the ship was completed in the People's Republic of China, antenna arrays of the RLK type 348 of Chinese manufacture were installed at these locations. Thus, Liaoning is even more similar to the head ship than the failed Varyag. The aircraft cruiser also received a rotating antenna of the Chinese radar station "Sea Eagle".

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 deflector shields and retractable delays, a springboard instead of catapults, an optical landing system, and four cable-type airbreakers with hydraulic brake machines.

In the stern part of the ship, at the left edge, an open position of the head of visual landing is installed according to the American pattern. In Soviet TAKR, the post is a glazed closed cabin, which is better suited for the Northern and Far Eastern climate.

Service

In 1991, the Soviet Union began to form a crew for the under construction cruiser. The commander of the ship was already appointed. They became the captain of the first rank Vladimir Vysotsky. Earlier, the man commanded the vessel "Minsk". In 1993 the crew was disbanded.

Since November 4, 2012, the aircraft carrier Liaoning, which has entered service, has become a place for training pilots for maritime specialization and testing of the J-15 fighter. On November 5, the same year, for the first time in the history of China, an aircraft was landed on the deck of the ship with a cable hook.

In December 2013, one of the ships of the Liaoning escort almost collided in the South China Sea with the American cruiser USS Cowpens. Both sides accused each other of misunderstanding.

November 7, 2014 on the cruiser "Liaoning" visited the Minister of Defense of America Chuck Hagel. 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 excursion around the ship, Hagel positively described the level of professional training of the crew of the cruiser. However, according to him, the Chinese still have much to learn in the field of deck aviation.

In September 2015, a number of media reported that "Liaoning" arrived in the Mediterranean and moored in the Syrian port of Tartus. It is assumed that this news is nothing more than disinformation. The fact is that such a dimensional ship is almost impossible to navigate unnoticed through the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Ship in art

"Varyag" - aircraft carrying cruiser, which until 2000 stood in Nikolayev near the completion wall, became the basis for the plot of the fantastic story "Business trip". The plot unfolded around a fictitious unfinished aircraft carrier "Dmitry Pozharsky." He was defended in the city of Primorsk since Soviet times, and was later put up for sale. According to the story, a shot from a cruiser cannon in 2017 caused an armed uprising, the purpose of which was the return of Soviet power.

Fantastic story "Operation Lance" by A.I. Pervushin also was published under the name "Cruiser Varangian". The aircraft-carrying cruiser, whose characteristics we considered today, was, according to the story, formally sold to a travel company, but actually went to the shores of Antarctica to search for a magical artifact. In the campaign, the ship was opposed by the carrier group of the naval forces of America, which also wanted to find the treasure.

That's how the aircraft carrier "Varyag", whose photo causes some sadness, became the embodiment of geopolitics incomprehensible for creative and ordinary people.

Conclusion

Today we have learned that the story of the Varyag ship was not an easy one. The aircraft carrying cruiser, the description of which we now know, could become the property of the Soviet, Russian or Ukrainian army, if for negligence it was not negligible sold to strategic rivals.