So it did fly... or not... well, it might of... but basically that's no more than an internet rumor... so no one really knows if it did or didn't... if it even exists yet.

 

Another misleading title, as per your usual.

 

I get the same feeling than Warpig . Chinese sites (especialy unofficial ones) can be very misleading .

Wait and see ...

 

Cheers .

Yeah...remember the hoax of China's "new attack helicopter," which proved to be a Photoshopped Tiger?

 

I'm also curious what good a Su-33/J-15 would be, since China doesn't have a carrier yet.  They slapped a new coat of paint on the old Varyag, but until I see shakedown trials with Su-33s doing CarQuals, I'm not putting money on it.

The article is quoting Richard Fisher as the source of original rumor.

 

 

Sentinel :

Only with regard to some old post of his about the J-15 being based on the Su-33, not the part about it supposedly flying two weeks ago.  Besides, I'm not sure that citing him is particularly persuasive in any event.

> I'm also curious what good a Su-33/J-15 would be, since China doesn't have a carrier yet.


The first of three ships is under construction. It is a 60,000 ton Varyag copy. 
 

 

Oh really?  And the source for that information is...?  Are you going to cite another internet rumor with nothing to substantiate it?

 

Probably Wikipedia, which is where I found it.  The PLAN is apparently putting the Varyag back into service, since she's in dry dock, but they didn't move her there until April of this year, and she's still there waiting for new engines.

 

As far as the new carriers go, China hasn't started constructing them yet, though Wiki also lists them as being planned to launch in 2015.  Entirely possible, if they start building it this year or early next.  Hard to say with the Chinese, who say a lot of things when it comes to future ships, aircraft, buildings, etc.  It could be on the level or it could be a big bluff.

 

Either way, a Varyag up against a US carrier battlegroup is a pretty ugly mismatch for the Varyag.  China is looking towards blue water operations, but they really don't need carriers to go after Taiwan.  The South China Sea is a good possibility, but again, they don't need carriers for ops against the Philippines (whose air force is built strictly for COIN) or Vietnam (whose air force could be overwhelmed by Chinese land-based air).  Australia, Malaysia, or Singapore would tear apart a Varyag-size air wing, as would Japan or South Korea if it was operating in northern waters.

 

Slow, you just contradicted yourself.  You said "there's no need for the PLAN to refit Varyag," then you go on to say that she's the first of three planned carriers.  They're going to have to refit her if she'll ever put to sea again; she was towed to China.  From all reports, the refit's already started.

 

I honestly don't see a use for these carriers.  To threaten India, they'd have to sail through the straits of Indonesia, which could be easily closed by Indian submarines (or Indonesia, which isn't exactly buddy buddy with China).  Assuming they get through, they'd have to operate in the Indian Ocean, far away from any supply base (except Pakistan), in seas and air dominated by the Indian Air Force.  The Chinese do not yet have the kind of layered defense a US battlegroup has, and the air wing of these carriers is a third the size of a US carrier.  True, all India has are two Harrier carriers with similar air wings, but land-based air could devastate a Chinese carrier operating in the Bay of Bengal. 

 

Japan is a similar situation.  To get close enough to be effective (let's say, in operations around the Ryukyus), that brings them into range of land-based air of the JASDF/JMSDF.  War with Japan likely means war with the US as well, so that puts them into a situation where those Chinese carriers would indeed be facing American ones, at a severe disadvantage.  Carriers only do well against land-based air units when the carriers themselves have enough firepower to fend them off.  The Chinese designs would not. 

 

The only use I can foresee for these carriers is as a covering force for limited landings--say, a small island like Quemoy or some of the southern Ryukyus, or operations in the South China Sea, where Vietnam's old machines would be about as effective against Chinese carriers as they were against US carriers during the war.  Either that, or it's just prestige, like battleships used to be in the day.

""they'd have to operate in the Indian Ocean, far away from any supply base (except Pakistan)""

 

There , they would have to deal with the French Navy . A fifth of our Navy is riding the waves 24/7 over there ...

 

Cheers .

SlowMan :