In mid-August the Chinese carrier (which some speculate will be named the Shi Lang) put to sea for trials. This was the latest development in a long and remarkable saga, which may reflect the strength and persistence of Chinese determination to develop a blue-water navy.
The ship is much better known as the former Soviet carrier Varyag. She was laid down as the Riga on 6 December 1985 as a sister to the current Russian carrier Kuznetzov, albeit with modified electronics (the phased-array radar of the Russian ship apparently did not work). The building yard at Nikolaev was in Ukraine, which became independent of Russia in 1991, and a 1993 Russian attempt to finance restarted construction failed. There were extensive reports, supported by satellite photographs, claiming that the hulk was being dismantled (in fact, it appears that the incomplete Soviet-era weapon systems were being removed).
In 1998 a Chinese company began negotiations to buy the hulk to be converted into a casino at Macau. That was credible because two ships of the earlier Kiev class had been bought by the Chinese at scrap prices for conversion into military-themed amusement parks. Rumors that the Chinese had decided to buy the ship as part of a longer-term plan to seize and maintain control of the South China Sea were dismissed, largely on the theory that the hulk was unlikely ever to be revived. However, it was also reported that the Chinese had bought the data package for the Kuznetzov class, possibly as a first step in a long-range carrier program.
When the Chinese were buying, the yard at Nikolaev had no large-ship orders. It had been the only Soviet yard capable of building big warships, and as such it had built all the Soviet carriers and semi-carriers. However, Soviet practice had been to tie the nation together by distributing key plants around the country, so that no one republic could easily split off. That proved unfortunate once the Soviet Union broke up (for example, the Russians lacked plants to build gas turbines). It left Nikolaev with slips but without much of the infrastructure needed to complete the carrier. The Ukrainians found that they had no other takers, and were reduced to charging the Chinese scrap prices for a nearly viable ship. Russians involved in the project later said that, contrary to reports, the ship’s engines had been completely installed and were intact, although propellers had not yet been fitted. There is no reason to doubt that the ship currently has her Soviet-era pressure-fired steam plant.
Getting to China
The main obstacle to bringing the incomplete carrier to China was Turkish unwillingness to allow so large an unpowered ship through the Dardanelles, on the theory that any failure of the tow would block this extremely important waterway. However, the Turks relented, and the ship passed through the Bosporus on 2 November 2001. Later it was reported that the Chinese had applied enormous political pressure on Turkey, including a guarantee of large-scale tourism, to ensure that the ship would be permitted through the straits. Again, this hardly seems to have been part of a plan to boost Chinese revenues through enhanced gambling facilities at Macau.
In any case, the ship arrived at Dalian in March 2002. For some time nothing seemed to be happening. It did emerge that the supposed owner was a shell corporation acting for a company described as close to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Such companies would be described, in a Western economy, as part of the navy, rather than as its suppliers.
The dock at which the ex-Varyag was moored had no special facilities to rebuild the ship. It was widely claimed that she could not go to sea because she lacked propellers and because the hull had been badly looted during the period of near-anarchy during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There was speculation that the hulk had been bought mainly so that Chinese naval constructors could gain experience of carrier constructional details (the Chinese had previously scrapped the ex-Australian carrier Melbourne, which presumably also provided such experience). Several cranes were brought into position near the ship, but it was not clear that they were being used. During a 2005 drydocking the ship was repainted in standard Chinese naval colors, and a new non-skid coating was applied to her flight deck. Reports began to appear that the ex-Varyag might be completed for training purposes, to support a longer-range Chinese program. An overhead photograph taken early in 2008 showed three recognizable jet-blast deflectors but no arresting gear.
In any case, by mid-2008 the exterior of the ship had been cleaned, and she was moved into drydock on 27 April 2009 for major work. That included reconstruction of the island to incorporate the Chinese active-array radar and, probably, the installation of propellers. If reports of looting were correct, they probably amounted to removal of much of the copper wiring originally installed, and replacement would have been a lengthy and painstaking process. This work would have been done largely by hand, because the ship could not possibly be opened up for the usual kind of wiring done during construction. Wiring passes through bulkheads, and presumably the new wires had to be sealed in and tested.
While the ship was being completed, a shore mock-up of her island and flight deck were built at Wuhan, atop a building apparently intended to support system integration work, much as the U.S. Navy has long maintained the “Aegis in a cornfield” shore site. It seems unlikely that the Wuhan building is intended for pilot training, so there is presumably a ski-jump elsewhere for that purpose.
Fully Operational
Given the initial rumors, it is doubtful that there was ever any question within the PLAN of anything other than completion as a full-up carrier. The ship has a Russian-style ski jump flight-deck, a feature it will share with the carrier the Russians are rebuilding for India and also, probably, with the carrier now being built in the United Kingdom. Unlike the British however, the Russians, Chinese, and Indians do not associate this type of flight deck with short take-off/vertical-landing airplanes like the special version of the F-35 the British had planned to buy. They all appreciate that modern high-powered jet fighters can use a ski-jump bow, the only caveat being that the aircraft must be properly stressed if it is to be used multiple times.
At present the Russians are beginning to worry that Chinese military expansion may ultimately be directed against them, and it is not clear whether they are or will be willing to sell China the modified fighters they use on board the Kuznetzov. They may also find that the Indians are less than overjoyed that their main enemies in Asia are receiving exactly the fighters they themselves are buying from the Russians. In that case there may be some delay while the Chinese make the appropriate modifications to their own aircraft, some of which have been seen sporting arresting gear. Ski-jump launching carries a cost in aircraft payload. It seems unlikely that a low-performance airplane like an E-2 (the Chinese have displayed a rough equivalent) can be launched by ski-jump.
The Russian carrier had the usual combination of layered self-defense weapons and long-range antiship cruise missiles (SS-N-19s) to supplement her aircraft. The Chinese have eliminated the long-range cruise missiles, presumably enlarging the hangar in the process, and they have simplified the defensive battery. The ship now has two kinds of defensive weapons: a short-range surface-to-air missile (FL-3000N) in a RAM-like 18-round box launcher, and the Chinese 30mm close-in weapon system (Type 1030). There are also 24-round decoy launchers and 24-round antisubmarine warfare rocket launchers. If the latter are derived from Russian prototypes, they are primarily anti-torpedo weapons. The ship has U.S.-style Fresnel Lens landing lights.
The main radars are the Sea Eagle (modified Russian Fregat) rotating 3-D frequency-scanned array and what appears to be the same active-array radar that equips several Chinese destroyers as a missile fire-control device (but the associated medium-range surface-to-air missile seems not to have been fitted). The electronic countermeasures array along the side of the island contains radomes resembling those of the old Soviet carriers; the ship also has a variety of larger radomes, some of which may be for satellite communications. The air traffic control system (Cake Box) of the old Soviet carriers is not visible.
Shi Lang was the Chinese admiral who first seized Taiwan. That need not mean that the ship named after him is integral to some grand scheme to seize the island, but more likely that the use of such a prominent name emphasizes the Chinese interest in the sort of oceanic navy that demands a carrier. It is also of course possible that the entire Chinese carrier project, which reportedly includes two ships now being built, is conceived as a way of showing that China is indeed a global power, and that exactly how this new naval asset is to be used has not been thought through. Whatever the reason, the lengthy history of the ship in Chinese hands suggests intense and sustained interest.
The Shi Lang (if that turns out to be the vessel’s name) probably holds the modern world record for duration of construction (sailing warships sometimes took this amount of time, but not the iron or steel variety), more than a quarter-century from birth to completion. The two world wars suspended a number of ships, but not for quite that long. For example, the French battleship Jean Bart was laid down in 1936 and completed in 1949-52—15 years later. The French cruiser de Grasse was laid down in 1937 and completed in 1956, just short of two decades later (to a very different design, with different weapons). The French carrier Bearn was laid down (as a battleship) in January 1914 and completed (as a carrier) in 1927, 13 years later. The British laid down the cruiser HMS Tiger in 1941 and completed her in 1959 (to a modified design), 18 years later. Her sister HMS Lion was laid down in 1942 and completed in 1960. There seems to be no 20th-century precedent for any country buying an incomplete foreign capital ship and completing her locally. After World War I, no one bought any of the incomplete German capital ships nor the unfinished battlecruiser Salamis, which had been laid down for Greece (and never completed).