> > >I'm sure we have some 10yr old planes we could sell them so they can test > >the catapults and we can knock down the negative money hole. > > Its a 30 year old obsolete target. China doesn't have the escort ships, the > pilots with the necessary skills or the aircraft for this.
I started to say this: "It's a ski-jump-deck carrier - doesn't that mean a smaller air wing?" In searching I found this bit on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_aircraft_carrier_Admiral_of_the_Fleet_of_the_Soviet_Union_Kuznetsov Which has this comment: "She was originally commissioned in the Soviet Navy, and was intended to be the lead ship of her class, but the only other ship of her class, Varyag, was never commissioned and was sold to the People's Republic of China by Ukraine under the condition she would never be refitted for combat." Then I found this page on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_aircraft_carrier_Varyag She's old and small - keel was laid in 1985, her ships company is only around 2000 with another 500-600 for air wing. She's designed to carry 26 fixed wing and 24 helos. She's an oiler with about a 45 day range. Compare that to the ship that I was on, USS George Washington, keel laid in 1996, ship's company of 3200 and an air wing that is 2600 strong and 90 birds total. Her two nuclear reactors have a total life of 20 years before the rods have to be changed. Hatton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:341466 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
