Tiamat
I've seen the future...
Didn't the Russians sell them an old carrier - cough-couch Aircraft Carrying Cruiser?
Any news on the smokey landing ship?
Yes, China bought one of the Russian Aircraft Carrying Cruisers to have some sort of starting point. But that was years ago.
China IMO wisely went with CATOBAR not with stinking useless stupid ramps (yeah, RN QE in my books SUXXOR DA MAXXOR). But catapults are difficult. Especially electromagnetic ... the PLAN took a VERY ambitious route. I suppose that enought time and throwing money will produce a working system ... or maybe not ...
Haven't heard anything else yet on the Chinese landing ship that decided to have a duck BBQ, don't know if we even will for a while, they tend to be tight lipped about such things.
As for the carrier in question that was sold off, it was the Soviet Kuznetsov-class Carrier/Missile Cruiser Riga, also named as the Varyag. It was about 65 percent complete or so when it was sold off to the Chinese. China finished construction and renamed it the Liaoling. It still has the launch ramp which I'm not a particular fan of.
Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Hilariously enough, some Russian politicians have suggested they now want that aircraft carrier back.
As Russia's only aircraft carrier falls apart, some Russians want to undo a shady ship deal with China from 25 years ago
The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning began life as a Soviet warship. Now a Russian lawmaker thinks it could be of use to Moscow again.
www.businessinsider.com
"We want our aircraft carrier back comrades, we practically sold that thing off for a few bottles of cheap vodka!"
EDIT: I swear everytime I see an aircraft carrier with one of those stupid ramps it makes me think of someone trying to stick up a certain reproductive organ to impress someone, or rather....nevermind.
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