Zitat:China denies aircraft carrier rumor
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-06-16 16:24


China is not building an aircraft carrier in Shanghai, said a senior defense industry official at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing Thursday.

"I don't know where your news come from. As a leader in charge of the industry, I know nothing about that. I can make it clear to you that there is no such thing, " said Zhang Guangqin when asked to comment on a rumor that China is building aircraft carriers in Shanghai.

....

Zitat:China rejects reports of aircraft carrier project

Fri June 17, 2005 8:57 AM GMT+05:30
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday rejected reports that it was building an aircraft carrier but said it could do so in the future.

The denial from a senior official comes amid increasing worries over the country's robust military expansion.

Military analysts say China has considered building or buying an aircraft carrier, but the costly plan appears to have been put on the back burner in recent years.

Asked to comment on reports China had started building a carrier in Shanghai, Zhang Guangqin, vice minister of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, said they were false.

"I'd like to make it clear that there is no such thing at all," the China Daily quoted Zhang as saying.

....

Zitat:CHINA
Zu Gerüchten über den angeblichen Bau eines Flugzeugträgers hat sich nun auch ein hochrangiger Politiker geäußert.

Zhang Guangqin, als Vizeminister u.a. zuständig für (auch den militärischen) Schiffbau, dementierte rundweg, dass man auf einer Werft in Schanghai mit einem solchen Vorhaben begonnen habe. Er schloss Entwicklung und Bau von Flugzeugträgern für die Zukunft zwar nicht völlig aus; zur Zeit seien aber keinerlei Mittel dafür in den Haushalt eingestellt. Bei der Modernisierung der Volksbefreiungsmarine (PLAN) konzentriere man sich "mit den verfügbaren Ressourcen mit Priorität auf Schiffe zur Sicherung der territorialen Integrität und Souveränität der riesigen Seegebiete vor den eigenen Küsten" (Anmerkung: dies schließt wohl Taiwan ein). Die Entwicklung einer Fähigkeit zur überregionalen Power Projection steht demnach zumindest offiziell vorerst wohl nicht auf der Agenda.

Während Zhang vor allem finanzielle Gründe für den Verzicht auf Flugzeugträger anführt, sehen Experten noch andere Motive. Beim Bau eines ja nie als Einzelfahrer einsetzbaren Flugzeugträgers seien die - kostenintensive - parallele Mitentwicklung weiterer Einheiten zur Sicherung und logistischen Unterstützung (Carrier Battle Group) sowie die Schaffung von technologisch anspruchsvollen Command & Control-Fähigkeiten (überregionales C4ISR) unverzichtbar. Vor allem bei letzterem sei China noch nicht auf der Höhe der Zeit. Zahlreiche Neubauten der letzten Jahre wie große Einsatzgruppenversorger sowie Fregatten und "Aegis"-ähnliche Zerstörer (SAR/PAR-Radar) scheinen demgegenüber aber durchaus auch geeignet, den Kern einer Carrier Battle Group zu bilden.

In Internetforen wird dem Dementi Zhangs zum Flugzeugträgerbau wenig Bedeutung beigemessen; bisweilen wird gerade dieses Dementi sogar als Versuch bewertet, einen "tatsächlich bereits begonnenen Bau durch Desinformation zu verschleiern". Dies scheint jedoch ziemlich abwegig. So dürfte es z.B. in Schanghai wohl kaum möglich sein, einen großen Flugzeugträger heimlich und versteckt zu bauen.

VARYAG vor der Eindockung in Dalian (Foto: Internet / Chinese Defence Forum)Allerdings mehren sich Gerüchte über eine mögliche Wiederherstellung (bzw. Fertigbau) des 2002 aus der Ukraine nach Dalian geschleppten ex-russischen Flugzeugträgers VARYAG. Das Schiff war im April in ein Trockendock verholt worden, wo Rumpf und Aufbauten inzwischen sandgestrahlt worden sein sollen. Während der Arbeiten sei das Dock "militärisch bewacht" worden, und Wachposten hätten auf Befragung auch von "militärischen Arbeiten" gesprochen. Angeblich soll die VARYAG Ende Mai das Dock wieder verlassen haben und an einen unbekannten Ort gebracht worden sein. Ob letzteres Gerücht stimmt, dürften schon bald aktuelle Fotos aus Dalian zeigen.
....

Zitat:I went to Dalian 3 weeks ago to visit my grandma. There is a large heightened highway which passes by the shipyard. I saw 114's top 2 masts/towers. I did not see 115, my uncle who has friends in the shipyard said 115 got towed away, but the intention is unknow. Probably it was to be armed. The Russian carrier was also absent. My uncle once visited DDG 167 (what does DDG stand for?). He told me that before the HQ-7 missiles were enplaced, the front deck had a sliding deck lid. He thought that it was for later installation of VLS, but due to the difficulties experienced in testing VLS onboard the testship, the plan was abandoned. My uncle told me that the PLAN and gov't had finished the debate of whether to build aircraft carriers and decided to go for it. I forgot to ask him for the source, so don't count on it. He told me that since PLAN wants blue water navy, carriers are a must, even though they seem redundant and unpractical right now. He also told me that hot launch VLS are about to complete their testing in order to equipe DDG 180 and 181 which are the two major surface combatants the PLAN is gonna build next. During the visit, I also drove to Lushun naval base. It was a dissapointment. I saw DDG 110, a frigate with C-802 but no SAM, and 7 Mings, one minesweeper, 4 large supply ships. Dalian also had frequent flights of J-7 over the heart of the city. they often pass the top of the market outside my grandma's apartment. They were flying real low. Dalian is such a mountainous region that SAM must have real difficulties in tracking and engaging hostile cruise missiles that hug the gound through the mountains and come back to attack from the rear. It is not an ideal region for naval and air bases.

Zitat:June 8, 2005: The mystery of the aircraft carrier Varyag continues. After rusting at dockside in China for more than three years, the former Russian Varyag has recently been moved to a dry dock at Dalien (formerly Dairen of Russo-Japanese War fame). The ship is being subject to some maintenance. She is being sand blasted (to get rid of all that rust) and a scaffolding has appeared around her superstructure. The actual extent of the work beyond that is unclear. The ship is under guard, and the guards will only say that the maintenance work is for military purposes.

....Although there is some speculation that the Chinese want to put her into service as a proper carrier, it is more likely that she may be used as a helicopter carrier, or as a large, fast auxiliary to provide logistical support to an amphibious effort against Taiwan, or as a training platform in order to gain experience for the design and construction of a new carrier to be built from the keel up.

Whatever the case, the Chinese aren’t scrapping the Varyag. ,,,,

Zitat:CHINA SAID TO BEGIN BUILDING FIRST AIRCRAFT CARRIER IN AUGUST
2005/06/28 21:39:54

Taipei, June 28 (CNA) China will begin to build its first aircraft carrier in August at a cost of 30 billion yuan (about US$362 million), according to a report by China's <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.Boxun.com">www.Boxun.com</a><!-- w -->.

Zitat:CHINA SAID TO BEGIN BUILDING FIRST AIRCRAFT CARRIER IN AUGUST
2005/06/28 21:39:54

Zitat:....They also mentioned about the aircraft carrier in Shanghai and that the naval version of the J-10 will be used and the air-defence system based on the Luhai ....

Zitat:Starfighter postete
Halte das Gerücht aus den hier verlinkten Forenposts für äußerst unglaubwürdig. .....

Zitat:What China is Doing with the Varyag
The mystery, of what China is doing with the former Russian aircraft carrier Varyag, continues. The Chinese appear to be doing some kind of work on the Varyag, one of two Kuznetsov class that Russia began building in the 1980s. Originally the Kuznetsovs were conceived of as 90,000 ton, nuclear powered ships, similar to American carriers (complete with steam catapults). Instead, because of the cost, and the complexity of modern (American style) carriers, the Russians were forced to scale back their goals, and ended up with the 55,000 ton (full load ) ships that lacked steam catapults, and used a “ski jump” flight deck instead. Nuclear power was dropped, but the Kuznetsov class was still a formidable design. [...]
Even the Kuznetsov had twelve aircraft size P-500 “Shipwreck” anti-ship missiles. These were launched from tubes mounted beneath the flight deck. The Kuznetsovs also had 24 anti-aircraft missile launchers, as well as 30mm close-in guns, anti-torpedo decoy rockers and lots of radars and electronics. Thus the Chinese have much to learn from how the Varyag, and it’s 3,800 compartments, and 16 kilometers of internal passageways. [...]

Zitat:12 August 2005

Is China building a carrier?

By Yihong Chang JDW Correspondent &
Andrew Koch JDW Bureau Chief
Hong Kong & Washington, DC

Chinese shipyard workers have been repairing a badly damaged ex-Russian aircraft carrier and have repainted it with the country's military markings, raising the question once again of whether China is pursuing longer-term plans to field its first carrier.
In the latest developments, images show that workers at the Chinese Dalian Shipyard have repainted the ex-Russian Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Varyag with the markings and colour scheme of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy (PLAN). ....

Zitat:MONDAY BRIEFING
Is China building aircraft carrier?
Military repairing old Russian vessel

Posted: August 15, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Chinese shipyard workers have been repairing a badly damaged ex-Russian aircraft carrier .....

Zitat:China Reportedly Refitting Soviet Aircraft Carrier

All Things Considered, August 16, 2005 ·
The Chinese Navy is repairing an ex-Soviet aircraft carrier, according to media reports. While it would require more work to make it functional, the vessel would be China's first carrier. Michele Norris talks with Andrew Koch of Jane's Defence Weekly. ....
..... workers at the Chinese Dalian Shipyard appear to have repainted the Varyag in the country's military colors.
...

Zitat:Is China building a carrier?
....

Zitat:Aircraft-carrier theme park goes bust

SHENZHEN - Minsk World Industries Co Ltd, a company built around the commercial exploitation of a retired aircraft carrier from the former Soviet Union, declared bankruptcy at the request of the Construction Bank of China, one of the company's creditors. ....
(Mar 3, 2005)

Zitat:Dive the Minsk? Soviet-era 902-ft aircraft carrier for sale
Powered by CYBER DIVER News Network
by PAMELA PUN
End of the road for the 42,000 tonne relic of the Cold War or will the former flagship of the Soviet fleet live on as one of the world's premier scuba diving attractions?

SHENZHEN, China (7 Dec 2004) -- The scrapyard may be beckoning for the Minsk, a mothballed Soviet-era aircraft carrier whose previous date with the breaker's yard was put off by a detour to a Shenzhen theme park.

Minsk Aircraft Carrier World, one of the hottest tourist attractions in Shenzhen, is seeking a ''white knight'' to rescue it from bankruptcy after the financial shipwreck of its parent, D'Long International Strategic Investment.
.....