A Glimpse of Chinese Aircraft Carrier Ops Aboard Liaoning

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
Those ski jump carriers always look so funny to me. It's like screaming, "We can't afford or figure out the logistics of a catapult system!"

So why do the Marines not use a Catapult system or the Brits?

Horses for Courses, except if you have designs on being a superpower.

a reply to: Forensick

Because the Marines are part of the Navy, and routinely fly off full deck carriers. The LH classes are designed to move an MEU around, and with the exception of America and Tripoli, carry more helicopters than fixed wing.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yes, the navy realized they were making carriers just for the marines and quickly stopped that.

a reply to: anzha

Interestingly America and Tripoli don't have a well deck, so can't support an MEU, which sort of defeats the purpose.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yup. They are strictly aviation. No hoverboards, I mean LCACs or AAVs. I was thinking they wanted them for CAS support off a jeep carrier, but given the constraints on the budget I am surprised they made them at all rather than the normal LHD.

a reply to: anzha

They started them well before the budget mess.

a reply to: Zaphod58

And the Chinese just said it will be a ski-jump, not CATOBAR.

So. could there be a third they are building that's catobar? Or it was a mistake in photo interpretation? or the chinese started to go catobar and found their cats won't be ready in time? Or disinformation?

a reply to: anzha

They're developing an EMALS catapult, and the hull picture I saw has a definite cat track in it. There was a report a few years ago that they were designing and building two hulls.

arstechnica.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Could you use a CATOBAR hull with a ski-jump front end?

I don't mean they'd have a cat on the hull, but use the same section for two different classes. That way they'd just ditch the ski jump when the cats were ready without changing the entire hull.

a reply to: anzha

Theoretically, but it would be extremely difficult. You'd have to replace the entire bow section to put the cat in.

The second hull is under construction in DaLian. They're also modifying the J-15 for catapult operations.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I agree. I was grasping at straws.

Ship building pix of the hull.