China's Second Aircraft Carrier has Begun Sea Trials

Its the ability to build them quickly after they are lost is the key..Japan learnt that the hard way.

a reply to: Zaphod58

was it the FOXBAT that defected to japan and when the americans opened it up they were shocked to find vacuum tubes and similar legacy hardwear?

there is something to be said about getting the job done well with what you have around you, and Russia is great at that.

a reply to: penroc3

Yes. They were expecting all kinds of advanced hardware, and found out that after sustained high speed flight, the engines had to be replaced, and it used vacuum tubes.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Actually the use of vacuum tubes goes to the heart of low tech, but elegant.

The Wikipedia article about the Foxbat made a good point about the usefulness of vacuum tubes in that aircraft:

The majority of the on-board avionics were based on vacuum-tube technology, not solid-state electronics. Although they represented aging technology, vacuum tubes were more tolerant of temperature extremes, thereby removing the need for environmental controls in the avionics bays. With the use of vacuum tubes, the MiG-25P's original Smerch-A (Tornado, NATO reporting name "Foxfire") radar had enormous power – about 600 kilowatts. As with most Soviet aircraft, the MiG-25 was designed to be as robust as possible. The use of vacuum tubes also made the aircraft's systems resistant to an electromagnetic pulse, for example after a nuclear blast.

• Tolerant of temperature extremes, thus no need for avionics cooling
  
• Extremely powerful radar
  
• Resistant to EMP
  

-dex

The photos might be a bit old, fair warning, but seeing the "Shandong" and Liaoning together is pretty impressive.





Seeing the semis on the deck is just...weird. We may do it too, but I've not seen it.

a reply to: anzha

I've seen lots of trucks on deck. Shipping containers. Fancy temp tents. Trailers. Modulars with AC units. It depends on who is there working on what.

a reply to: RadioRobert

Fair enough. My ignorance is cured.

originally posted by: andy06shake
Whats the deal with the antiquated inclined ramp?

Different carrier philosophy. They are not antiquated. The Royal navy invented both the angled deck and the steam catapult on carriers, but don't use them today. The Royal navy also invented the ski-jump, which they continue to use and which is copied by the Russians and the Chinese etc...

a reply to: paraphi

Catapults have been historically maintenance and power intensive. That's because they used steam.

Not using them, means a lot of savings $ wise.

However, there are other costs like payload and range.

The Brits wanted to save dinero, so they ditched the cats. The Russians and Chinese hadn't experience in making reliable cats, so they went ski jump.

However, the Chinese have been working on steam cats and the new EMALS.

EMALS is probably going to be less maintenance intensive than the steam cats. It is certainly less mechanically complicated.

Supposedly, the next Chinese carrier will have EMALS cats like the Ford does. There was some claims the 'Shandong' would, but that turned out to not be the case.

a reply to: anzha

a reply to: Zaphod58

Very expensive ferry.

a reply to: anzha

You know they wanted to shoot at least one during the transfer.

originally posted by: anzha
a reply to: Zaphod58

Very expensive ferry.

Thats Ronald Reagan switching ports to San Diego and the cars are owned by the crew. The ship was going anyway so... dont think it happened more often though.

a reply to: mightmight

They actually do it quite often. It saves the crew money by not having to pay to transport them, and time because their cars arrive when they do.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Hope they sprang for the undercoating. The salt spray has got to be killer.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Are there ramps on the side of the ship to drive the vehicles into the hangers to get to the elevators?

How does that work?

I cannot imagine all those cars would survive a half decent storm. They would all be blown off the deck.

a reply to: grey580

Cranes. They put some in the hangar deck and some up on deck.