The Admiral Kuznetsov is a Russian "heavy-aircraft carrying missile cruiser". Basically a missile cruiser with a flight deck. In 1995, they tested
the Su-33 Flanker-D on board, and at the time the Varyag was sold to China, they had a total of 24 of the Su-33s in service.
The Russian navy is preparing to enter the largest exercises they have held in decades, including the Admiral Kuznetsov. The Aviationist has a video
on the page that shows Su-33s operating off the deck. There are some great camera angles, including a belly mounted camera, and another one in the
ski-jump at the bow. One of the belly shots shows another Su-33 landing, while the one with the camera goes overhead. It clearly shows five Flankers
on deck, including the one landing, for a total of at least 6 carried on the ship.
Russia has only just recently announced they want to build a full deck carrier with a steam catapult. It would be about the size of the other
carriers around the world, in the 50K ton range. They say by 2027 they'll have two battle groups based around the new carriers, but they aren't
going to start building them until 2020.
Interestingly, there is talk of modifying the Admiral Kuznetsov and making it nuclear powered, which would make it only the 13th nuclear powered
carrier (12th now).
Well now those developments would take the humor right out of it, wouldn't they? Hmmm... They are coming right along in development. They and China
both are doing quite well in the specific areas they've chosen to focus.
They still wouldn't come close to a Nimitz/Ford class, but they'd be more effective than their current "carrier". They're both making progress,
but both have a long way to go before they can challenge anyone in carrier ops.
I just love the SU47 Berkut.
Why would they stick with manned birds? 5th Gen is dead.
We are going with energy weapons soon that choice may be a bit pricey.
Fifth gen is a long long way from dead. UCAVs are useless for air to air combat because of lag time. Until they find a way to overcome that problem
we will always need manned fighters. As for energy weapons, the current energy weapons need a very large platform to carry them. Every one that I've
heard of requires at least a C-130 sized airframe or larger.
edit on 1/11/2013 by Zaphod58 because: (no reason given)
I would think gamers are solving what comes down to a 3-D game problem for pure math. Until recently it wouldn't be possible for the computer speeds
required, but to the computer? Real world or 3-dimensional game world ...not that much difference with the near 100% real physics models being used
today.
So, outside of the pure human instinct (and common sense, but when has that stopped a military) what would stop drones from engaging in air-air
combat? They'd be radically superior for the lack of any limitation in fear or self preservation if given 100% autonomous control to just play it
out. Err.... Not a comforting thought, actually.
Drones will never be built to the stealth and manuverability specifications of a plane like the Raptor. To defeat 5th gen planes the per unit cost of
drones would be too high. And you are giving them levels of technology that are too risky if they were to fall into enemies hands like they have been
doing a lot lately. For that level of investment put a man in it who is not so easily 'hacked' with electronic transmissions. Drones will continue
to be used doing what they're best at - killing helpless Pashtun villagers.
Because there's currently a 1 second lag time between control input, and the control signal reaching the UCAV. In air to air combat that's an
eternity, and will result in the UCAV "dying". As for autonomous control, you can't do it. The only way to have an autonomous air to air UCAV is
with an AI that is beyond what we currently have. It would have to be Skynet to be able to figure out all the alternatives to every
action.
edit on 1/12/2013 by Zaphod58 because: (no reason given)
As I recall from my Harpoon playing days the Kuz was terrifyingly armed against air threats and a very scary surface to surface platform. The CIWS
system is also very impressive.
I wonder if the Russians have got her (oops, I mean "him") back to full fighting condition.
If you watched that video carefully you would notice the Aircraft in it had Russian Winter Land Camo painted on them which means those aircraft as
well as pilots have not been on any real Military Naval Station other than on land.
Those pilots trained specifically for that video and Russia does not have many experience Carrier Pilots at all.
Hi zaphod another great thread mate. Now I have to apologise to you and mods if they read this comment but I've to use this thread to contact you as
my U2Us isn't working on my phone but seeing as you have a excellent knowledge in air craft but do you know anything about this plane
Pilatus PC-12 .. I read a thread about it earlier today and view some of its flight paths which are odd. If you have the time and any infomation maybe
you can shed some light on this thread www.abovetopsecret.com...
Thank you for your time and apologies again to the mods and yourself for disrupting this thread
edit on 15-1-2013 by ThePeaceMaker because:
Spelling
Thanks again mate oh and on topic I love the video of the Flankers are these the MIGs with thrust vectoring ? I remember seeing this fly at
airshows at places such as USAF/RAF Mildenhall and RAF Waddington in the UK
They've flown an Su-33UB with thrust vectoring, but it doesn't come standard on the aircraft. It would be really useful to have though with the ski
jump carrier and no catapult.