CV-16, CV-17 STOBAR carrier thread (001/Liaoning, 002/Shandong)

[lucretius]

Hi,

Now that PLAN has working catapults of its own, what are the chances of upgrading/rebuilding CV-16 and CV-17 to be CATOBAR?

Similar precedents would all the SCB-xx carrier upgrade programs that USN did with it's WW2 carriers.

Thank you in advance.

More likely to see them converted into drone carriers once additonal CATOBAR carriers are constructed

 

[Intrepid]

More likely to see them converted into drone carriers once additonal CATOBAR carriers are constructed

Or given to a friendly nation as soon as China has a global network of allies.

 

[kwaigonegin]

Hi,

Now that PLAN has working catapults of its own, what are the chances of upgrading/rebuilding CV-16 and CV-17 to be CATOBAR?

Similar precedents would all the SCB-xx carrier upgrade programs that USN did with it's WW2 carriers.

Thank you in advance.

This has been discussed numerous times and the answer is extremely unlikely. Pretty much zero.
What you see today is likely to stay the same for the rest of the ship's life. There will be incremental upgrades in sensors etc. but nothing as drastic as installing catapults.

 

[F.L.]

In any case, STOBAR remains an effective system.
And I don't see why they should be turned into drone carriers. Or else, towards the end of their operational service, a long time from now.

 

[F.L.]

I wonder why, when the S-2 Trackers on the Colossus-class aircraft carriers could take off without a catapult in a relatively short distance, the Xi'an KJ-600s couldn't do it with a skijump on the Liaoning or Shandong ?
And why weren't the Yak-44s scheduled to do the same on the Kuznetsov and Varyag ?

 

[THX 1138]

I wonder why, when the S-2 Trackers on the Colossus-class aircraft carriers could take off without a catapult in a relatively short distance, the Xi'an KJ-600s couldn't do it with a skijump on the Liaoning or Shandong ?

The E-2 Hawkeye weighs twice as much as the S-2 Tracker did. I'm guessing that's why the E-2 (and KJ-600) require catapult assistance for takeoff.

And why weren't the Yak-44s scheduled to do the same on the Kuznetsov and Varyag ?

I think the Yak-44 was intended for use with catapults on the Ulyanovsk supercarriers. Both the Yak-44 and Ulyanovsk projects were eventually cancelled.

 

[F.L.]

The E-2 Hawkeye weighs twice as much as the S-2 Tracker did. I'm guessing that's why the E-2 (and KJ-600) require catapult assistance for takeoff.

Yes, but could the skijump remedy that ?
The S-2s didn't use skijumps on Colossus/Majestic carrier.

 

[siegecrossbow]

So rich, so many fire extinguishers…

 

[ansy1968]

So rich, so many fire extinguishers…

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Sir that is a former Soviet ship so it doesn't count....lol

 

[Lethe]

I wonder why, when the S-2 Trackers on the Colossus-class aircraft carriers could take off without a catapult in a relatively short distance, the Xi'an KJ-600s couldn't do it with a skijump on the Liaoning or Shandong ?
And why weren't the Yak-44s scheduled to do the same on the Kuznetsov and Varyag ?
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The Yak-44's final design configuration had the aircraft equipped with Progress D-27 engines nominally rated at ~10,000kW each compared to ~4000kW each for the T56 engines on E-2C Hawkeye (and similar given for the WJ-6 engines on KJ-600). Yak-44 having such powerful engines only makes sense if it was indeed intended to operate without the assistance of a catapult.