The new Chinese aircraft carrier was an old Soviet
The first aircraft carrier built in China and officially launched in Dalian, in fact, is a modernized version of the Soviet heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser of the project 1143 “Merlin”, as well as the city of Dalian was founded by the Russians in 1898 and was formerly called the far.
“Merlin” is a series of Soviet aircraft carriers, whose construction began in 1970. A decade later, the project was upgraded: lengthened flight deck, removed part of the missile and artillery weapons, the ship could not use the aircraft vertical takeoff and landing. The firstborn of the draft was the “Admiral Kuznetsov”, with the tab bearing the name “Soviet Union”.
The second ship of the series — “Vikings” — because of the collapse of the Soviet Union was not completed and went to Ukraine, and she sold it to China. So China has its own aircraft carrier: the Chinese dismantled the rocket launcher, installed my own electronics and named the ship Solin — in honor of the province which includes Dalian.
Have a look of China’s 2nd aircraft #carrier, also 1st domestically-built one, launched in Liaoning, NE #China pic.twitter.com/jDmEBtlxn0
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) 26 APR 2017
China’s first aircraft carrier “Liaoning” was based on purchased from Ukraine in 1998 unfinished Soviet cruiser “Varyag”.
Second Chinese aircraft carrier is an upgraded copy of the first: it has slightly larger dimensions and a number of improvements. But China is building and truly own aircraft-carrying ship is on the American scheme.
Aircraft carrier type 002 will have three steam catapults instead of the springboard add-on will be reduced by 10 percent, thus freeing up space on the flight deck for aircraft. Top “Islands” will be located four large antenna arrays radar of the circular review. Air defense of the ship is represented by four complexes, anti-aircraft short-range missiles, 24 launchers in each cell.