In 2002, the rusty "Varyag" aircraft carrier slowly docked at the port of Dalian Shipyard under the tow of the tugboat, marking that this Soviet-made aircraft carrier, which has never officially entered service, started the nirvana journey of from "Varyag" to "Liaoning" .
The rebirth of "Varyag"
When Ukrainian Black Sea Shipyard took over "Varyag", its construction progress had exceeded half of . Although the hull was rusty, "Varyag" can represent the peak of the construction capacity of the Soviet Navy's aircraft carrier , carrying the heavy responsibility of the Soviet Navy to move towards the ocean, and is also one of the most precious heritages left by after the collapse of .
At that time, the Chinese Navy did not yet have the ability to independently build a modern large aircraft carrier . If it can be continued on the basis that Black Sea Shipyard has been completed, it will not only accelerate the historic process of my country's aircraft carrier, but also gain valuable aircraft carrier construction experience in the construction process .
It is in this context that Dalian Shipyard took over the difficult task of building the "Varyag", which not only regained the glory of this former Soviet giant ship that would have been dismantled and scrapped, but also modified the aircraft carrier structure according to the actual needs of the Chinese Navy. canceled the use of the useless anti-ship missile launch warehouse under the guidance of the former Soviet Union's "carrying cruiser" idea, which was used to expand the area of the internal hangar and increase the aircraft aircraft dispatch rate.
In addition to modifying the internal structure of ship , Dalian Shipyard also brought our army new generation ship-based equipment to "Varyag" . The domestic ship island is not only much smaller than the Soviet-made ship island, but also provides greater operating space for carrier-based aircraft , with higher integration and more advanced ship-based comprehensive control system .
In September 2012, after successfully completing all tests, "Varyag" officially joined the Chinese Navy combat sequence and was renamed " Liaoning ". This giant ship, which once symbolized the glory of the former Soviet Navy, was finally reborn in a foreign land, laying a solid foundation for the Chinese Navy to move towards the blue ocean with a new attitude.
"Varyag" drawing mystery
When the Black Sea Shipyard was forced to sell more than half of the "Varyag" due to the shortage of funds in , it immediately attracted strong attention from countries around the world .
In order to prevent the aircraft carrier from falling into the hands of hostile countries, the US government also threatened to impose severe sanctions on the Black Sea Shipyard and the Ukrainian government , requiring the Black Sea Shipyard to dismantle the aircraft carrier to the empty shell state of before it can be sold to the outside world.
my country broke through many obstacles and finally bought "Varyag" in its personal name at the price of 20 million . After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the situation in Eastern Europe was in chaos, and the franchisees were also affected to a certain extent. Before the handover of "Varyag", my country did not know what extent the construction of this aircraft carrier had reached .
From "Varyag" to "Liaoning", Dalian Shipyard only used 10 to make the aircraft carrier form combat capability . This is almost impossible for a country with zero aircraft carrier construction experience. The shipyard may have received some help and guidance.
Under such inference, there are constant rumors in the market: the Ukrainian engineer in charge of "Varyag" quietly hid the complete drawings of the entire aircraft carrier inside the hull . The 20 million US dollars spent by China not only bought "Varyag" but also bought the entire of the former Soviet aircraft carrier technology , which is an unprecedented value transaction.
In fact, my country was able to complete the continuous construction and renovation of "Varyag" so quickly, and it was indeed helped by the original drawing of aircraft carrier , but it was not "friendly gifted" by Ukrainian engineers as rumored.
Ukrainian is not a fool. The Black Sea Shipyard originally estimated the "Varyag" at only $5 million, and it was sold purely as scrap iron . But after China's $20 million deposit was received, the Black Sea Shipyard immediately realized that the "Varyag" was not used as scrap iron but as an sold as an aircraft carrier.
figured this out. In May 2000, the Black Sea Shipyard tried to sell the full set of drawings of "Varyag" to my country at the price of 4 million . However, the situation of "Varyag" in was unknown at that time. Ukraine claimed that the construction progress of the aircraft carrier was over half, but there were rumors that "Varyag" had only one empty shell, so our country did not take action immediately.
Until it was confirmed that "Varyag" had a very high possibility of renewal construction, my country reached a deal with the Black Sea Shipyard again in September 2002, and sold 1,981 original drawings required for the construction of "Varyag" to my country China Shipbuilding Industry Group .
Interestingly, not only China is interested in the "Varyag" drawings, but also Russian . Since the core of Soviet shipbuilding technology is the Black Sea Shipyard, but the Black Sea Shipyard is in Ukraine, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has actually lost its strong shipbuilding capability .
Due to historical reasons , the Black Sea Shipyard has always been reluctant to sell the drawings to its former brothers. After many negotiations, Russia and Ukraine still cannot reach an agreement. This has allowed my country's shipbuilding companies to successfully obtain this valuable drawing. accelerated the process of "Varyag" reconstruction .
real unexpected gains
In fact, my country did have unexpected gains in the introduction project of "Varyag", but this surprise is not the aircraft carrier drawings, but from the aircraft carrier itself. As mentioned earlier, before the sale of "Varyag", almost no one knew what level of "Varyag" was completed to .
Even the Black Sea shipyard has been in a state of unmanaged management due to the disintegration, causing "Varyag" to be in an unmanaged state, and the specific situation of the aircraft carrier is not very clear. This is also why the Black Sea Shipyard always sold "Varyag" as scrap iron before prepaying deposit in China, with an estimated price of only 5 million .
Although my country does hope to gain valuable aircraft carrier construction experience from on , it does not have much hope for this aircraft carrier itself. After all, it is difficult for the "Varyag" that has been dismantled and destroyed after .
It was not until after "Varyag" arrived in Dalian that the military workers responsible for checking the ship's condition were surprised to find that the power core of "Varyag" was still completely placed in the power cabin . The Black Sea Shipyard was a scheming man to the Americans and sold the aircraft carrier to us just by dismantling the electronic equipment on the ship.
This discovery has greatly reduced the difficulty of continuing to build a "Varyag" to an available state in my country. It is also a truly valuable accidental harvest in this large Soviet aircraft carrier .
