Check this out, a picture of a Chinese-made Z-8 helo operating off the flight deck of China’s aircraft carrier, the Shi Lang. There’s another one below. This is the first time I’ve seen flight ops on the carrier.
PS. Are those IFF antennas coming off the flight deck?
Via Alert5.
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Ho-hum.. When they start landing jets I will care. On another note, did they cut the superstructure down? It looks lower than I remember it..
Looks more like the helo is throwing the perspective off, as it is a largish helo.
OMG! The Chinese have landed a helo on a carrier in port?? We're doomed! More F22s, more F35s, Quickly or we're done for!!
F22s and F35s grounded…. hope Russia/China/NKorea aren't getting ideas…
yes and theyll have to go through all those eager f15 and f16 pilots.
why would they invade a country all the way across the globe that has no economic future?
Why would they invade a country at all? You know how much money it takes to put an invasion fleet on another shore and they've had no practice? Now us we practice it all the time using imaginary bad guys and imaginary so & sos.
no future if we elect obama then we r screwed other wise we sould be fine
They aren't that grounded.
Hmmm Now they have to buy/make fixed wing aircraft for this ship.
um does that look photo shoped to anyone????
It very well could be. Similar to that Top Gun clip they had in that propaganda film.
It really isn't that hard to land a helo on a carrier you know. Not exactly photo shop worthy propaganda if you ask me.
Well, this isn’t exactly the first helo to operate off the ex-varyag. During its towage from the Ukraine to Turkey, a small helo was used to transport crew and other officials to and from the carrier. In older pictures of the varyag you can still see the small temporary helipad landing marking that was painted on for this purpose.
When she gets her Air Wing & gets underway, the US better go to Defcon 3 at sea or Condition Ready when she set sails.
Alert, alert, alert.
For Pac Fleet forces.
No worries. They have to practice and practice and practice, then go to war find out they did not practice enough and what they practice for…well we don't do it that way any more. Plus since we have more carriers and LHDs and the fleet train that goes along with it, not to mention our sub force which makes targets out of carriers and the satellites that track them…we have three coastlines, they have one, we have friends next to us, they don't. We have fast food, Disney world, Pizza delivery, Fed-ex and UPS, they have pony express and won ton noodles…
Right on. Except that they have about a 1,000,000,000 more people than us and they manufacture a large percentage of our stuff.
But our quality of personel and equipment is superior.
On a side note:
So we got fast food and a delivery service. Man we must be fat.
Calm down… One carrier compared to about a dozen U.S. carriers… Which are also more advanced in most degrees. Help I’m so startled!
It's not the downing of our carrier that is the major problem.
It's this power projection and 'interests' you have to be worried about.
That stack sure looks clean for all the black smoke she was pouring out the other day.
So if a helicopter from your local hospital lands on a street in response to an accident, does that mean Main St., Broadway, 3rd Avenue or whatever joins the "flight-ops" family? Pretty special group there….
Keep in mind people… Baby steps. Also remember, area denial. All they have to do is sink one of ours and put it puts a serious dent in our projected power capability. This carrier doesn't work well on it's own, but add it to a already beefy SAG concept compared to out lighter strike groups… Yeah. I'd be worried.
If you are referring to the "whisker" type antennas hanging horizontally-ish off the flight deck… HF antennas.
So much sarcasm in these comments… remember guys, people learns walking one step after another; considering US and China economic growth, how many aircraft carriers do you think each of them could have in 30, 40 years?
Considering that China is building ghost cities to maximize industrial production and head off internal dissent, us. Honestly. I'm not even convinced that China will be a single country in two decades.
why do people think they can only start training after the carrier is finished? They've been trainning since they bought this. Chinese officials have made pilots land at least 500 times on mock land carrier. Average flight trainning of these pilots are 2000-3000 hrs of flight, picked from the elite airforce. Their AESA equiped J15. J10B fighters are rolling out the factories already painted in navy color.Not one or two but dozens. All of them have a greater range than a F18 hornet with data link capability.
The battleship group are already made and been preparing for this day.
It is equipped with more firepower than any carrier and the newest radar since it was designed by Russians to be a Battleship/carrier. It will be protected by the newest Chinese warships. To play down its power (soft power included) is plain ignorance.
Yeah a fleet that size to protect it from our BGs. Wait, Wait! Do they have satellites that can spot carriers when they leave port? DO we still use the SURTASS and ARGOS systems? Done deal.
you also got to remember it dosnt matter if you make airplanes by the dozens they only have one aircraft caire and its a old russian one and the planes they use are out dated you do relize all the bases we have in between us and china we got one in japan hawaii and guam and did you know that if china would attack america that they would only be able to transport 100000 people california alone sold 700000 gun licenses in 2010
On http://www.sinodefence.com/Forum they are reporting that the Varyag/carrier has launched from port. Some on the Forum are speculating that it is being moved to avoid a incoming typhoon.
NEVER underestimate an adversary(or potential adversary)
You know, PLAN doesn't even need a propaganda effort because Defense Tech does all their work for them. For free. Voluntarily. Look who bought the myth! (point and laugh).
This picture is fake. Photoshopped by one japanese media.
"This picture is fake. Photoshopped…!" Adm Husband E. Kimmel, C-in-C Pearl Harbor, 1941, referring to photo of dive bombers and torpedo bombers bearing weird red discs, allegedly flying toward the naval station.
Was "photoshopped" even a word back then?
Guest A is a genius.
A helicopter landing on the deck of a moored carrier is not 'flight ops'.
A few days ago I looked at a "satelllite" pix of a chinese carrier with aircraft on the flight deck, etc.
Only problem is that it was NOT a air craft carrier, but a building sitting on dryland with a roof shaped like a carrier. Is that neat or what? Wonder if our intel folks figured that one out yet?
The refurbished Chinese aircraft carrier might look like a pile of junk but it will soon be capable of launching 35 long range aircraft each carrying two nuclear armed missiles. Stationing it 500 miles off the Western coast of the US will make it a respected weapon. Its aircraft will deal a devastating blow to any nation that attacks this floating pile of junk.