Russian media indicates Russia is in the “rudimentary” stages of developing an aircraft carrier capable of holding 100 planes.
The carrier is still conceptional– and in “conceptional testing”– but the next step is “a 1:1 scale mock up” if the tests are successful.
According to Russia’s TV Zvezda, the Krylov State Research Center (KSRC) is overseeing the project at this stage. KSRC has “special pools” and has tested everything “from the first submarine ‘Dolphin’ to the most modern nuclear-powered [vessel].”
Any storm or “critical condition” can be simulated in the KSRC pools.
Although the carrier could hold 100 planes, KSRC says the body of the vessel has been “[optimized]…so that the resistance movement [of the vessel through water] had declined by as much as 20 percent.”
This news comes at the same time that China may be developing its “first indigenous aircraft carrier.”
According to Business Insider, satellites for Google Maps caught images of what appears to be a mock-up of a Chinese carrier in Wuhan Province. Based on the images, the carrier model was an estimated “984 feet long and 262 feet wide.”
The Chinese mock-up was complete with a pad on which helicopters could land.
The Guardian reports that “a firm has won a contract to provide cabling for China’s second aircraft carrier.” Their first one was acquired from Ukraine in 1998, the second one is believed to be the indigenous one represented by the mock-up on Google Maps.
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