I have never seen a Russian carrier launching\recovering aircraft but looking at the position where heavier aircraft take-off then the turn around of aircraft is not going to break any records and how many fully laden aircraft could they park on the deck waiting to take off?
Such a large ship but no catapults!!
A slightly smaller ship but was she a superior vessel?
(Gone but not forgotten) This post is here to highlight how a ship with steam catapults is probably a better option than the Russian or even our own through deckers. The Russian ship can allegedly carry a few more aircraft but getting them off the deck in a hurry would be interesting to watch
I have highlighted the rear most take off slot for her heavier aircraft and as per a previous post I have still not seen any footage of any type of aircraft taking off from this Russian carrier with anything near a max weapon load! Rumours abound that the Russian carrier is allegedly going to be modernised, her boiler system removed, gas turbines installed and that ski jump replaced with catapults!! Nothing like good old fashioned scuttle-butt however that type of conversion will be more than a days work!! I would really appreciate input from Fod-Plod on the amount of work involved as to me it would appear to be a major task and if the boilers come out then I would ask, have the Russians 'borrowed' the design drawings for the American EMALS electromagnetic launch system.. Hopefully this thread will not drift toward the SH*R topic
