Carrier-training off of unusual runway?
 

Question for fastjet-drivers:

Would like to hear more about land-based carrier-training utilising a ramp on an otherwise normal runway.
Flew to a military strip in southern Ukraine the other day and therefore carried a local navigator on the jump. The area is dotted with airfields. We overflew a warren of bunkers, dispersals, taxiways, etc. and I noted what appeared to be a massive ramp situated at the end of a runway. I pointed this out and the nav confirmed that it was indeed a ramp and that the Russians, who still maintain bases on the Crimean Peninsula, used it for carrier training. Any info out there?

Regards, Bug

I imagine they used it similarly to the way we have simulated ramps for the Harriers, but I am not sure that the Russians ever put a ramp on their carriers, so it may have been just for testing. A ramp gives a harrier ballistic assistance for launch, but the USMC don't have one on their ships, but I know that when they visited Lusty for a det last year they loved using it! I doubt very much that they used their marinised MIG29's with a ramp though.:confused:

The Admiral Kuznetsov, flagship of Russian Navy, has a ramp.

Yup, lots of youtube footage of Russian hardware ski-jumping off the end of a carrier

Quick google: Google Maps

This place?

Should be Novo-Fedorovka airfield (near Saki) in the Ukraine. NITKA carrier training site.

http://www.astrosol.ch/images/nitkatrainingground.jpg

Ukrainian Carrier Landing Practice Strip "NITKA"

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/...u-37kub_20.jpg

From

Su-27KUB

TJ

The Russians decided to only use navalized Su-27s (Su-33) and Su-25s on Kuznetsov.

http://www.naval-technology.com/proj...mages/kuz9.jpg


The navalized MiG-29s went unused, and the ones India is getting for use aboard the modified ex-Gorshkov (also being fitted with a ramp) are new.

The Admiral Kuznetsov is not too dissimilar to what the CVF will look like.

Won't the CVF('s?) be a whiter shade of elephant?