Navy and airforce pixel kits

[K. A. Pital]

British Royal Navy and RFA units. Tried to grasp as many as possible.

[K. A. Pital]

Revamped "Navy-EASTERN".

It now includes the USSR/Russia, some WARPAC Auxillaries (Romania with Marasesti and Tetal II), and partly China with the PLAN, many classes between PLAN and USSR overlap. However, more domestic PLAN ships will be added in the future.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Can the Su-34 actually fly off an aircraft carrier deck? What's Anchar?

[Sea Skimmer]

Project 11900 Anchar was a nuclear powered destroyer design which was canalled in 1991 at the same time the Ul'yanovsk class nuclear carrier it was to escort was killed. None was ever laid down, nor was the design even finalized; it had a huge number of versions. Stas’s picture shows what it most likely would have looked like, with four SA-N-7 SAM launchers and a VLS for anti ship missiles as main armament.

Bizzarely while the ship was nuclear powered for high speed dashes with the carrier… it would normally cruise on gas turbines to improve sonar performance.

I convinced someone to make me a ship shipbucket version for when I was using it in SDN world, the image is not totally accurate (mainly, we had to guess at the location of the missile directors) but its basically as close as any picture can get… because no picture is fully accurate in the first place. Latter versions might have the SAMs in VLS too.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I convinced someone to make me a ship shipbucket version for when I was using it in SDN world, the image is not totally accurate (mainly, we had to guess at the location of the missile directors) but its basically as close as any picture can get… because no picture is fully accurate in the first place. Latter versions might have the SAMs in VLS too.

Were there any plans to equip it with Mars Passant if it worked?

[K. A. Pital]

It should've been uplinked to a carrier groups' Mars-Passat via Podkat radars IIRC.

Oh, and my bad that I didn't tell you about the Khalzan project 10200 helicarrier. Basically it's a 200+ meter long LPH (without a dock though) with the capacity for 28 Ka-27PL copters, intended for ASuW duties. Developed by a civilian agency (TSKB Chernomorsudproekt), which is seen in it's roots as a huge bulker with a platform. It was shown that the project 11780 Kherson LPD proposed by the Nevskoe could offer nigh the same capabilities as an ASuW landing platform for copters and additionaly be used as an LPD; this led to 10200's demise.

The Su-34's naval version placement on the future carrier is a proposal by the Russian officials IIRC, so I guess it's feasible, especially with a huge 350 m long deck.

[Ma Deuce]

Can the Su-34 actually fly off an aircraft carrier deck?

It shouldn't take too much modification to make them work on a ski-jump type carrier judging by the Su-33, although given their greater weight they'd probably need a longer takeoff run than Kuznetsov can provide to carry any worthwhile load. However, if the Russians decide to go with catapults for their next carriers, then no. The stresses produced by catapult launches almost always require that the aircraft be built from the ground up to handle them.

[Sea Skimmer]

MTOW for a Su-34 is 99,000lb, substantially heavier then US carrier aircraft, and over 25,000lb heavier then the Su-33 which already cannot takeoff with a full load. Russia planned future carrier wont be significantly bigger then the current one, so its not gaining more then a small amount of additional length for a take off run, and catapult launch would require a major redesign to have a strong enough nose gear. It would also just demand a really good catapult.

So sure, on paper its not really a question that you could launch a Su-34 off a ski jump, but it seems very unlikely to me that a Su-34 would actually provide any more strike capability then say a navalized two seater Su-35BM, which would be a much better fighter. In fact a Su-35BM might well be able to get off the deck with a heavier weight of armament and fuel using the ski jump given that it has more thrust and a lower empty weight.