Chapter 856: Varyag Returns to China

Almost at the same time Chang Haonan attended the signing ceremony of the cooperation project.

Liao Province, Dalian (bushi)......

Ahem——

Lianhai Shipyard.

Under the setting sun, a pilot boat leading two tugboats gradually appeared in the sight of everyone on the shore.

Following the entire fleet, a rusty behemoth gradually emerged from beyond the horizon.

Since it was still prohibited from passing through the Suez Canal, after a long journey of more than nine months, the tugboat team headed by the Nikolay Chikel finally towed the Varyag to the end of its journey. destination.

Even those who have not personally experienced the difficulties and obstacles along the way can tell from the logbook submitted by the mission leader Zhu Yuzhou.

Especially when this behemoth, which has neither power nor rudder effect, is circling the African continent.

Because the Cape of Good Hope happens to be located at the confluence of the warm Agulhas Current and the cold Benguela Current in Mozambique, there are constant rough waves all year round. When the tug fleet passed by, the huge waves almost knocked off the tow rope behind the Nikola Chikel At this time, the fleet had no choice but to hire a second tugboat, and managed to control the course of the Varyag despite the harsh sea conditions, preventing the giant ship from drifting away with the current.

Later, when passing through the Horn of Africa, what everyone was most worried about before the trip happened happened again.

The entire tug fleet is targeted by pirates, or at least suspicious vessels that appear to be pirates.

In the end, they were rescued by a patrol ship from the Saudi Navy...

Later, he experienced a series of obstacles such as being maliciously blocked in shipping routes and getting permission to pass through the Strait of Malacca before finally returning to the embrace of his motherland.

Just before entering the port, the pilot ship and the tugboat Nikolay Chikel sounded a long whistle at the same time, paying tribute to the nearly 100 navy and comrades in the shipbuilding industry system who were waiting eagerly on the shore.

The crowd on the shore also responded with enthusiastic cheers.

In order to minimize the international impact, China did not invite any media to report on the matter.

Only a few comrades from the military newspaper and the shipbuilding industry propaganda department took a few photos from different angles for documentation.

Pier 1 of Lianhai Shipyard.

Sun Suguang, together with several other colleagues and technical consultants from the Black Sea Shipyard, stood on a high platform and looked at the Varyag, which was slowly approaching the outfitting dock next door.

Naturally, this includes Valery Babich.

As early as the beginning of the year, he had already arrived in Lianhai under the arrangement of Wu Yifan, and later participated in the technical research of several large-scale shipbuilding projects with other engineers also from the Black Sea Shipyard.

In a consultant capacity, of course.

Until about a week ago, five people, including him, were suddenly notified.

Immediately hand over the project at hand.

Then, just two days later, they were arranged to live in a villa area in the outer suburbs.

Then, it’s today.

"You...should be really planning to continue building this ship, right?"

Babic asked Sun Suguang, who was standing not far away.

In fact, of course he knows the answer——

Although Huaxia has purchased several decommissioned aircraft carriers through different channels before, as an insider who participated in the whole process, he can clearly feel that the situation this time is different.

Technical data on the aircraft carrier itself, relevant personnel from the Black Sea Shipyard and Azov Steel Plant, the "Nitka" aircraft carrier training facility...

If you don't make up your mind to continue the construction on the basis of the Varyag, then there is no need to spend a lot of money and energy to introduce these supporting things.

There is no need to rush over alone to several of their senior technical staff who have participated in the 1143 project.

However, when Babbage really saw this old friend reunited after a long absence after more than half a year, he still couldn't help but ask this question.

He wanted to confirm again.

"certainly."

Sun Suguang turned around and looked at Babic, who was trembling slightly with excitement:

"At the beginning of this year, higher-level units and the Navy have made this requirement clear."

"We in China already have the technology and experience to build a 60,000-ton large ship purely in accordance with military specifications, but aircraft carriers are, after all, a complex and brand-new subject."

"So compared to starting from scratch, continuing to develop on the existing basis will be more efficient and reduce a lot of trial and error costs."

"That's exactly why we invited you here."

When he heard this answer from the interpreter, Babbage couldn't help but breathe harder.

After a while, he looked back at the Varyag, which was already docked on the shore:

"If possible, I hope we can organize manpower as soon as possible to start investigating the situation of the entire ship."

At this time, another person next to him intervened:

"The technical information we got before should contain the design drawings of this ship, right?"

"There should be drawings."

Babic nodded:

"However, the ship has been idle for nearly ten years, and some equipment has been dismantled several times during this period."

"In addition, for about five or six years in the middle, the docks of the Black Sea Shipyard were unattended, so there must be some things stolen by people who boarded the ship privately. In these cases, whether it was me or anyone else, , it is impossible to fully grasp it.”

"When you proposed to buy this ship two years ago, I also considered checking the entire ship, but I couldn't organize enough manpower. This ship has 20 floors and more than 3,000 cabins. It is impossible to complete it with one or two people..."

After listening to his explanation, Sun Suguang immediately replied:

"Our project team needs to draw technical personnel from the national shipbuilding industry system, so it is still being formed. As for manpower... it may not be very sufficient at the moment."

"But the most important cabins on the ship should be those related to power, aviation and weapon systems. I can send about 50 people first, starting from these key positions. When the project team is officially formed, I will send more people."

Babich suddenly felt a sense of happiness in his heart.

He hasn't felt the feeling of being supported by the organization for many years:

"In fact, 50 people are enough... I originally wanted to ask you for 20 or 30 people..."

Sun Suguang and several other colleagues looked at each other, and each saw a little shock in each other's eyes.

Just now Babich said that he didn't have enough manpower in the past few years, and they all thought that the other party might need a team of several hundred people.

After all, the Black Sea Shipyard is so big, and there are hundreds of people who were brought to China by Wu Yifan and finally passed the review and stayed.

As a result... they couldn't even organize 20 or 30 people?

Obviously, the consequences of the complete collapse of the grassroots organizational structure are completely unimaginable for those who have not experienced it.

Before, everyone basically used the large layoffs in the country in the past two years as an analogy.

But looking at it this way, it seems to be completely different...

Babich looked at the people around him who suddenly fell silent, and he was still a little puzzled.

However, after a slight pause, he continued:

"In addition, if you really plan to use an aircraft carrier, then the research and development of carrier-based aircraft... or procurement should be started at the same time, otherwise it will not work if there is only one ship."

"Carrier-based aircraft..."

Hearing this, several people around smiled:

"Based on the experience of these years, I think what we should worry about is whether our progress here will be too slow..."