Nice find, Hotdog. I’ve been reading about this prospective ‘stealth corvette‘ for years. This has some real potential; I’d even rate it above the Steregushchy.

Does the Ukraine need these vessels, or are they option for export to rival say the Gowinds?

Articles in the past(when it was still in the design stage) suggested the Ukrainians were eager to export it to customers like India and Pakistan. In any case it’s offered on the Ukrspecexport site.

Does the Ukraine have the money to build and maintain a fleet of these vessels?

Money is clearly a problem, since one of the criteria for awarding the contract was that the shipyard should be capable of continuing construction for 6 months in the event of government funding being interrupted. But this program is important for developing the Ukrainian defence industry.

Finally, are the foreign companies willing to sell their products in order to get this vessel the advertised capability?

Why not? Ukraine may be getting closer to Russia now, but they are still friendly to Europe. And they are willing to sell Mistrals to Russia after all…

2500 Tons does seem a little on the light side, especially if you have an organic air component including a NH aircraft.

As Wanshan says it’s actually on the upper end for a corvette. I guess the Ukrainian Navy intends to make this the mainstay of its fleet and operate it for longer durations in lieu of frigates.

Those links made for some interesting reading. According to this interview from the head of the Design Institute, if they go for Russian systems they’ll probably approach the Mars JSC(designers of the Talwars’ CMS), Amethyst(the ones behind the A-190 artillery system) and Altair(designers of the Shtil and Klinok).

The new radar appears to be a planar phased-array type. I wonder if this is the rumoured 150km range AESA developed by the Kvant Design Bureau?

I wonder if it will go to Alang.;)

Not from CCTV nor fan artwork :rolleyes:

Can you please translate the names of the engines in that fifth picture?

To me it looks like a re-hashed MiG 1.44 (MiG-39 Flatpack). All Chinese secrecy aside. it was officially released at the Zhuhai Airshow 2010 of just what the 4th generation Chinese air superiority fighter will look like. It also confirms all of the previous rumors of it being based on the Russian MiG 1.44 prototype. 😎 This is official and not just some fanboy artwork. And, it is referred to as a 4th generation fighter, rather than a 5th generation type fighter.

My hunch is that as has been rumoured for years ago the Chinese approached the MiG design bureau for assistance and bought the design blueprints for the cancelled MiG 1.44 project just like they did with the Israeli Lavi. That said I doubt their design is a wholesale ripoff of the 1.44; they probably just incorporated aspects of it into their design, and in any case it was never more than a blueprint; they still have to develop the plane and its systems themselves.

It seems the current reports are suggesting an AESA in a mechanical rotadome, similar in configuration to the E-2D. The KJ-200 is also an AESA with 360 degree coverage, similar in performance to the Erieye, so the ZDK-03 having 360 degree coverage doesn’t automatically make it superior to the KJ-200. There’s still no real performance details out, so difficult to compare, but I believe cost may have been the ultimate reason why the KJ-200 wasn’t selected. IMHO, I also doubt whether the ZDK-03 will be superior in performance to the KJ-200.

Neither Erieye nor KJ-200 have 360-degree coverage. They don’t advertise the fact, but it’s an inherent shortcoming of the balance-beam configuration: the antennas are facing left and right, not front and back, so the result is obvious. For Erieye the reported angle of each antenna face varies according to the source and the version of the system(ranging from 120 to 150 deg) but as for all planar antenna faces it is below 180 deg, so there is always a blind spot front and back that is compensated by flight paths.

For a 360 deg fixed rotodome configuration, there are three AESA arrays in a triangular configuration covering 120 deg each. That’s what allows for 360-deg capability, as in the KJ-2000.

No real details as of yet, but it appears to be an AESA. So I assume it’s perhaps not a conventional mechanically steered rotadome, but rather fixed?

http://www.airforcesmonthly.com/view_news.asp?ID=2732

I don’t think it’s an AESA. Past reports have suggested a conventional rotodome which makes more sense given:

1. China had three AEWC programmes in development. One was a rotodome-type 360-deg AESA(KJ-2000), another was the alternative ‘balance-beam’ type AESA(KJ-200). Logic would dictate the third(ZDK-03 with radome) was a mechanical rotodome solution and not a repeat of the first.

2. Chinese export policies dictate that systems cleared for export be older/inferior to the analogues developed for the Chinese forces. If the ZDK-03 were an AESA then having 360-degree coverage it would be markedly superior to the KJ-200 balance-beam AEW in service with the PLAAF; I can’t see them accepting the inferior system and offering the better one for export.

PAF never wanted the KJ 200 as its Erieyes have similar but much more advanced technology. ZDK 03 started its life as a competing project for KJ 2000 and what made it attractive for PAF was TOT and as a redundancy against Erieyes in case of sanctions at relatively cheap cost. Also ZDK03s were extensively customized for PAF.

I don’t know about TOT, but the ZDK-03 was developed pretty much solely for export.

Is there any information regarding it’s capabilities? How does it compare to, say, the Hawkeye and the Erieye? Any figures on the range, endurance and number of consoles?

You’ve only illustrated how the skijump was ‘grafted’ onto the original bow and how a deck extension was installed on the port side, going around the island. There is no evidence in any of these pics that work on the lower portion of the outer hull involved systematic removal of all the original hull plates and installation of new hull plates in their place. Clearly, the entire lower outer hull was cleaned and made rustfree. I’m sure that in areas with really bad steel condition and corrision, some patchwork must have been doned. The entire lower outer hull was then primed and repainted. This would be normal and expected after such a long time of inactivity and neglect. However, it is nothing like a complete outer hull rebuilding because that hull was so bad. What took place IS part of refurbishing and, more importantly, modifying the ship and adapting it to its new intended role. Modifications (=alterations) are distinct from refurbishment (=maintenance)

I think you are missing my original point. As you can clearly see from the pics and your own descriptions, the Gorshkov has had its entire hull either rebuilt, or resurfaced and repainted. Just seeing the difference between the initial and final pics will illustrate that. Doubtless the reason for much of the reworking is different from the Kirovs, but it is because of the reworking that it will be delivered ‘as good as new’ and be capable of lasting another 30 years.

In comparison, the Kirovs that have been mostly sitting in port in the open like so many other semi-neglected ex-Soviet vessels will be in no state to serve that long unless a lot of structural work is done, which probably won’t be the case if they’re looking to bring them back to service by 2012-14.