The Russian aircraft carrier Varyag was to be a Kuznetsov-class multirole aircraft carrier. Known as Riga when her keel was laid down at Nikolayev South on 6 December 1985, she was launched on 4 December 1988 and renamed Varyag (Varangian) in late 1990.
Construction stopped by 1992 with the ship structurally complete but without electronics. Ownership was transferred to Ukraine as the Soviet Union broke up, and the ship was laid up unmaintained, then stripped. By early 1998 she lacked engines, a rudder, and much of her operating systems.
Specifications
Technical Data
Sale and Transit to China
In April 1998, the winning bid of US$20 million came from the Chong Lot Travel Agency Ltd of Hong Kong, who proposed converting the ship into a floating hotel and casino in Macao. However, Chong Lot was owned by Chin Luck Holdings, whose chairman was a former PLA military officer, and four of six board members lived near a major Chinese Navy shipyard in Yantai.
Chong Lot could not get permission from Turkey to transit the Bosporus strait — the Montreux Treaty of 1936 does not allow aircraft carriers to pass the Dardanelles. The hulk spent 16 months circling in the Black Sea. On 1 November 2001, Turkey finally relented. Escorted by 27 vessels including 11 tugboats, Varyag took six hours to transit the strait.
On 3 November, Varyag was caught in a force 9 gale near the Aegean island of Skyros and broke adrift. One sailor died during attempts to reattach tow ropes. The Suez Canal does not permit "dead" ships, so the hulk was towed through Gibraltar, around the Cape of Good Hope, and through the Straits of Malacca. She arrived at Dalian Shipyard on 3 March 2002.
China and Speculation
Analysts believe the PLAN used Varyag as a training platform for carrier operations. The total cost of acquiring the hulk was over US$30 million. The vessel was eventually refitted and commissioned as the Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier, entering service in 2012.