Chapter 856: Varyag Returns to China

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

Liao Province, Daliyan (bushi)...

Cough cough--

Lianhai Shipyard.

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

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

Because it was still banned from passing through the Suez Canal, it took more than nine months of journey before a tugboat fleet led by the Nikolay Chiker finally towed the Varyag to its destination.

Even people who have not experienced it personally can get a glimpse of the difficulties and dangers along the way from the navigation log submitted by the mission leader Zhu Yuzhou.

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

Because the Cape of Good Hope is located at the confluence of the Mozambique Agulhas Current and the Benguela Current, there are constant rough seas all year round. When the tugboat fleet passed by, the huge waves almost broke the tow rope behind the Nikolay Chicker. The fleet was forced to hire a second tugboat, which was able to barely control the course of the Varyag in the severe sea conditions and prevent the giant ship from drifting away.

Later, when passing the Horn of Africa, the thing that everyone was most worried about before the journey began happened again.

The entire tugboat fleet was targeted by pirates, or at least suspicious vessels that appeared to be pirates.

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

Later, after experiencing a series of obstacles such as malicious blocking of shipping routes and passage permits through the Strait of Malacca, we finally returned to the embrace of the motherland.

Before entering the port, the pilot boat and the tugboat Nikolay Chiker simultaneously blew long whistles to salute the nearly one hundred navy personnel and comrades from the shipbuilding industry who were waiting eagerly on the shore.

The crowd on the shore also responded with warm cheers.

In order to minimize the international impact, Huaxia did not ask any media to report on this matter.

Only a few comrades from the military newspaper and the propaganda department of Shipbuilding Heavy Industry took a few photos from different angles for archiving.

At Pier No. 1 of Lianhai Shipyard.

Sun Suguang, together with several other colleagues and technical consultants from the Black Sea Shipyard, were standing on a high platform, watching the Varyag slowly approaching the outfitting dock next door.

This naturally included Valery Babich.

As early as the beginning of the year, he had arrived at Lianhai under the arrangement of Wu Yifan, and subsequently participated in the technical research and development of several large-scale ship construction projects with other engineers from the Black Sea Shipyard.

As a consultant, of course.

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

Hand over the project at hand immediately.

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

And then, it’s today.

"You...are you really planning to continue building this ship?"

Babich asked Sun Suguang who was standing not far away.

In fact, he certainly knew the answer -

Although the Chinese had previously purchased several retired aircraft carriers through different channels, as an insider who participated in the entire process, he could clearly feel that the situation this time was different.

The aircraft carrier's technical data, the personnel of the Black Sea Shipyard and Azov Steel Plant, the "Nitka" aircraft carrier training facilities...

If the decision to continue construction on the basis of the Varyag was not made, there would be no need to spend a lot of money and energy to introduce these supporting facilities.

There was no need to rush to bring over several of the senior technical personnel who had participated in the 1143 project.

However, when Babbage finally saw this old friend again after more than half a year, he couldn't help but ask this question.

He wanted to confirm again.

"of course."

Sun Suguang turned around and looked at Babich, who was shaking slightly with excitement:

"At the beginning of this year, our superiors and the Navy had already made this requirement clear."

"We in China already have the technology and experience to build a 6-ton large ship purely according to military specifications, but an aircraft carrier is a complex and brand-new subject after all."

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

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

When Babich heard this answer from the translator, he couldn't help but breathe heavier.

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

"If possible, I hope we can organize personnel as soon as possible to begin surveying the entire ship."

At this time, another person next to him interrupted:

"The technical data we obtained earlier should contain the design drawings of this ship, right?"

“There should be some drawings.”

Babich nodded:

"However, the ship has been out of service for nearly ten years, and some equipment has been removed several times."

"In addition, the dock of the Black Sea Shipyard was unattended for about five or six years, so some things must have been stolen by people who boarded the ship privately. It is impossible for me or anyone else to fully understand these situations."

"When you proposed to buy this ship two years ago, I also considered checking the entire ship, but I simply couldn't organize enough manpower. This ship has 20 floors and more than 3000 cabins. It is impossible to complete it with just one or two people..."

After hearing 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 sufficient at the moment."

"But the most important compartments on the ship should be those related to the power, aviation, and weapon systems. I can send about fifty people to start from these key positions. Once the project team is officially formed, I will send more people."

Babich suddenly felt a sense of happiness welling up in his heart.

He hadn't felt this kind of support from the organization for many years:

"Actually, fifty people are enough... I originally only wanted to ask you for twenty or thirty people..."

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

Just now Babich said that he did not 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 that 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 a complete collapse of the grassroots organizational structure are completely unimaginable to those who have not experienced it.

Previously, most people used the large-scale 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 had suddenly fallen silent, feeling a little puzzled.

But after a brief 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 about the same time. Otherwise, if you only have one ship, it will not be able to play a role."

"Carrier-based aircraft..."

Hearing this, several people around smiled:

"Based on my experience over the years, I think what we should be worried about is whether our progress is too slow..."