China Reportedly Building 3 Aircraft Carriers (Rumor yet to be confirmed)

http://www.strategypage.com/fyeo/howtomakewar/default.asp?target=htnavai.htm&base=htnavai&Prev=0&BeginCnt=31 ^

[Poohbah]

And US submarine captains will take one look at the ChiCom carrier and say, "There's a Navy Cross just waiting to get pinned on."

[Filibuster_60]

A follow-on piece says the PLAN doesn't intend to form dedicated air groups for these carriers, instead drawing on existing aircrews. For some years they've had pilots practice on mock flight decks.

I'm more worried about the simple fact they're now able to build larger warships at a faster pace. With all the shipbuilding technology they're getting from South Korea & Japan & the electronic expertise they're getting from all their advanced trading partners, along with the huge expansion of their maritime facilities, they could conceivably acquire the world's second-biggest navy by 2020.

But hey, Japan won't stand idly by & should keep a qualitative edge at least another decade. The western Pacific is looking to get rather interesting.

[hchutch]

If, that is, the carrier wings didn't get them first.

:)

[Poohbah]

With all the shipbuilding technology they're getting from South Korea & Japan & the electronic expertise they're getting from all their advanced trading partners, along with the huge expansion of their maritime facilities, they could conceivably acquire the world's second-biggest navy by 2020.

Ivan did the same thing. Fat lotta good it did him.

[ErnBatavia]

Once they get the carriers, they need planes and pilots...and we all know what happened to their best hotshot zoomie...

[DM1]

These guys have been working on a navy for a long time
they want to "negate" our naval superiority so that they can grab Taiwan back

[My2Cents]

LOL...You mean "Wong Wey"?

[My2Cents]

LOL....The latter.

[MediaMole]

48,000 tons is pretty small in today's world. They are between the old WWII Essex Class and the immediate post-WWII Midway Class carriers.

They certainly aren't in any way equivalent to the Enterprise or Nimitz class ships we have.

[Vinnie_Vidi_Vici]

Time for Taiwan to speed up the production of those submarines! Perhaps we could loan them a couple, fortraining purposes only , of course! (cough, cough)

[Filibuster_60]

The Soviets never enjoyed the kind of massive trade with the developed world the Chinese have today. So they managed to build a "luxury fleet" centered on a bunch of SSBNs with poor electronics. It wasn't much of a navy by our standards but quite threatening at the regional level.

[Poohbah]

A "luxury fleet" is any fleet that can't stand up to its opponents. And that will include the PLAN's toy aircraft carriers. SUBRON 7 at Yokosuka will take care of business as needed.

[reagan_fanatic]

Oh goody goody! Target practice for the U.S Navy!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I wonder if the Russian air craft carrier was of the same fine quality as their submarines ?

[valkyrieanne]

These aren't carriers like we're used to. Seems to me they won't be of much use more than 500 miles off the Chinese coast. Area and sea denial, not power projection, would appear to be their mission. On the other hand, if the steam catapult feature is indeed being added, it would indicate they do intend to operate at least a few heavy strike planes.

Yes, very conveniently located to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

[skeeter]

Isn't Japan building their first (loosely termed) aircraft carriers since '45?

[Teacher317]

It's always dangerous to underestimate an opponent. Let's wait until the carriers are underway before photo-shopping Titanic life preservers on 'em.

[LibWhacker]

Thank you, Bill Clinton, you traitorous c********r! I guess the democrats plan to complete the program of high-tech transfers to China he started as soon as they win the White House again.

Well, we're nuts if we allow China and the democrats to build up the Chinese military until it becomes a modern high-tech nuclear power that can pose an extreme threat to America. We should take them out right now. The Chinese we can deal with later.

[Joe 6-pack]

Commie Kerry said he knows, "something about aircraft carriers for real..."

Maybe this is what he was talking about?

[e_castillo]

He ate a propeller didn't he.