Posted on 11/04/2009 7:05:58 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Taiwan says China starts building first aircraft carrier
Agence France-Presse First Posted 19:44:00 11/04/2009
Filed Under: Military, Foreign affairs & international relations
TAIPEI – Taiwan said Wednesday that its giant neighbor China has started building its first aircraft carrier, a move analysts have said could raise military tensions in the region.
The head of Taiwan's National Security Bureau told parliament construction of the carrier had begun, Lin Yu-fang, a legislator of the ruling Kuomintang party, told AFP.
However, the security chief, Tsai Teh-sheng said the carrier's construction "has not been smooth" and that the Chinese navy may struggle to put it into service by 2012 unless it makes a manufacturing breakthrough soon.
"This is the result of an evaluation not only from [Taiwan's] National Security Bureau...but also from the Chinese communists," Tsai said, according to Lin.
Taiwanese military experts expect the People's Liberation Army to take at least 10 years to have its first operating carrier group complete with carrier-based fighters and other warships.
"Once they complete the ambitious project, it will have a serious and far-fetched military impact on the region," said Wung Ming-hsien, professor at Taipei's Tamkang University.
"And by that time, the United States, Japan, and Taiwan will need to overhaul their military strategies."
A carrier group would potentially double the military threat posed to Taiwan by China by allowing the Chinese to approach from directions other than across the Strait, he said.
Two weeks ago Taiwan's defense ministry said in its annual report that China had continued its military build-up against the island despite warming ties, tipping the military balance in the Taiwan Strait with more than 1,300 ballistic and cruise missiles targeting the island.
Ties between China and Taiwan have improved significantly since the China-friendly politician Ma Ying-jeou became the island's president last year, vowing to adopt a non-confrontational policy towards the mainland.
But China still regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting to be reunified by force if necessary, although the island has governed itself since 1949 when a civil war ended.
The United States has repeatedly urged China to be more transparent about its rapid military buildup, warning of a shifting balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region that could cause misunderstanding.
It takes more than an aircraft carrier to make waves. Aircraft carriers are surrounded by a battle group plus the training of Top Gun pilots and billions more for support crews plus logistics.
The building part will be the easy part. Operating will be an interesting learning curve.
Agreed.
Building one by parroting a design is one thing. Operating one successfully, with aircraft and fire control and all that junk is something else entirely.
This ain't a fishing boat, ya know.
you are correct...anybody can build an aircraft carrier...the challenge is to actually be able to use it..
10 years to build.
10 minutes to sink.
Buying a high-end custom .45 and some fins doesn’t make you into an instant SEAL either. Buying a carrier is one thing. Operating over 100 of them as we have, for over 80 years, in 5 wars and countless small actions,,,,is quite another.
The only way their carrier could menace us is for us to have a president like Obama who hates the USA.
Complacent dismissal is very dangerous.
Sure, but any punk with a gun can get lucky and kill a SEAL or two before getting killed. To underestimate someone is to get into a fight and be forced to prove yourself right.
Instant gratification is not the trait of a culture that has been around for thousands of years.
Really? I submit for your enjoyment the Charles de Gaulle:
Construction quickly fell behind schedule as the project was starved of funding, which was worsened by the economic recession in the early 1990s.[citation needed] Total costs for the vessel would top €3 billion. Work on the ship was suspended altogether on four occasions: 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1995.[1] The ship was commissioned on 18 May 2001, five years behind the projected deadline.
Charles de Gaulle entered sea trials in 1999. These identified the need to extend the flight deck to safely operate the E-2C Hawkeye. ... On 28 February 2000, a nuclear reactor trial triggered the combustion of additional isolation elements, producing a smoke incident. ...During the night of 9 November 2000, in the Western Atlantic while en route toward Norfolk, Virginia, the port propeller broke and the ship had to return to Toulon to replace the faulty unit. The investigations that followed showed similar structural faults in the other propeller and in the spare propellers: bubbles in the one-piece copper-aluminium alloy propellers near the centre. The fault was blamed on the supplier, Atlantic Industries, which had already gone bankrupt. To make matters worse, all documents relating to the design and fabrication of the propellers had been lost in a fire. ...On 5 March 2001, Charles de Gaulle went back to sea with two older propellers and sailed 25.2 knots (47 km/h) on her trials. Between July and October, Charles de Gaulle had to be refitted once more due to abnormal noises, as loud as 100 dB, near the starboard propeller, which had rendered the aft part of the ship uninhabitable. ... On 8 November 2001, a sailor performing a routine maintenance task lost consciousness due to a toxic gas leak. A non-commissioned officer attempted to rescue him and collapsed as well. They were immediately rescued by the on-board medical team and sent to Toulon Hospital. Both survived.
Personally, I don’t get it.
The Chinese have had some of the terrifying armies and navies in the world (admittedly, not within the last 400 years...). Fortunately, they were mostly used against other Chinese. But, just as the Soviet Union pretty much killed off the Wehrmacht, China pretty much killed off the Imperial Japanese Army.
The PRC might be a bit behind in quality, but they are catching up fast, and they have the quantity part covered like nobody else ever has. They’re not sensitive to casualties and don’t give a darn about “public opinion.” Barring some sort of internal meltdown they are poised to own the future...
well, they built it, it floated and worked ( albeit, not very well )and this just proved what i said.....anybody can BUILD an aircraft carrier.....
That’s not “anybody” that’s the French...
When it comes to anything dealing with war, they are going to screw it up, even it they had a 1000 years...
Sorry that’s where you’re wrong.
The Japs bought, studied, and operated planes from all over the world, before they started building their own. Heck, IIRC, the engine that powered the Zero was a copy of the Twin Wasp.
The same is true for their ships - they bought BBs from the UK before they started building their own.
The Chinese are not “buying a high-end custom .45” and pretending they’re a SEAL. They’re buying a production weapon, taking it apart, taking measurements and copying it for their own production purposes. I would bet strongly on them being able to duplicate CVs and develop their own carrier operations.
Remember the story about the Soviets capturing a B-29 and then making exact several exact replicas?
It don't come natural.
That same lucky punk is going to get F908ked up by by some irritated brother SEALS, who will then go hunting for more fish.
Because SEALS are intelligent fighters who can adapt, overcome and out think their opponents, when they go fishing, every target is in a barrel.
By the time they get around to building their “first” carrier group we will be in the middle of an upgrade to our Naval and Air fleet.
We will 100 years of strategy and tactical experience under our belt.
We will still have the most advanced fleet in the world
We will have pilots who have flown hostile missions, making them experienced.
We will even better communications tools and skills between Land, Sea and Air.
Communications granularity will be down to the individual fighting man who can coordinated flanking tactics with the most precise weapons available, making it easier to attack using smaller squads of 3-6 fighting units.
Those individual fighting units will be equipped computers that enable coordination between other units, Land and Air units.
The list could go on but, we don’t take anything for granted.
To the other posters who are talking about a magic bullet from a lucky punk, said punk is still going to have to deal with worlds largest arsenal of precision weapons and we like to do things from far away.
Here is a video from some show on HBO of a soldier sniping at nearly 1,000 yards. Come get some!
1.5 minutes long:
Video: M-40 Sniper in Iraq:
http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=203118&ESRC=dod.nl
Our guys do this all day long.
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