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 ^

[Filibuster_60]

February 13, 2004: Publications in China report that China is building, with the assistance of Russia, three aircraft carriers. Called Project 9935, the ships are probably based on a Russian Nevskoye Design Bureau design contracted for in 1994. An article published in China says that the final design decision was made by Hudong Shipyard, Shanghai in 1999. The ship is thought to be a modified Russian Admiral Ghorshkov carrier “to Chinese specifications.” The ship is scaled up only about 6 percent.

Significant changes are the mounting of all point defenses and associated fire control systems, the mounting of a steam catapult on the angled flight deck, and modification/updating of the electronic suite. The Chinese article says that formal authorization to build a carrier was made in 1992. This apparently refers to legislation passed in that year which authorized “two aircraft carriers.” Three covered graving docks were constructed at Shangahi and eyewitness reports indicate all three now have carriers building in them. Another source says the lead ship launched in 2002 and was expected to complete about 2004. The Chinese article says the lead ship should “commission” in 2006 and that a “battle group” should form “by 2010.” These appear to be very conservative dates. Evidence strongly suggests that these ships are intended to be a technical surprise in several senses, including initial operating dates. The 2006 date is more realistic for the first carrier group. All three ships could be operational with battle groups by 2008-2010. The Chinese article says that maintenance facilities have been built at Shanghai, Dailan and Zhejiang. From this, and PLAN (Peoples Liberation Army Navy) organization, it appears each fleet will be allocated a single carrier.

The operational concept of these aircraft carriers differs from that of other nations. Aircraft carriers are not seen as the “core” of the fleet. Rather submarines are. Instead, carriers have a primary fleet defense mission: to provide air and anti-submarine defense for surface forces, especially amphibious flotillas and logistic convoys. There is a significant secondary offensive strike mission, indicated by the mounting of SSMs and also inherent in the ability of fighter-bombers to carry offensive weapons. However, it appears that the carriers are not intended for distant power projection operations in the sense US CVNs are. Designed to operate near PLAN bases, they are to be offshore aviation platforms for a mainly land based naval air force. This may mean the aviation staying power of these ships is much greater than would normally be expected if they operated dedicated air groups. Further, in the absence of the need to buy aircraft and train crews for them, the unit cost of the carriers is lower than otherwise would be the case, while the cost of lost maintenance assets is also less, should a carrier be sunk. This is an imaginative, but very reasonable, application of naval air power to the essentially regional requirements of the PLAN. However, the Chinese air force (PLAAF) is buying carrier capable aircraft and training pilots to use them.

General Characteristics:

Full Load Displacement: 48,000 tons (stated) Standard Displacement: 44,700 tons (estimated from Orel data) Light Displacement: 35,000 tons (estimated from Orel data) Maximum Displacement: 52,750 tons (estimated from Orel data) Overall Dimensions: 288x71x9 meters (calculated from Gorshkov data) Waterline Dimensions: 254x33x9 meters (calculated from Gorshkov data) Flight Deck Dimensions: 288x67.5 meters (calculated from Gorshkov data) Angled Flight Deck Dimensions: 220 meters long (standard length); 6.5 degree angle Hanger Dimensions: 144x68 meters = about 9,800 sq. meters (estimated from Orel data) Draft: 9 meters nominal, 10 meters maximum (same for all classes in design series) Full Speed: 28 knots (stated; confirmed by calculation from Gorshkov data) Machinery: Type: Geared Steam Turbines driving 4 shafts (same for all classes in series) Machinery: Turbines: 4xRussian TU-12 55,000 hp maximum (49,750 hp sustained)

[philetus]

"If China is building aircraft carriers, maybe we should be asking ourselves "why"


"Why" is easy. When they are ready they will use them.

[Poohbah]

Japan is a dying power -- as is Russia. They are strong now, but as per statistics by 2050 their populations will have halved. What then? China is willing to wait.

By that time, the social pathologies of Communism and one-child-per-family will kick off the world's first nuclear civil war.

[Cronos]

By that time, the social pathologies of Communism and one-child-per-family will kick off the world's first nuclear civil war.
Nope, China will invade Russia and take those blonde Ninotchkas!

[Cronos]

OR, they'll send their excess males to Massachussetts...

[Poohbah]

Nope, China will invade Russia and take those blonde Ninotchkas!

Actually, they won't.

China also has this weird "racial purity" notion in play. Marrying a round-eyed barbarian and having offspring by her is socially verboten.

[BroncosFan]

Gojira-san . . . you wanna question it?

[GOP_1900AD]

Certainly the Shanghai industrial complex can build any ship that there is funding for. An increasing percentage of the worlds tonnage comes from the shipyards there. It is essentially the Old Glasgow of the 21st century. As a side note, most container cranes for superports are also made there as are the hulls to transport them around the world. If a reference design is being provided by Moscow on a license, then it would only speed things up.

[GOP_1900AD]

They need to go like h$#* to prepare for what is coming. If they are depending on us, they are making a very big mistake.

[taiwansemi]

What's Japan going to do? Bomb its own Toyota, Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic, etc. factories that are popping up all over China? Japanese fear China economically more than Americans, yet Japanese are re-locating factories to China faster than anybody else, because capitalism is capitalism and Japan's competitiveness and Japan's vitality as a nation will suffer if Japan's factories don't move to China. Once China's economy grows as big as America's in 2-3 decades and twice as big in 4-6 decades, anybody who attacks the world's biggest economy will end up hurting their own economy more than China's. More than half of America's and Japan's entire stock market values and retirement funds will derive from their companies' business activities in China, and attacking China will be the best way for them to shoot themselves and their own people in the foot.

[Cronos]

Once China's economy grows as big as America's in 2-3 decades and twice as big in 4-6 decades

Well, predictions greater than a decade mostly fail. China very well MAY do so, but it will have a political change. If the change goes through smoothly, China will reach the levels you talk of. If there is a violent revolution or civil war, watch those stats tumble. Also, China, as a typical communist state, must be massaging the figures and putting up a nice shiny facade to the foreigners -- it does not allow anyone to see the real grimy face of China and communism.