Beijing admits it is building an aircraft carrier

Source



Relax, it's still a primitive kind of aircraft carrier. But speaking of aircraft carrier, where is USS George Washington at present time?

Its not surprising. There have been hints at this in previous speeches by Chinese military officials.

Also buying 4 aircraft carriers for 'study' isn't something you do out of idle curiosity.

This one en.wikipedia.org...(R21)

and this one en.wikipedia.org...

and this one en.wikipedia.org...

and this one en.wikipedia.org...


They intend on blue water navy with an ability to project strike power. Its coming, we better get used to it.

damn...pity we (usa) cannot simply sell them some of ours..we could use the cash.

(and erm...ya..a small undetectable hole puncher and GPS tracking should they suddenly look at us or our allies).

Maybe the US can provide telephone help desk support.
Before India makes an offer of course.

Interesting read!!! I found a good article from 2008 that began detailing China's process for its carrier program.

China's Carrier programme Takes Shape

Even more interesting is what will they fly off it? Will it rival the joint strike fighter with vtol?

reply to post by jibeho




That's pretty cool looking.

Linky here

Originally posted by markygee
Even more interesting is what will they fly off it? Will it rival the joint strike fighter with vtol?

Perhaps they might want a couple of small invincible class carriers...

I think they are going on the cheap

reply to post by thoughtsfull


Man that hurts. It hurts cause its true... :-(

www.edisposals.com...

Maybe the PM can use harsh language from a rowing boat....

Originally posted by justwokeup
reply to post by thoughtsfull

 

Man that hurts. It hurts cause its true... :-(

www.edisposals.com...

Maybe the PM can use harsh language from a rowing boat....

And I was using humour to hide the pain

Well I know I'd send Cameron in first sounds like a good plan.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Maybe the US can provide telephone help desk support.
Before India makes an offer of course.

I must have overlooked your reply.....


After about 20 minutes being on the phone asking them to please repeat the question from lack of understanding the accent. The support is provided.

Step 1 : Place plane in launcher.
Step 2 : Launch

China already has the seas of the world covered with the largest fleet of submarines. Now its time to bring on the carriers and the rest of the Chinese goodies that have been built through reverse engineering and lots of money.

They are patient and certainly methodical in their race to power. They've been overlooked for far to long as only having a military mobile via bicycles. Ooops!

reply to post by Jazzyguy

They know as well as we do that aircraft carriers and the so-called battle wagons of WWII, not to mention all naval ships of any size, are a thing of the past. Gen. "Billy" Mitchell proved in the 1930s that ships were at the mercy of aircraft both for protection and destruction.

Today, the situation is even more drastically against large ships. One atomic bomb can take out an entire fleet, one land-fired, air-fired, or space-fired missile can take out a carrier, then there are subs that can stand off at long range and launch homing torpedos.

The experiences of Falkland Islands brought that message home loud and clear. Big ships are virtually dead in the water before they leave their harbors.

Actually, it is even idiotic to send a carrier into the China Sea when there is even a hint of a possible war. In any all-out war, flat tops will be the first to go, sitting ducks, you could say.

reply to post by Aliensun

These days, they're more about making political statement and provocation rather than anything else. Maybe when the chinese has them, they intend to parade them around near cuba.

The 1930s proved the end of the battleship for sure and it proved that a fleet without air cover was a sitting duck, not sure i'd go so far as to say all carriers are pointless.

Used in the right way, in the right place, (not the littoral, or within range of 100s of fixed missile batteries) a properly set up carrier group doesn't have an equal. Sure you can nuke it but anybody nuking a carrier will get nuked right back so its not likely to occur.

The falklands showed that you can use carriers to support power projection half way round the world. Even baby carriers...

It showed that ships without good anti-missile defences were sitting ducks (hence layered screens, Arleigh Burke and T45).

It showed that navies without SSNs or great ASW have to stay in port when an enemy SSN is on the prowl.

A carrier means you can sit off the coast and dismantle another nations infrastructure using conventional weapons. Or apply the credible threat of doing so. Thats why they want it.

Originally posted by Aliensun
reply to post by Jazzyguy

 

They know as well as we do that aircraft carriers and the so-called battle wagons of WWII, not to mention all naval ships of any size, are a thing of the past. Gen. "Billy" Mitchell proved in the 1930s that ships were at the mercy of aircraft both for protection and destruction.

Today, the situation is even more drastically against large ships. One atomic bomb can take out an entire fleet, one land-fired, air-fired, or space-fired missile can take out a carrier, then there are subs that can stand off at long range and launch homing torpedos.

The experiences of Falkland Islands brought that message home loud and clear. Big ships are virtually dead in the water before they leave their harbors.

Actually, it is even idiotic to send a carrier into the China Sea when there is even a hint of a possible war. In any all-out war, flat tops will be the first to go, sitting ducks, you could say.

I think the Americans would clear an area with subs and stealth bombers and multiple stealth air strikes on anything that could remotely threaten an air craft carrier long before it entered the battle area as a potential Target.

reply to post by Jazzyguy


I don't get the title..China 'Admits"?
I wasn't aware that China had to tell the world what it's militarty was doing...

But like some have pointed out, carriers have almost had their day..
They are only usefull in attacks on countries that already have no defence such as Iraq or Palestine..
They are then just a way to get air power in close..

If a REAL war broke out I think you'd see a lot of Navy ships go down fast..
They would be early targets IMO....

You're sources are incorrect.

China bought the unfinished Varyag Aircraft Carrier from Russia when they collapsed. It has just been completed and is currently on sea trials sailing the Pacific Ocean. They renamed it "Shi Lang".

They also laid down the hulls of several new aircraft carriers awhile ago and 2 will be finished in a few months.

They possess several "land locked" aircraft carriers you can see on Google Earth which sit in the middle of nowhere's in little ponds/lakes. They've been practicing launching from there for YEARS and are ready to operate right now on their new carrier.

You can see photo's of the Shi Lang on a couple websites that have been tracking it's assembly. It's a nice ship. If we ever sunk their flagship there'd be 1.3 Billion screaming chinese....they are very proud of that.


en.wikipedia.org...

Shi Lang is the Chinese Admiral that made Taiwan part of China in the 1600's.

Originally posted by Pervius

They possess several "land locked" aircraft carriers you can see on Google Earth which sit in the middle of nowhere's in little ponds/lakes. They've been practicing launching from there for YEARS and are ready to operate right now on their new carrier.

Yes I'd agree that they may be further and faster along with their program than most in the west would know of based on your post.

The days of the U.S. Navy sailing a lone carrier group through the South China Sea and Straights of Taiwan may soon be over. If China decides to get bellicose about Taiwan or the North Koreans are acting up then the U.S. Navy may need multiple CBG's in the theater or suffer consequence's.

Seems in just a few short years China can easily dominate their own backyard. The Carriers will be relatively close to port allowing surge operations, additional air support by land based aircraft and missiles will be in play and plenty of submarine protection will be available - sounds like a pretty potent combination and hard to counter.

The U.S. Navy will have much longer deployment times and of course longer supply chain to support CBG's unless more are forward deployed - although I see risk in that also.

Wonder if Japan will re-militarize or go under the Chinese thumb when this plays out in a decade or so.

reply to post by Pervius


There are no aircraft carriers being built in China in any shipyard. Your claim of them being ready in several months is pure fabrication. You can't hide a vessel that size while being built. The only carrier being worked on is the ex-Varyag. The landlocked carrier is not real. It is a mock up used as a museum. The aircraft that you can see on the deck are non carrier aircraft purely positioned as museum pieces.

The Chinese Navy will be planning to put variants of the Su-27 Flanker onto the ex-Varyag. See following for naval airfield with practice ski ramp as fitted to ex-Varyag.

geimint.blogspot.com...

TJ