China's Carrier Problem

Timothy Birdnow

This from Cornelius Carroll

Why Did China Nix Its Dream of a Six Aircraft Carrier Fleet?

Hypersonic missiles and submarines can help fill that gap but it would be a lot more challenging to project power to decisively defeat an adversary.
China would build a network of bases in the Central and South Pacific to check the United States & the string of pearls in the Indian Ocean can sideline India along with strategic partnerships w/ Myanmar, Pakistan, and Iran.
But those are very visible strategies that both powers can work around.

End quote.

Hmm.

I have little doubt the Chinese are struggling to build a sizable fleet of carriers, but they can compensate with other technology.

Here is an interesting snippet:

China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy takes many of its cues from the U.S. Navy as it develops its carrier aviation branch. It is seeking similar flat-deck carriers to its U.S. counterpart, and has developedairborne early warning planesandelectronic attack jetscomparable to American E-2D Hawkeyes andEA-18 Growlers.

But that tendency may have backfired for once. That’s because the U.S. Navy has been beset by major cost overruns and delays in deploying its new generation Gerald Ford-class supercarriers due to persistent flaws in their catapults, arresting gear, radars and weapons elevators. You can read more about these many problems in an earlier article.

First, why would you take your cues from the U.S., which is becoming increasingly feeble and going broke from building stuff like this?

Second, "Gerald Ford Class Carriers"?! What do they do, bore the enemy to death?

Who would name a class of military vessel after Gerald Ford? And who would imitate it?

In fact the article admits these problems:

But that tendency may have backfired for once. That’s because the U.S. Navy has been beset by major cost overruns and delays in deploying its new generation Gerald Ford-class supercarriers due to persistent flaws in their catapults, arresting gear, radars and weapons elevators. You can read more about these many problems in anearlier article.

Similar problems apparently are affecting China’s carrier program. In November 2019, Minnie Chan of the South China Morning Postreportedthat Beijing was scrapping plans for a fifth and sixth nuclear-powered carrier, once it finished construction of two new steam-powered vessels.

The reason? "Technical challenges and high costs,” including issues particularly linked to development of the latter two vessel’s electromagnetic launch systems—the same system bedeviling the U.S. Navy.

The Chicoms aren't stupid; they see the trap we have ensnared ourselves in.

They figured out that we have been bankrupting ourselves with this kind of crap. It can be done leaner and more successfully with new tech - provided the tech actually works. As you say, this hampers their ability to project power now, but the Chinese take the long view.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:24 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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