00X/004 future nuclear CATOBAR carrier thread

[TheWanderWit]

That's their problem, not China's. Who says that China must use their ports to dock her future CVNs?

While I don't think this needs to be stated, but - When China intends to operate CVNs in the future, it is absolutely certain that both the PLAN and the Chinese shipbuilding industry already are fully capable of dealing with the associated complications and challenges concerning marine nuclear propulsion systems.

Furthermore, you already have USN CVNs going for port visits in pretty much every country that directly share maritime borders with China (Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore) for decades. If they aren't concerned with the American CVNs parked inside their territorial waters right now, they wouldn't be concerned with the presence of Chinese CVNs sailing around in the region either.



If such concerns are dominant, then you wouldn't see the US building:
- 8x nuclear-powered aircraft carriers
- 7x nuclear-powered cruisers (out of the planned total of 11x), and
- More than 160x nuclear-powered submarines throughout the Cold War (and continues building more nuclear-powered ships and boats afterwards).

The same goes with the Soviet Union/Russia.

Also, since when does a conventional carrier has radioactive leak?



No. Per our sources, China is building one conventional-powered CV and one nuclear-powered CVN simultaneously right now.

(And chances are, we might (and a very big might at that) see China going for both conventional-powered and nuclear-powered carriers in the future. This is just speculation for the time being.)

I thought the 2nd conventional CV wasn't exactly confirmed yet in any degree compared to the PLAN's next carrier which we know will be a CVN?

 

[Tomboy]

I thought the 2nd conventional CV wasn't exactly confirmed yet in any degree compared to the PLAN's next carrier which we know will be a CVN?

It is plausible the next conventional might not be a 003 sister ship but the speculated CATOBAR lighting carrier that will go along with larger CVNs

Purely my speculation

 

[AndrewS]

Being fair if China do decide to produce carriers in batches after the first 004 gets launched, lets say 2 ship per shipyard simultaneously, from laying down to launch in 5 years, add maybe an extra 2 years for commissioning, so 4 carriers comissioned every 7 years and each carrier would need roughly 90 aircrafts, SAC would still need to build ～50 J-35s/J-50s per year to make sure them these carriers are comissioned with their air wings ready. But of course this will probably happen after the first 004 gets completed which is still 4-5 years away. I'd say this is definitely enough time for SAC to expand their production halls.

I think the number of aircraft per carrier will be significantly less than 90.

And remember that in the US Navy, there are only 40-50 fighters in the Hornet and F-35 category.

 

[CannedFish]

I think the bottleneck is not ship-building capacity, but aircraft-building capacity. The infrastructure is certainly there for mass-production of carriers, but there are not enough planes.

Carrier procurement doesn't work that way, it takes way longer for a carrier warship to be built and commissioned than for fighter aircraft.
You're already wrong by mentioning aircraft-building capacity, it depends on how many aircraft the PLAN wants and that is influenced by how many carriers it needs not the other way around. They're the Navy not the air force, SDF info has already made clear PLAN is going for quality with the J-35 while the PLAAF goes for quantity with J-35A.

To start building a carrier after the aircraft are ready would be stupid beyond belief, if that's what you're insinuating.
Regardless of aircraft, carrier crews still need to be trained, they still need to enter drydock for maintenance which would take months where another carrier takes it's place, heck the 'Royal' navy only has enough F-35B for one carrier, yet they operate two carriers for this purpose (well mainly cause they're broke AF, but the system still stands).

This is the PLAN, what comes first is the carrier not the aircraft.

 

[charles18]

Is there even any discussion on what type of reactor the 004 will use yet?
....

We (as in humanity) have over 70 years of institutional knowledge using PWR's for nuclear marine propulsion.
So it is guaranteed to work.
You can bet your paycheck the Type 004 is going to run on pressurized water reactors.

Right now the most important thing for China is to reach military parity with the USA and the most guaranteed way to do so is with tried and true technology. Maybe in the future, say 25 years down the road, after China reaches parity with the USA they can afford to go wild and experiment with whatever crazy technology that drops down the pipeline.

Right now any idea that suggests the Type 004 will be powered by anything other than PWR reactors should NOT be taken seriously.