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.

 

[Iron Man]

Is it not possible once that PLAN decides on a design lets say the Type 004 CVN, why can't they just start building them simultaneously at both shipyards so they could quickly match the USN's numbers? IMO, it seems unlikely that there will be a Type 005 carrier in the foreseeable future unless Type 004 flops, but with rumors saying 004 will likely match USN's supercarrier there isn't much more to improve tbf. It would not make sense to design a completely new design for every single carrier, it'll be a nightmare for logistics if China decides to operate a large fleet of carrier and each one is unique.

tl;dr: I believe Type 004 would be the last major carrier design we will see in the foreseeable future, once the first 004 carrier have been launched and everything goes according to plan, PLAN will start ramping up production for sister ships of Type 004s probably having multiple carriers under construction at both shipyards to quickly match USN's number.

Wherever did you get the idea that the PLAN intends to "quickly match" or even just "match" USN's number of carriers? Did you read this somewhere?

 

[InsaneHum]

Perhaps off-topic, but what's the community speculation on Type-004 and Type-005's ship names?

All CVs so far have been named after major coastal provinces. The only remaining coastal provinces without a CV(N) or similar capital ship to their name are Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu (I suppose Guangxi has some coastal access as well). There's also some special cities (municipalities) on the coast at the same administrative level that could be contenders (although unlikely): Shanghai, Tianjin. There's also the troll option, which needs no introduction (and isn't strictly coastal anyhow).

A very early guess, but I'd bet on Type-004 (conventional) being Guangdong and Type-005 (nuclear) as Jiangsu.

As a Cantonese I will be crashing out if Guangdong isn’t a CVN.

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

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?

We do have Cute Orca and the Guancha Trios mentioning of a simultaneous dual-carrier construction in China right now. Though yes, as of today, we still haven't obtain visual confirmation of a 2nd conventionally-powered CV under construction at Jiangnan, unlike that 1st CVN to begin construction (of not already) at Dalian. Hence, the CV remains in KIV status.

Perhaps off-topic, but what's the community speculation on Type-004 and Type-005's ship names?

All CVs so far have been named after major coastal provinces. The only remaining coastal provinces without a CV(N) or similar capital ship to their name are Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu (I suppose Guangxi has some coastal access as well). There's also some special cities (municipalities) on the coast at the same administrative level that could be contenders (although unlikely): Shanghai, Tianjin. There's also the troll option, which needs no introduction (and isn't strictly coastal anyhow).

A very early guess, but I'd bet on Type-004 (conventional) being Guangdong and Type-005 (nuclear) as Jiangsu.

I think it's still too early to speculate on the names of future Chinese CV(N)s.

Also, Guangxi is already the namesake province for the 2nd 075 LHD, hencd they won't be getting a CV for quite a long while.

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

Potential new 004 ship modules spotted? Dates of photograph unknown. Again, these could be test and evaluation modules too, if these aren't the first actual ship modules.

Posted by @CapXXXXX潇.

 

[Tomboy]

Potential new 004 ship modules spotted, date of photograph unknown. Again, these could be test and evaluation modules too, should these aren't the first actual ship modules visible.

Posted by @CapXXXXX潇.

View attachment 147335
View attachment 147336

Could you circle out the modules please? I'm kinda of unsure what to look for