00X/004 future nuclear CATOBAR carrier thread
- Thread starter AETHER
- Start date
A perhaps stupid question for the sake of completeness, but if I understand it correctly, then the whole focus is currently on Dalian with regard to the 004 carrier, which is rumoured to be a CVN ... the mock-up in Wuhan, on the other hand, currently speaks clearly against a CVN due to its chimney alone.
In parallel, there are always rumours about two aircraft carriers under construction, only we currently have no concrete information about the shipyard in Shanghai?!
Am I right so far?
In parallel, there are always rumours about two aircraft carriers under construction, only we currently have no concrete information about the shipyard in Shanghai?!
Am I right so far?
Wuhan, one does not have a Chimney. It's just an office building
So far the mockups have been pretty close to the actual superstructure on CV. The top above the bridge looks like the structure in this pic posted some time ago.
My understanding is this:
For Dalian: we are watching to see if it is
A) an actual carrier, and if A) is true, then
B) if it is a nuclear powered carrier aka "004" as has been rumoured
For Shanghai: we are watching to see if there are signs of a large ship/carrier candidate being constructed in the first place (and if it does emerge, if it is a conventionally powered CATOBAR/("003A"??) as some have rumoured
For the Wuhan mockup: we do not know if it represents:
1. A nuclear powered carrier/"004", or
2. A conventionally powered carrier (?003A, or 00X, or whatever), or
3. Both a nuclear powered carrier AND a conventionally powered carrier
Reasons why 1. is plausible:
- The positioning of the island is very far aft and seems too far back for a conventionally powered carrier to have an exhaust from its powerplants that far back
- Additionally, the design of the island+"smoke stack" on the mockup seems strange and not integrated together like on 003 Fujian
- Also, as others have said, it looks like the rear "smoke stack" might serve some other purpose and may not be representative of the actual "island mockup" which it is trying to represent
- Lastly, the deck footprint taken up by the total island+"smoke stack" seems no smaller than that of the total island size of 003 Fujian, meaning one would have to ask why they would redesign the island and smoke stack in a way which seems not anymore space efficient than the existing design.
Reasons why 2. is plausible:
- Essentially it is just due to the fact that there is the "smoke stack" aft of the island, which makes one speculate if it is representative of what the real thing would look like.
- There may be some possibility that a smoke stack could still be positioned that far back on the overall ship and still be viable
Reasons why 3. is plausible:
- Basically a combination of all the reasons for 1. and 2. but put together, such that the new mockup is able to be a representative for the CVN/004 expected at Dalian, and the rumoured "second conventionally powered CATOBAR carrier" that is said to possibly be contracted for Jiangnan, and that the mockup we see now is their best attempt of using the mockup to represent the configuration of both the CVN/004 and second conventionally powered CATOBAR/"003A" on the same facility
IMO that is the best summary of the permutations we have thus far.
So while it's not as clearly separated as some pictures a couple of weeks ago suggested, there's still a substantial separation at the upper part.
So even if it was a mockup for a conventional carrier, it would be extremely weird and unprecedented in its configuration. It would look more like an LHD/A than any conventional carrier ever. Even the last conventional US carrier, the USS Kennedy, had an integrated island.
So even if it was a mockup for a conventional carrier, it would be extremely weird and unprecedented in its configuration. It would look more like an LHD/A than any conventional carrier ever. Even the last conventional US carrier, the USS Kennedy, had an integrated island.
Not only would the configuration of the island and smoke stack be weird, but I can't see it offering any benefit to the existing island configuration of CV-18 Fujian (as I wrote in my previous post), because the overall deck footprint seems minimally changed from CV-18's deck footprint for its island.
What I really wanna know is if we might see a second stack at some point…
Because if you’re going to build and operate both nuclear and conventionally powered carriers at the same time, then now is the time to think about ditching steam for GTs (previously steam boilers helped as a nice technological, operational, and crew training stepping stone on the path to CVNs).
If you remove the stack behind the island (and maybe a second stack yet-to-be-built, or that we can’t see), then it’s a CVN. If you have the 2 stacks, then it’s a gas turbine powered CV.
With the 2 types of carriers having similar overall footprints and island locations (with the CVNs being a little larger and higher in displacement).