asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
CV16 and CV17 are still giant carriers
CV-16, CV-17 STOBAR carrier thread (001/Liaoning, 002/Shandong)
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
A nice image.
Third time posted (first time was a year ago, second time was within the last 24 hours): J-15 carrier-borne fighter thread
I still upvoted again, though!
lcloo
Captain
Consider this.
Upgrade CV16 or CV 17 may need drydock time of 2 or 3 years VS
using drydock time for building a new aircraft carrier.
Money spend on upgrading them to STOBAR VS using the same money for a new aircraft carrier construction.
Then there are human resources (design team, construction team, contractors, supply chain etc etc) which should be directed to bulding a new ship instead of use for upgrading.
Upgrading CV16 and CV17, they will get same existing number of AC in the navy
Building a new aircraft carrier, they will get existing number + 1 new aircraft carrier.
Understood.
But wouldn't the advantages of upgrating existing platforms instead of new investments by making them more capable (AWACs, COD, larger payloads per sorti, etc.) be "worth" it at some point (perhaps after CV-19)?
Also, instead of operating 4+ expensive and manpower-intensive carriers with different STOBAR/CATOBAR capabilities. Wouldn't it be "better" to operate 4+ expensive and manpower-intensive carriers with similar advance STOBAR capabilities.....(perhaps doing the upgrade between CV-18 and CV-19, or even after CV-19)?
.I personally belive it would be foolish of the PLAN to abandon STOBAR carrier development even after 003 or a nuclear powered 004 becomes a thing, China's shipbuilding capacity is multiple orders of magnitude larger than the US, with many civilian shipyards easily capable and highly experienced with building ships of the size and displacement of the 002, however, only the jiangnan shipyard has experience building EM catapults needed for CATOBAR, the situation is even more dire for nuclear carriers, as no shipyard in China has experience dealing with nuclear reactors, and they require lots of specialized equipment to handle nuclear tech. In a high intensity conflict limiting ourselves to nuclear CATOBAR carriers will create an artificial limitation on the number of carriers we can pump out to project our force in blue waters. Considering the J-35 will be less payload and range constrained than the J-15 thanks to its lower dry weight, an improved STOBAR carrier with J-35 could easily be used in a pure air superiority role against super hornets and F-35B
I can easily see a 002A STOBAR carrier with IEP or CODAG replacing the current steam turbines and laser point defense systems planned for the 055A as well as other design improvements targeted at increasing operational efficiency for the J-35 in paticular and reducing build complexity
China should have some gas turbine carriers for its own use and for export. Just making all nuclear carriers is too expensive and not worth it at this point. But I think it makes sense to add EMALS to everything even the LHAs. It vastly increases the payload you can launch from the carrier.