CV-17 Shandong (002 carrier) Thread I ...News, Views and operations

[Jeff Head]

Qing Navy made a ”goodwill” visit to Japan and it backfired spectacularly. PLA Navy is no longer Qing, but I don't see China doing this kind of showoff when two carriers are all she has. UK, India, even Japan may have two carriers in the not too distant future, so having just two carriers doesn't really make China above the pack.

Admiral Zheng He did multiple goodwill voyages when Ming dynasty had world's most powerful Navy, only to see the entire fleet disappear from history..

Given how things had turned out before, China would have many second thoughts when contemplating anything like this.

Doing joint excercise closer to home is a different story, of course.

Today and today's geo-poloitical and military environment are nothing comparable to the times of the Qing Navy.

As I said, the PLAN doing a good will cruise with those two carriers would send a strong, and a good message.

It may not happen quickly...but it ultimately will happen. If I were making the decisions, about the time the 2nd carrier reached IOC I would send the two carriers out for a 4-6 week cruise like that.

Of course, anyone can feel differently for whatever reason suits them.

 

[Deleted member 13312]

Today and today's geo-poloitical and military environment are nothing comparable to the times of the Qing Navy.

As I said, the PLAN doing a good will cruise with those two carriers would send a strong, and a good message.

It may not happen quickly...but it ultimately will happen. If I were making the decisions, about the time the 2nd carrier reached IOC I would send the two carriers out for a 4-6 week cruise like that.

Of course, anyone can feel differently for whatever reason suits them.

A Great White Fleet-esque tour would make sense in terms of China wanting to project influence and power. But where the fleet would touch upon and which country would welcome it would be quite telling of the geopolitical atmosphere . But I don't think China would be so quick as to pitch 2 carriers on a single tour fleet just yet. To many contingencies and what ifs to think about.
In fact a cruise that consist of a carrier strike group might not take place until perhaps the year 2030 when China is reasonably confident that it's carrier fleet has matured sufficiently and it has more than enough carriers to go around to spare some on a tour.
Which reminds me, would we be seeing the possibility of the PLAN block buying carriers ? In that once they settle on a design that they are satisfied, they will commence building multiple carriers at the same time.

 

[Air Force Brat]

A question, why is there a accommodation ship (as it is so called) moored alongside ? If construction has progressed to the point where the hardware is being tested, then surely the living quarters of the ship are also completed ? And if not, then surely the crew can find ample accommodation in the city itself with just a short drive to the carrier in question ? Or is the ship moored there for other purpose like providing energy ? ( I see several wires linking it to the carrier).

the accommodation ship is a floating hotel,,, it would be impossible to live on the ship while continuing to build the ship, there are lots of "spaces" aboard ship that are still under construction, and being finished... so the accommodation ship is there to acclimate the crew to living aboard ship, working as a team and establishing command and control, as well as training and cross training..

as the ships berthing and living spaces are finished up, the crew will incrementally be berthed aboard ship until eventually she is ready to sail,,, its a "process" and one the Chinese continue to refine, no doubt they learned something as they were accomplishing the same chores aboard Liaoning,,,

 

[Intrepid]

the accommodation ship is a floating hotel ... it would be impossible to live on the ship while continuing to build the ship, there are lots of "spaces" aboard ship that are still under construction, and being finished ... so the accommodation ship is there to acclimate the crew to living aboard ship, working as a team and establishing command and control, as well as training and cross training ...

as the ships berthing and living spaces are finished up, the crew will incrementally be berthed aboard ship until eventually she is ready to sail ...

# 16 Liaoning is still accompanied by her own accommodation ship after many years.

 

[weig2000]

# 16 Liaoning is still accompanied by her own accommodation ship after many years.

Which might have been used to accommodate additional crew training for the upcoming new carriers, not the crew that staffed Liaoning.

 

[Intrepid]

They have two accommodation ships to sail with two carriers. They are in the middle of a huge carrier navy developing project. And they take all the time, people and other resources they can get to make progress on a very broad front.

 

[weig2000]

As I said in SDF a while back, one can not use the time between commission to operation for Liaoning as yardstick to infer linearly when the 5th or 6th of Chinese carriers will be operational. It will be shortened, indeed, accelerated, for future carriers. It's now over five years since Liaoning was commissioned, I suspect we still can not say China has a completely operational CVG around Liaoning, simply because China has to bootstrap its carrier program with Liaoning. J-15 was not ready, no carrier-based pilots were certified, 901 supply ship was not even launched. Yet by the time the 3rd and 4th carriers are commissioned, it would be quite a different story.

China aims for much longer term and grander scale for its carrier program.

 

[kwaigonegin]

Today and today's geo-poloitical and military environment are nothing comparable to the times of the Qing Navy.

As I said, the PLAN doing a good will cruise with those two carriers would send a strong, and a good message.

It may not happen quickly...but it ultimately will happen. If I were making the decisions, about the time the 2nd carrier reached IOC I would send the two carriers out for a 4-6 week cruise like that.

Of course, anyone can feel differently for whatever reason suits them.

Maybe not 2 but if I'm in charge I would certainly send at least Liaoning on a global goodwill cruise. Certainly visit most of the major ports in Asia, Australia and PACRIM including Pearl.

Then follow not long after to the Indian Ocean including India, Pakistan, Mideast and the Med. If planned properly, they could certainly pull that off in 2019. By that time a proper CSG including all the air wing would've been firmly established.
It would be a good 'coming out' party for PLAN as they transitioned from green water to a true blue water navy.

Imagined a Liaoning CSG with a 055 leading the way. All the thousands of young men and women participating in building houses, wells, visiting schools,in sports, social events etc. will go a long ways toward establishing a good relationship with all of China's trading partners.

Hopefully PLAN takes after the USN's playbook in this case as well. I think that is one thing everyone can agree on that is wonderful to emulate.

 

[antiterror13]

Qing Navy made a ”goodwill” visit to Japan and it backfired spectacularly. PLA Navy is no longer Qing, but I don't see China doing this kind of showoff when two carriers are all she has. UK, India, even Japan may have two carriers in the not too distant future, so having just two carriers doesn't really make China above the pack.

Admiral Zheng He did multiple goodwill voyages when Ming dynasty had world's most powerful Navy, only to see the entire fleet disappear from history..

Given how things had turned out before, China would have many second thoughts when contemplating anything like this.

Doing joint excercise closer to home is a different story, of course.

PLEASE educate me (as I am not aware of these) what happenned
* After Qing navy made a "goodwill" visit to Japan
* After Admiral Zheng He voyage ... really the whole fleet disappeared from history? what happened after the voyage ?

 

[Iron Man]

PLEASE educate me (as I am not aware of these) what happenned
* After Qing navy made a "goodwill" visit to Japan
* After Admiral Zheng He voyage ... really the whole fleet disappeared from history? what happened after the voyage ?

Politics. The eunuch faction (of which Zheng He was a member) fell out of power at the imperial court and the fleets were scrapped.