CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Oh yeah I definitely agree as well! The PLA as a whole imports loads of military hardware from other nations that they deem reliable, no doubt. And I'm sure they do have a lot of confidence in their EM catapult systems. I was just saying that I think their carriers are in a particularly special position within the PLA, and that they use them just as much, if not more for political purposes than for actual tactical/operational purposes. And with that, it wouldn't necessarily be crazy for them to pick one system over the other if it makes them appear on-par with US carriers.
China puts an immense amount of pride in their CV's now that they've joined other powerful countries in the prestigious 2 carrier club. They boast about their carriers all the time on social media and on the state-run news sites. I'm willing to bet for the future CV-18, they're going to use that bad boy for all sorts of political propaganda once it becomes operational. Whether or not they do have functional EM catapults, it would be a massive propaganda win for the PLAN and the PRC as a whole, as they would accomplish only what the US has done for their carriers, and that would be something to be immensely proud about!
And who knows. Maybe one day they might just decide to go for something a little more risky, something new and innovative that would give them a practical advantage over the US. They are getting bolder every day after all.
Do we know how much time took for Shandong to be launched when the upper module has been added to the hull? We could roughly estimate when 003 might be launched.
my bad,Actually, I see nothing but blur!
I wrote "right side" instead of "left side" of the image. It is quite clear on the left side of the satellite image there is a bump at the center of the hull and there is a twisted shadow.Can't be so sure if we can estimate time of completion in this way because Type 002's construction was quite slow with small modules assembled to the ship one by one, like US carrier Ford did, whereas Type 003 is more efficient and classified with large modules added to the hull at a time, similar to HMS Queen Elizabeth's way of building ships.
This image is shown few days ago on China's national television as an expectation for things coming this year in 2021, and obviously there is a carrier vessel underneath the red curtain. It would make sense if type 003 is planned to complete this year, otherwise they would not post it.
They also posted another red curtain image which looks like US's B-2 bomber, so I guess the PLA are expecting to have a new carrier complete and a new stealth bomber unveil this year.
As promised by some insiders, there will be better, clearer images of the Type 003 aircraft carrier showing clearly the next modules attached and indeed they were right
.... albeit I expected a bit larger ones.
(Image via @小铁君sss from Weibo)
(Image via @小铁君sss from Weibo)
lcloo
Captain
Looks like a module with thick hangar walls on both end, and hangar bulkhead in the middle.As promised by some insiders, there will be better, clearer images of the Type 003 aircraft carrier showing clearly the next modules attached and indeed they were right.... albeit I expected a bit larger ones.
(Image via @小铁君sss from Weibo)
View attachment 67540
As promised by some insiders, there will be better, clearer images of the Type 003 aircraft carrier showing clearly the next modules attached and indeed they were right.... albeit I expected a bit larger ones.
(Image via @小铁君sss from Weibo)
View attachment 67540View attachment 67541
Great pictures. As I suspected, the modules were built up to 6 decks tall, assembled, and now the hangar walls go on. Note that these new modules are 4 decks tall, which should include the gallery deck. When these have been arranged along the length of the ship, there's only the flight deck (roof of the gallery deck) and the overhang modules left to go on.
That China and Chinese in general take great pride in their carriers and carrier program and China's development and acquisition approach of their carriers are very different things. In fact, it can be confidently said that China's development of their carriers are decidedly NOT affected by the pride factor which the general populace would almost inevitably feel in any case.
I mean, the decision to refurbish a second-hand, rusting ex-Soviet carrier, the choice of J-15 aka a copy of T-10K-3/Su-33, the decision to build the second carrier by near cloning of the Varyag (with improvements, sure) despite strong supporters among PLAN ranks to go straight to a CATOBAR carrier, etc. etc. All these are based on rather pragmatic and risk-averse considerations, not by national pride or vanity.
There were some unrealistic and risky military projects back in the Mao's era, driven not so much by pride as by fear of falling too much behind. In the post-Mao era, specially in the last two decades, China has followed a very rigorous and methodical approach in most of its defense development programs, the results can be seen clearly today. In fact, as you correctly pointed out, most of these struck us as cautious and risk-averse. But this approach has served China very well at this stage of its development. It has, occasionally, shown some innovative and out-of-box thinking, but more by necessity and some of its own constraints, as in the examples of ASBM, J-20 of canard design, and more recently, 076 amphibious assault ship.
As China closes the gap with the world's most advanced, it will have to start to be more innovative and risk-averse, simply because it has to. No less than the chief designer of J-20, Mr. Yang Wei said so not long ago. The former General Manager of AVIC, Mr. Lin Zuoming said something similar a few years ago.
I'm actually somewhat confused as to these latest images.
These new modules seem to show a bulkhead that crosses transversely along the width of the level. Is that an optical illusion? Because I can't imagine why there would need to be a bulkhead like that for the hangar deck module/level.