CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread

[Deino]

Fitting nicely to the 3rd anniversary of the launch of the aircraft carrier „Fujian“, some rumours and - if legit - this official announcement reports:

„The Fujian aircraft carrier will be put into service this year!“

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

Fitting nicely to the 3rd anniversary of the launch of the aircraft carrier „Fujian“, some rumours and - if legit - this official announcement reports:

„The Fujian aircraft carrier will be put into service this year!“

View attachment 154679

The news title mentioned "expected" (预测).

Though, given that it has been 3 years since her launch in mid-June 2022, and the number of sea trials conducted so far - I'd say that Fujian entering PLAN service before the end of this year is a high probability event, if not sometime earlier. Perhaps there are only 1 or 2 more sea trials left to go.

 

[lcloo]

Commissioning years:-
2012 Liaoning
2019 Shandong (7 years after Liaoning)
2025? Fujian (6 yeras after Shandong)

2032? 004 (7 years after Fujian? ).
004 dates is just speculation. 3 years construction in dry dock, 4 years fitting out and sea trial, may be?

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

Commissioning years:-
2012 Liaoning
2019 Shandong (7 years after Liaoning)
2025? Fujian (6 yeras after Shandong)

2032? 004 (7 years after Fujian? ).
004 dates is just speculation. 3 years construction in dry dock, 4 years fitting out and sea trial, may be?

I'd expect a 004 CVN launch sometime in 2029 if not 2030. And given that this is China's first ever venture into nuclear marine propulsion on a supercarrier, 4-5 years in the drydock + another ~4 years of fitting out & sea trials should be a reasonable estimate.

 

[Tomboy]

I'd expect a 004 CVN launch sometime in 2029 if not 2030. And given that this is China's first ever venture into nuclear marine propulsion on a supercarrier, 4-5 years in the drydock + another ~4 years of fitting out & sea trials should be a reasonable estimate.

Commission in 2034? Only 2 supercarriers in 2035 are quite behind the schedule and would leave China vulnerable, especially since Shandong and Liaoning likely can't operate J-XDS and KJ-600/KY-600 limiting their deployment range. Unless China starts construction of two further ships before Type 004 is fully commissioned or they can't match or exceed USN's carrier fleet by 2049 as planned. China also don't have access to as much oversea bases as the US, so their force projection will come from their carrier fleet only thus arguably if China wants the same level of power projection as the USN if not greater ("Capable of winning a conflict anywhere on this planet") they'd need even more carriers. Whether they got some new way of achieving this other than CVNs(ie. like the hypothetical 80KT gas turbine powered carriers that could be built quick and en masse) or they start building 004 sister ships at both JN and DL simultaneously is too early to say right now.


PS: Big E took only 3.5 years from being laid down to commission despite being the first ever nuclear powered carrier, so it's not unreasonable for Type 004 to be commissioned faster than expected especially when most of the technology is trialed with the Type 003(ie. EMALs, integrated electrical systems, etc)

 

[Maikeru]

Have we seen or heard any evidence of an improved Fujian class being constructed? ISTR a rumour that "003A" CV and 004 CVN would construct concurrently.

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

Commission in 2034? Only 2 supercarriers in 2035 are quite behind the schedule and would leave China vulnerable, especially since Shandong and Liaoning likely can't operate J-XDS and KJ-600/KY-600 limiting their deployment range. Unless China starts construction of two further ships before Type 004 is fully commissioned or they can't match or exceed USN's carrier fleet by 2049 as planned. China also don't have access to as much oversea bases as the US, so their force projection will come from their carrier fleet only thus arguably if China wants the same level of power projection as the USN if not greater ("Capable of winning a conflict anywhere on this planet") they'd need even more carriers. Whether they got some new way of achieving this other than CVNs(ie. like the hypothetical 80KT gas turbine powered carriers that could be built quick and en masse) or they start building 004 sister ships at both JN and DL simultaneously is too early to say right now.


PS: Big E took only 3.5 years from being laid down to commission despite being the first ever nuclear powered carrier, so it's not unreasonable for Type 004 to be commissioned faster than expected especially when most of the technology is trialed with the Type 003(ie. EMALs, integrated electrical systems, etc)

Well, you could say that my estimates are more on the conservative side of things. With that being said, however, I simply see no chance of the 004 CVN entering service before 2030.

 

[para80]

Have we seen or heard any evidence of an improved Fujian class being constructed? ISTR a rumour that "003A" CV and 004 CVN would construct concurrently.

So far nothing at Jiangnan, as far as I can tell/see/follow the grapevine.

 

[by78]

A flyover update. The images are grainy, but it appears the last of the scaffolding has been removed from the island.

 

[henrik]

Commission in 2034? Only 2 supercarriers in 2035 are quite behind the schedule and would leave China vulnerable, especially since Shandong and Liaoning likely can't operate J-XDS and KJ-600/KY-600 limiting their deployment range. Unless China starts construction of two further ships before Type 004 is fully commissioned or they can't match or exceed USN's carrier fleet by 2049 as planned. China also don't have access to as much oversea bases as the US, so their force projection will come from their carrier fleet only thus arguably if China wants the same level of power projection as the USN if not greater ("Capable of winning a conflict anywhere on this planet") they'd need even more carriers. Whether they got some new way of achieving this other than CVNs(ie. like the hypothetical 80KT gas turbine powered carriers that could be built quick and en masse) or they start building 004 sister ships at both JN and DL simultaneously is too early to say right now.


PS: Big E took only 3.5 years from being laid down to commission despite being the first ever nuclear powered carrier, so it's not unreasonable for Type 004 to be commissioned faster than expected especially when most of the technology is trialed with the Type 003(ie. EMALs, integrated electrical systems, etc)

They are probably diverting resources from building CVs to building some other naval assets.