CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread

[tphuang]

Carrier capable GJ-11.

there is nothing preventing them from operating GJ-21 off CV-18. It's actually probably the best option they have for some type of naval air MUMT until more specialized options become available.

GJ-21 is great for now, but it's probably more designed with Type 076 in mind.

 

[Moonscape]

Agree. Of course we all know the US navy is still way ahead of China. Especially in experience, capabiltiies, hardware etc etc. Plus there is no way China can challenge the US navy in open seas outside Chinas neighbourhood for now. Afterall, China is still a rising power and they are just started their military modernisation not too long ago, so they need time to catch up in alot of sectors. So far their achivements have been remarkable and will only continue. So i agree we shouldnt get too excited to the point of start thinking PLAN is ahead of the US navy.

However, the thing is, China doesnt need to challenge the US navy in open seas and China doesnt even want to. China is mainly focused on her immediate neighbourhood..to secure her sovereignty over Taiwan and SCS . The rest is not really Chinas issue and CCP has no intention of going against the US outside Asia this deacade.. maybe 20 to 30years from now when China has long secured her neigbourhood from the US then she will think of venturing in open seas to challenge the US if needed. However , i think it will mostly be to protect her sea lanes and trade, not really engaging the US. The stakes for both sides are too large to engage in open conflict. It will be more of a kenetic conflict and economic/technological war.

SO FOR NOW China only needs to make US intervention in the first island chain impossible . Once Chinas uncontested dominance in the first island chain is established. Then Chinas objectives would have been achieved. The rest is secoundary to China.

Public service announcement: for those who are unaware, this is an IDF-supporting, Palestinian genocide-denying anti-China concern troll. He's not worth your time.

 

[zbb]

Not necessarily. This was just a screenshot from this video:

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which I highly recommend. It's one of THE BEST promotional videos by the PLAN by a long shot.

Anyway the voiceover for this scene was ships sometimes transcend the international date line so a day may be shorter, longer, or they may even go back in time. The context or theme of this video is "there's no far seas as long as we can reach (project our force)", hence the reference to the international date line.

Yes, that screenshot is completely unrelated to Fujian. With that said, these EMCAT launches almost certainly took place in March 2025 or earlier. The deck crew in the videos were all wearing relatively thick insulated clothing, indicating that these launches took place when it was still quite cold, either during the 7th sea trial in March 2025 or earlier sea trials in late 2024. Fujian's 8th sea trial was in late May 2025 when it would have been too warm for such clothing.

 

[Sardaukar20]

I was thinking WTF when people arguing "China need experience of operating steam cat to move on to EM cat" although China has neither experiences making that argument totally brainless, yet lots of people still hung onto it. I still can't figure out how that argument even came about.

It's like arguing that in the 21st century, one needs to drive a steam locomotive first to gain experience before moving on to electric locomotives. You know, learn to shovel coal and turn valves first, before learning to flip switches and push levers. Even when it is the 2000s.

They had hoped that China spends it's time and effort figuring out how to operate a steam catapult first, when the EM catapult is already a viable option. Then perhaps America could avoid competition against it's EMALS for quite sometime. USA #1!

 

[siegecrossbow]

I was thinking WTF when people arguing "China need experience of operating steam cat to move on to EM cat" although China has neither experiences making that argument totally brainless, yet lots of people still hung onto it. I still can't figure out how that argument even came about.

Don’t get me started on folks who think that Japanese carrier experience during WWII put modern day JSDF ahead of PLAN in naval experience…

 

[Sardaukar20]

Don’t get me started on folks who think that Japanese carrier experience during WWII put modern day JSDF ahead of PLAN in naval experience…

Don't forget the other folks who say that the Indian Navy have decades of aircraft carrier operations experience ahead of the PLAN.

Interestingly, the Indian Navy's first aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant (1961) that was imported from Britain, had a steam catapult. Experience...

 

[Rina]

Latest update from "Chahuahui":

The electromagnetic catapult provides very powerful and sustained acceleration. It allows aircraft to launch without losing altitude, even with low deck wind.
The electric board on crew's hand showed takeoff weight of the J-35 is 32 tons.（WHAT THE HELL???）

I think that was to confirm to the pilot and the command station that the total catapult thrust was not the true airframe load.

 

[valysre]

Fujian's 8th sea trial was in late May 2025 when it would have been too warm for such clothing.

Hard to say, when at sea. Although, I've never been in the East China/Yellow sea.

Don’t get me started on folks who think that Japanese carrier experience during WWII put modern day JSDF ahead of PLAN in naval experience…

Or the people who think that the US launching sorties quickly while under absolutely zero retaliatory threat informs their ability to sortie quickly while under credible threat from missiles.

 

[Heliox]

Or the people who think that the US launching sorties quickly while under absolutely zero retaliatory threat informs their ability to sortie quickly while under credible threat from missiles.

April 2025
CVN-75 Harry S Truman lost a F/A-18 when the aircraft and the tow vehicle rolled overboard when the carrier had to make an evasive maneuver due to a credible missile threat from ... Da Houthis.

 

[iewgnem]

Agree. Of course we all know the US navy is still way ahead of China. Especially in experience, capabiltiies, hardware etc etc. Plus there is no way China can challenge the US navy in open seas outside Chinas neighbourhood for now. Afterall, China is still a rising power and they are just started their military modernisation not too long ago, so they need time to catch up in alot of sectors. So far their achivements have been remarkable and will only continue. So i agree we shouldnt get too excited to the point of start thinking PLAN is ahead of the US navy.

However, the thing is, China doesnt need to challenge the US navy in open seas and China doesnt even want to. China is mainly focused on her immediate neighbourhood..to secure her sovereignty over Taiwan and SCS . The rest is not really Chinas issue and CCP has no intention of going against the US outside Asia this deacade.. maybe 20 to 30years from now when China has long secured her neigbourhood from the US then she will think of venturing in open seas to challenge the US if needed. However , i think it will mostly be to protect her sea lanes and trade, not really engaging the US. The stakes for both sides are too large to engage in open conflict. It will be more of a kenetic conflict and economic/technological war.

SO FOR NOW China only needs to make US intervention in the first island chain impossible . Once Chinas uncontested dominance in the first island chain is established. Then Chinas objectives would have been achieved. The rest is secoundary to China.

How the skull curve works is we go from everyone knows US is far ahead directly to everyone knows US can never catch up