Hypothetical conventional CATOBAR carriers for export.

Tomboy said:

I don't claim to be a naval strategist, but in my opinion a sizable(~10) fleet of these medium/light CATOBAR carriers stationed around the world would allow China to project air power similar to the US but with only a few large bases in somewhere like Central Asia, Middle East, Africa and probably South America in the future for these carriers to dock and resupply unlike the US with its hundreds of airfields and bases around the world. With the larger CVNs for patrolling the world and providing support to these smaller carriers in places of need such as a war zone. Since currently even if PLAN matches the USN's number in carriers, China would still not be able to project power as much as the US simply due to the lack of hundreds of bases oversea IMO building an extremely large carrier fleet with a small number of support bases around the world to resupply them would be a alternative solution to achieve global power projection in the near future.

Of course I might be incorrect in my understanding of power projection so please LMK what you guys think

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obj 705A said:

while China certainly does aim to be able to fight the US on an equal footing however I don't think they have any intention of projecting power US style in far away regions in Africa or Latin America etc.. the US projects "power" in those regions to bully third world countries and boost their imperialist ego. China has no such imperialist ego and thus does not need to mimic the US.

reliable leakers said quite a while ago that China plans to have 10 aircraft carriers eventually.
personaly I think it is likely that China will want all these to be CVNs. but if China does want to build a sort of high-low mix of CVs then China is likely to just build more Type 003 carriers as the lighter carrier rather than build an entirely new light aircraft carrier. so say they could build 5 type 004 & 5 type 003. this strategy could be helpfull in keeping the cost of a naval build up down. just as how not every DDG needs to be a type 055. and not every LHD needs to be a type 076 (that is why they are building additional type 075) the same thing could be the case for the CV fleet. not all CVs would be sent far to the east Pacific where a CVN would be needed. for closer regions such as the Indian ocean & Guam. a conventional CV is enough. if the PLAN would have say 5 type 003 then perhaps 2 or so would be deployed while the remainder would undergo maintenance. one could be stationed in the IOR and the other in the south or east China sea ready to be sent out to wherever it is needed such as Guam for example. while the CVNs would be sent out to areas that are further east in the pacific.

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Iron Man said:

Where is the need for China to have 10 carriers? And who gave this number?

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