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PLA Navy news, pics and videos
- Thread starter Jeff Head
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I'd rather not, as then I'd have to spend some effort justifying it and defending it which would be a bit futile
antiterror13
Brigadier
share it, please. I/We would love to read your opinions. When do you think the PLAN would be happy/satisfied with in terms of a "critical mass" fleet ?
That is regrettable, your insight is always fondly appreciated and you know it. Moreover, in this case we are talking about informed speculation.
For example, I personally think that the "end plan" for..PLAN is to have 4 main fleets + 2 amphibious groups. To field those (I'm accounting for ships in maintenance, port rotation, upgrades etc), they would require 6 CVs, 8 Cruisers, 24 Large Destroyers, 64 Destroyers, 32 Frigates, 4 LHAs, 12 LPDs, 6 AOEs and 8 AORs.
Am I wrong? Does it matter? It is a guess really. Hope you get my point, cheers..C:
I happen to know the source of most of the above rumors and I believe your ability of perception has already outreached his.
You think you can guess more accurately than fzgfzy's inside information?
"Outreached"?
Surely, you don't mean that you believe my perception is "superior" or "better" than the online rumours?
If that is what you mean, then that is flattering however ultimately I prefer to defer back to the original online rumours from people with a demonstrated track record rather than relying on my own intuition or deductions. I can try to model certain things using credible online rumours but I obviously cannot operate independent of them (none of us can).
That said I'm interested in your opinion of the parts quoted -- i.e.: what about the 055 production and about the 075 LHD (and the rumoured 40k ton LHD) do you disagree with? As jobjed has written, those parts I described were from fzgfzy.
Intrepid
Major
For every fleet you need two to three CVs, so with longterm maintenance in mind you need 12 CVs for 4 main fleets. For every task force you need at least two carriers, one as alternate if the other counters an accident to recover all your aircraft in the air.
IMHO, should separate development from production, the PLA was set a modernisation goal with an original due date of 2049 but was moved forward to 2035.
In the near term the Chinese Navy remains primarily a defensive force not a offensive one it's vessels don't have a mass load out of LACMs but anti-ship ones with the aim of blunting an attacking force to such a degree that when/if they reach Chinese territory the PLAAF and ground force can finish them off. This posture is possible because China maintains a ballistic missile arsenal and can blanket its immediate environs with SRBMs, MRBMs and IRBMs as well as land based cruise missiles and has little interest in fighting a war in the Americas. China doesn't need to do a pearl harbor or invasion of SE Asia its not a resource strapped island nation but a continental one with sizeable natural resources of its own.
In the surface arena
The underlying mastery of ship design is what the Chinese tackled first despite the usual rubbish spouted about copying the lines and forms of modern Chinese naval hulls follow their own heritage and are distinctive.
In the past the thing holding back the size of their ships were availability of suitable power plants, the 4000t size of the type 054A is largely dictated by the use of 4 medium speed diesels. The mass availability of GT's have allowed ship sizes to increase culminating in the 10,000t+ 4 x QC280 powered Type 055s. The downsides of direct drive GTs vis-a-vis diesels is that they are thirsty, so expect the Chinese to switch to some form of IEP when its battle ready (anyone can build a big electric motor but having something that continues to function smoothly when you're being shot at is a different matter). Unless they plan to use propulsion pods changing to IEP will not alter the external hull form so they can reuse the ones they have just amend the internal layout.
The larger ship size is to allow them to fight more effectively further from home, instead of sitting waiting for the attacking force to reach its shores have the battle in the Pacific, as VLS can't easily be replenished at sea so more silos are needed to sustain the ability to fight instead of having to scoot home for reloads. The numbers of Type 55s will be proportional to the number that the Chinese feel they need to effectively fight a POTENTIAL sea battle in the Pacific.
Onto Carriers, since the days of the Vietnam war the US carriers have being used primarily as mobile airfields to attack land targets, such was US naval supremacy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union the little jobs like sinking enemy ships wasn't high on the agenda, enemy ships what enemy ships! (witness the sudden realisation with the growth of the Chinese navy that having some missiles that can actually sink ships might be handy!) the Chinese don't have such tunnel vision I expect the main mission of the Chinese carriers will be air supremacy with an anti shipping role.
Hold the opposing force's air assets and bear down on the opposing fleet with missiles. The counter to this is the submarine, which is why I suspect the LHD75 might be an anti-submarine helo carrier as opposed to a amphib assault ship, the only amphib assault the Chinese have on their roster is Taiwan and a LHD, given the distances, doesn't really add anything to the mix. On the other hand given the size of the Chinese carriers a dedicated helo carrier for hunting enemy submarines would seem of greater importance, might also explain the size reduction!
That's my 2 cents
There are other possible scenarios. Like a fight over the South China Sea.
Also you can use attack helicopters with stand-off weapons against some surface ships. It is not like this is impossible.
They are typically used against land targets but there is no reason to think they could not be used against ships.
If the helicopter can hide from radar by flying close to sea level for example. Also helicopter stealth is not an impossibility.
Also you can use attack helicopters with stand-off weapons against some surface ships. It is not like this is impossible.
They are typically used against land targets but there is no reason to think they could not be used against ships.
If the helicopter can hide from radar by flying close to sea level for example. Also helicopter stealth is not an impossibility.