PLAN Aircraft Carrier programme...(Closed)

Jeff Head said:

We've been discussing this incident that the article points out for the last numerous posts.

The contention in the article that this problem indicates that the PLAN has some serious problems and is far behind the US is not necessarily the case, particularly as a result of the problem they had.

1st, we know that the PLAN is well behind the US in terms of their Navy. That is no surprise and is not news.

This recent problem they had is not in itself, indicative of this though.

All naval vessels are complex pieces of equipment, Their power plants do wonderful things...but they also break down from time to time, even with the best of maintenance.

This episode had the Liaoning suffer a powerplant difficulty at sea. It was quickly identified and then repaired while at sea. The vessel did not return to port for the repair, and it did not return to port after the at-sea repair.

This indicated several things:

1) The problem was not major.
2) The Chinese personnel were able to repair the vessel at sea.
3) The Chinese training and maintenance are doing fairly well.
4) The Chinese exercises continued despite the problem.

None of that indicates a weakness or some kind or serious failing on the PLAN's part.

As I say, mechanical failures and breakdown occur at sea. They occur with the US Navy. Ask any sailor who has ever been to sea for any length of time.

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Franklin said:

Is there any possibility that the Liaoning has returned to port either in Qingdao or Hainan without us knowing ?

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China will soon start building its second locally designed aircraft carrier in Shanghai, according to a Canadian report.

Kanwa Asian Defence, an English-language monthly defence review produced in Toronto, said Shanghai's Jiangnan Shipyard was preparing to start work on the carrier.

When completed, the carrier and another under construction in Dalian will give the PLA Navy two fully functioning, battle-ready aircraft carriers.

The recently completed Liaoning, the refitted former Soviet carrier Varyag, is classed as a training platform, not a full combat vessel, by the navy, since it went into service in September 2012.

Counter to many expectations, the new carrier about to be built at the Jiangnan Shipyard will use conventional, not nuclear power.

The report was also carried in the Chinese-language sister publication, Kanwa Defence Review.

Military experts said China would not attempt a nuclear-powered carrier until a range of issues were resolved, such as the reliability of nuclear-powered engines, crew training and establishing a reliable home port for carrier maintenance.

According to the report, Chinese shipbuilding industry sources said the design for the second carrier had not been completed.

The Kanwa report countered earlier predictions by Western analysts that the new carrier would be nuclear-powered, like the planned Soviet Ulyanovsk-class carrier.

The Ulyanovsk was slated to be Moscow's first nuclear-powered supercarrier, with an 85,000-tonne displacement. But like the Varyag, the ship was never completed and the hull was scrapped in 1992.

Last year, China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, the largest state-owned shipbuilder, said Beijing had approved funding to develop core technology for nuclear-powered ships, which to many observers indicated plans to build nuclear-powered carriers.

Li Jie , a military expert in Beijing, said China already had experience with maritime nuclear power, but so far the technology was restricted to the PLA's growing submarine fleet.

"Compared with submarines, a carrier is much bigger. It will take time for our nuclear engineers to develop a safe and powerful engine capable of driving a huge platform of more than 100,000 tonnes," Li said.

The first locally designed carrier is being built in Dalian, where the Liaoning was completed in a decade-long fit-out.

The Dalian Shipyard completed the new carrier's steel plate cutting ceremony at the end of last year.

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bd popeye said:

^^^ My goodness.. Oh long have we've been reading these reports? Years my friends ..years.

All I have to say is when the actually cut the first piece of steel and arc & bead that first weld..let me know!

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China has developed some impressive defense capabilities in recent years. But one of its flagship achievements has had some notable technical problems in recent weeks.

As Robert Beckhusen explained at War is Boring, the Liaoning, China's sole aircraft carrier, unexpectedly powered down during a sea trial last week. The vessel "appeared to suffer a steam explosion which temporarily knocked out the carrier’s electrical power system," Beckhusen wrote, citing a Chinese-language media report (which is summarized at Asia Defense News).

Beckhusen notes these sorts of failures aren't unheard of on Soviet-built carriers of the late 1980s — before it was the Lianoning, China's carrier was called the Varyag, and carriers of its class haven't aged particularly well.

"The 40,000-ton displacement Indian carrier Vikramaditya—first a Soviet Kiev-class carrier commissioned in 1987 and sold in 2004 — temporarily shut down at sea after a boiler overheated two years ago," Beckhusen recalls, adding that "the 50,000-ton Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov goes nowherewithout a tug escort in case her engines break down while underway."

The Lianoning's troubles reveal an important tension within China's defense outlook.

China wants to be a major conventional power. No country goes through the trouble of acquiring a half-operable carrier, or developing simultaneous models of stealth jet, if it doesn't have hopes of becoming one of the globe's leading military powers. Simply pursuing these sorts of projects reveals an undeniable depth of commitment towards keeping pace with the US, which has multiple carrier groups in the Pacific at a given time, and has been developing its own advanced fighter, the troubled F-35, for years.

But China's current military advantages are actually asymmetrical. In other words, capabilities meant to quickly and expediently close the gap between China and the US without having to build up China's order of battle to identical level, even if that means breaking some broadly-accepted rules of how states should behave.

So China's military hacks cyber targets throughout the world, and builds weaponry that few other countries would — things like anti-satellite systems, or missiles capable of carrying nearly a dozen nuclear warheads.

The fact that China even has an aircraft carrier is a reminder that Beijing wants to be a conventional power on par with the US. But the Lianoning's recent problems also show China is still far behind the US as a military power — something that might only make its actions less predictable and more worrisome as Beijing progresses towards super-power status.

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Franklin said:

here is a video from the latest sea trial. We can see the Liaoning with a escort fleet that includes subs. Does this video mean that Liaoning has returned to port ? If so when.

[video=youtube;k04kGK6RnY0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k04kGK6RnY0[/video]

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