PLAN Carrier Construction

Jeff Head · Aug 13, 2013

Blackstone said:
Interesting thought, but LHD decks are long enough to launch UAVs without catapults.

Blackstone, my friend, I still believe they are building two LHDs at once there. The one more advanced to the upper right of the one less advanced in construction but that we are seeing advance in construction now.

Just my read.

kroko · Aug 13, 2013

Hendrik_2000 said:
Not too long ago we have heated debate about the feasibility of EMAL on new Chinese carrier. We never know for sure for years we have tantalizing photo of some kind of electromagnetic sleigh test facility at Tujiathang like this photo here posted by Raj47. I guess now we can confirm it is indeed an Emal facility

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Really? that facility is in the shanghai municipality. It isnt mentioned anywhere in that article.

hardware · Aug 13, 2013

an LHD with catapult will be unique. was the catapult design to launch STOL aircraft? may be by the time construction of the ship is over,we might encounter either a VTOL or a STOl aircraft.
surely, remember the present of YAK-38 on the deck of Kiev CV in 1976 caught everyone by surprise.

Jeff Head · Aug 13, 2013

hardware said:
an LHD with catapult will be unique. was the catapult design to launch STOL aircraft? may be by the time construction of the ship is over,we might encounter either a VTOL or a STOl aircraft.
surely, remember the present of YAK-38 on the deck of Kiev CV in 1976 caught everyone by surprise.

LHDs have long enough decks to launch both UAVs and STOVL aircraft like the HArrier or F-35B.

The Wasp Class, the America class, and others will all launch them without the need for a catapult. (Cavour, Juan Carlos, Canberras, perhaps the 22DDH for the Japanese), now, some of these also have ski jumps to help, but the Wasp and America class will be very adept lining up aircraft on the aft 2/3rds pof the vessel and launching them relatively quickly if necessary one after the other. Then, when they land, they do so vertically.

So, as a result, I do not believe we will see any catapults on the PLAN LHA/D. They are simply an added extravagence for those types of vessels that are very costly and take up valuable space for the machinery.

A good LHA/D can serve adequately as a Sea Control carrier if necessary with numerous STOVL fighters. They also serve very strongly in the air assault and (if they have a well deck) the amphibious assault role.

If you need the truly heavy sortie rates that catapults can bring to the party, you will bring in your large aricraft carriers for that.

delft · Aug 13, 2013

Jeff Head said:
LHDs have long enough decks to launch both UAVs and STOVL aircraft like the HArrier or F-35B.

The Wasp Class, the America class, and others will all launch them without the need for a catapult. (Cavour, Juan Carlos, Canberras, perhaps the 22DDH for the Japanese), now, some of these also have ski jumps to help, but the Wasp and America class will be very adept lining up aircraft on the aft 2/3rds pof the vessel and launching them relatively quickly if necessary one after the other. Then, when they land, they do so vertically.

So, as a result, I do not believe we will see any catapults on the PLAN LHA/D. They are simply an added extravagence for those types of vessels that are very costly and take up valuable space for the machinery.

A good LHA/D can serve adequately as a Sea Control carrier if necessary with numerous STOVL fighters. They also serve very strongly in the air assault and (if they have a well deck) the amphibious assault role.

If you need the truly heavy sortie rates that catapults can bring to the party, you will bring in your large aricraft carriers for that.

PLAN does not have and IMO will not have STOVL aircraft, manned or unmanned. So if they want to use aircraft faster than helicopters they will need to use a ski ramp probably with EM cat and an angle deck with traps to recover them. I can imagine that when they build a class of 3 LHA/D of considerable size they will consider to so equip the last one to launch say 10 ton UAV's, as an experiment. And it will depend on the state of their technology and their concepts of using these ships whether they will do so.
Using an EM cat should probably be combined with Gas Turbine Electric propulsion. Not the class now building ( if it is now building ) but the next one?

Sczepan · Aug 13, 2013

hardware said:
an LHD with catapult will be unique. was the catapult design to launch STOL aircraft? may be by the time construction of the ship is over,we might encounter either a VTOL or a STOl aircraft.
surely, remember the present of YAK-38 on the deck of Kiev CV in 1976 caught everyone by surprise.

Dimensions of this toy (by google-maps):
Deck: ~ 44 m width,
Lift: ~ 15 m in lenght, ~ 10 m width
Height of Hangar: ~ 5 m

Dimensions of JL-15:
Length: 12.27 m, Wingspan: 9.48 m, Height: 4.81 m

hmmm

could someone translate the writing for our "non chinese friends", please ?

PanAsian · Aug 13, 2013

danielchin said:
New close-up photos of the module:

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View attachment 8150 View attachment 8151

Given these much clearer pictures of the modules I am slightly more open to the possibility that they are for something military. The opening still looks too short to be a hangar deck though.

If the outside of the modules are indeed already painted instead of an optical illusion, then the waterline (where red meets grey) would be just below the supposed hangar deck. That's too low, taken together with the height of the opening itself, it is more likely to be a vehicle well deck.

I'm not familiar with shipbuilding at all, is it possible that these modules are only for the lower part of the hull and modules for the upper part of the hull possibly including any hangar and flight decks are attached on top of these at a later time?

If that is possible then maybe this could be an LHD or LPD.

Jeff Head · Aug 13, 2013

delft said:
PLAN does not have and IMO will not have STOVL aircraft, manned or unmanned. So if they want to use aircraft faster than helicopters they will need to use a ski ramp probably with EM cat and an angle deck with traps to recover them. I can imagine that when they build a class of 3 LHA/D of considerable size they will consider to so equip the last one to launch say 10 ton UAV's, as an experiment.

I personally do not believe that the PLAN will build any LHD, LHA, or LPH with cats or an angled deck.

If they do not have or ever intend to introduce STOVL fixed-wing attack/fighter aircraft, they will use those vessels just like the US used the initial Iwo Jima class LPH vessels, like the French use the Mistral class, like the Koreans use the Dokdo class, like the Japanese use the Osumi class, and like the Russians intend on using their Mistral LHAs. They will operate helicopters off of them for the air assault role, the SAR role, and the air support role for ground troops.

T-U-P · Aug 13, 2013

Sczepan said:
could someone translate the writing for our "non chinese friends", please ?

If you are referring to the chinese on the red banner, they basically say everyone should remember not to leak secrets.

pissybits · Aug 13, 2013

T-U-P said:
If you are referring to the chinese on the red banner, they basically say everyone should remember not to leak secrets.

well that tears it, it's definitely military in nature. guess we can finally safely say that it's some kind of lhd/carrier module!

PLAN Carrier Construction

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