Type 076 LHD/LHA discussion
- Thread starter banjex
- Start date
I'm not sure the 055 "needs" a fixed-wing AEW&C, but it would sure as hell be nice for the Liaoning and Shandong to have one. OTOH even the waist launch position seems unlikely to have enough length to launch a prop aircraft without cats. OTOH if it could possibly take off on fumes and max wind-over-deck speed and then get topped up in mid-air, I could see the Liaoning/Shandong's waist launch position sprout an additional pair of wider/more forward wheel blocks one day. A KJ-600 would outperform a Z-8J decisively enough to warrant such a mod if it was physically possible to launch one off a ski jump.
The moment you cite American cost, you start to defy common sense. Because American military items are infamous for bloating the cost. You are out of your mind if you think a Chinese EMAL cost as much as several 075 too. Like GaN based phased array, an EMAL is just an ordinary system once Chinese master it, and it will cost as if it is household item.
I will go on a leg and say EMAL cost less than 1/5 of 076 ship, and that is not including crews and planes on board. As matter of fact I believe most of EMAL's cost is the electrical system, and the ship will have the system in place for EW regardless of if installing EMAL. The true cost of adding EMAL would be miniscule vs not.
You can use comparable costs if you want; EMALS costs as much as (bloated) USS Constellation(lead ship), and way more than it before it started getting screwed over.
By Chinese standards, 7k constellation(let's notionally call it heavy frigate) is way more than 054b, more than 052d even!
075, on the other hand, is very cheap even by Chinese frigate standards(i.e. is known to be more or less as inexpensive as late series 054a).
And while GaN PPMs are indeed nothing special as soon as you work out new material production process, carrier catapults (which are stand alone machines produced almost individually) don't get any special economies of scale.
Unless you start fitting them to your 055s ww2 style in dozens, of course, which isn't the case.
Which may be true, but then 076 is not unlikely to cost more than entire 075 series.
It, in turn, defeats your original thesis further still.
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just to give you a comparison, here from Italy, the LHD Trieste (L 9890) cost exactly 1.171.295.487 Euro, as reflected in the official documents (10-year maintenance included).