China’s ‘new aircraft carrier’ may not be a carrier at all

Thursday, October 01, 2015 by usafeaturesmedia

(NationalSecurity.news) Last year, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) finished sea trials with the nation’s first aircraft carrier, a refurbished Soviet-era flattop that never made it into service with the USSR.

In recent weeks, satellite imagery has indicated that China may have started construction on a second carrier. As reported by The National Interest, the images – obtained by Britain-based defense journal IHS Jane’s 360 from the Airbus Defence and Space firm – indicates that a new ship is being built at the same dock that the PLAN used to refurbish the Soviet-era carrier, once named the Varyag (now Liaoning).

The vessel would be China’s first carrier – if, in fact, that’s what it is.

According to the Jane’s analysis, the vessel under construction may be somewhere between 558 ft and 885 ft long, with a beam greater than 98 ft. That’s small for a conventional aircraft carrier (and the Jane’s report explicitly says the ship cannot yet be positively identified as a carrier).

Still, at that length, the ship would be about the same size as India’s carrier, the INS Vikramaditya, though the beam remains somewhat narrow, The National Interest noted. Most carriers are much wider, meaning this vessel could actually be a an amphibious assault ship or, even, something else altogether.

That said, it shouldn’t be a surprise to most defense experts that Beijing is interested in acquiring (or building) additional carriers. According to the Defense Department’s 2015 Annual Report to Congress^[PDF] on China’s military, Beijing “also continues to pursue an indigenous aircraft carrier program and could build multiple aircraft carriers over the next 15 years.”

And media in Taiwan and Hong Kong have reported that China may launch its first indigenously built carrier – the Type 001A – on December 26, to coincide with the 122nd birthday of Mao Zedong. Finally, Chinese media have also reported that an indigenous carrier is under construction at the port in Dalian.

As The National Interest further reported:

While China might be building a new flattop, the vessel is likely to be much smaller than the U.S. Navy’s 100,000-ton Nimitz or Ford-class nuclear-powered carriers. The Chinese vessels will probably be smaller, conventionally-powered either by steam or diesel propulsion and probably will not have electromagnetic catapults.

USS Gerald R. Ford under construction. The Ford class is a super carrier and much larger, and more complex, than anything China could currently build, say experts.

The reason for that is simple: Chinese shipbuilders just don’t have the experience to construct large, complex warships like modern U.S. carriers, nor does the PLAN have the experience to maintain such vessels, according to this assessment^[PDF] from the U.S. Naval War College.

Also, China lags on metallurgy for such a vessel’s hull. As for the aircraft catapults used in takeoff, the U.S. Navy spent years perfecting the steam catapult system, and the results on the Ford’s Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) remain inconclusive.

China could steal the technology, but that will only take the PLAN so far; practical experience makes a huge difference.

“China simply does not currently have the technology to build nuclear-powered carriers,” concludes The National Interest. “Right now, the Chinese are struggling to build modern nuclear reactors for their submarine fleet. Indeed, Chinese nuclear submarines are comparable to 1970s vintage Soviet designs. China is nowhere near ready to scale up those designs to be suitable for a carrier.”

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See also:

Defense.gov^[PDF]