"China plans to build 4 carriers, including nuclear" Topic

"China plans to build four aircraft carriers in total to boost its naval power and exert its maritime claims, according to a Russian media report.

Official reports in January said that the PLA plans to have at least two aircraft carriers by 2015 or 2016 and said the country's second aircraft carrier is indeed under construction as previous unofficial reports had claimed. The country plans to build four aircraft carriers in total, the state newswire Xinhua citing a Russian weekly newspaper as reporting.

China commissioned the Liaoning, a refitted Soviet-era carrier purchased from Ukraine, in 2012. Future carriers are expected to be built domestically and take the Liaoning as their blueprint, at least initially…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Sure would be sad if a few of those Silkworm missles they've sold came back to bite 'em in the derriere. Are they gearing up the escort fleet as well? Having carriers and keeping them safe and operational are two separate issues and the separation is a bucket load of cash.

4 carriers is just enough to keep one deployed essentially year-round. Given the Chinese power-projection needs, I don't think they need to bother with nuclear power. Simple gas-turbines will work just fine, and are much cheaper to build, maintain, and train for.

It's un-ing-believably expensive keeping a Navy up to par!

Yes, easy to build boats. Trick is keeping them at sea.

Tango, stop reading about what China is doing all the time. You'll sleep better at night.

4 carriers may be enough to keep one on station in the West, but if you keep them on station longer before refurb, and if you are less concerned with getting everything right before you send them back out, then this may not be true for China.

Frankly, having 4 ships to keep 1 on station seems a bit indulgent. Perhaps we do overindulge in terms of excessive safety and perfection, perhaps that is one area where we lose out badly.

4 CVNs … the US CVNs would still out number them about 3 to 1 …

Frankly, having 4 ships to keep 1 on station seems a bit indulgent. Perhaps we do overindulge in terms of excessive safety and perfection, perhaps that is one area where we lose out badly.

One ship is deployed, one ship came back from deployment and is in the yards for refit and repair, and one ship is in work-ups prior to deploying. The fourth ship is somewhere in that cycle or is being used for pilot training separate from deployment.

It really does take about as many months deployed to repair and replace worn-out equipment. The US boomers have a shorter refit period because they have 2 full crews plus a shipyard available. So SSBNs can do "3 months worth" of repairs (counting by man-hours) in one month.