China Wants a Big Fleet of 5 Aircraft Carriers by 2030

[nahtanbob]

If China builds all this by 2030, it would be a dramatic shift of the PLAN’s mission to protecting the SLOCs en force.

The interesting thing is, China could actually build all this in the little under 6 years between now and 2030, if it chooses to spend to build a force like this.

You make it sound like it is going to aircraft carrier versus aircraft carrier

 

[Antonius123]

USA can easily locate Chinese aircraft carriers. there is no place to hide

Sure. But how USA will sink Chinese aircraft carriers when they are located in west pacific?

USA will need long range AShBM such as DF-26 to reach the chinese a/c without risking her own carriers/military bases.

 

[nahtanbob]

Sure. But how USA will sink Chinese aircraft carriers when they are located in west pacific?

USA will need long range AShBM such as DF-26 to reach the chinese a/c without risking her own carriers/military bases.

You really think USA cannot hit any ship in the Pacific Ocean. Well ignorance is bliss.

 

[Antonius123]

You really think USA cannot hit any ship in the Pacific Ocean. Well ignorance is bliss.

Sure but how and with what? I am asking.

The one can't answer but deny - is the one in well ignorant bliss.

 

[FuturePAF]

Quickly?
That's a pretty weird comment for China

Let's be honest no country past present or future has surpassed China in manufacturing... especially in ship building

The US takes about 8 years to build and commission a CVN; could China cut that down to 6 years to meet the 2030 goal, it’s possible.

 

[FuturePAF]

You make it sound like it is going to aircraft carrier versus aircraft carrier

A carrier is the enabler for a large force of aircraft to operate in a region they wouldn’t be normally able to operate in. They are the center piece of a surface action group; SAG; the carrier battle group would be more capable than just a squadron of destroyers.

 

[Raiden]

The same OP who posted this also argues (by posting) that aircraft carriers are obsolete.

 

[Beijingwalker]

The same OP who posted this also argues (by posting) that aircraft carriers are obsolete.

It's a controversial topic even in China, I mentioned it several times in different threads.

 

[Raiden]

It's a controversial topic even in China, I mentioned it several times in different threads.

I take the middle path. Aircraft carriers are not obsolete, it's just it's not seemingly as invincible as it once was.

If the war stays short, I believe superior American air and seamanship will prevail, but if the war prolonged, China's ability to surge production + repair ships faster than the American shipyards will determine a China win.

 

[Beijingwalker]

If the war stays short, I believe superior American air and seamanship will prevail, but if the war prolonged, China's ability to surge production + repair ships faster than the American shipyards will determine a China win.

Depends on where the battle is fought, if in Taiwan strait, aircraft carriers are sitting duck exposing themselves to the overwhelm landbased firepower of artillery fire, rockets and missiles, fighters and bombers and drones...

 

[Harbyharb]

Folks underestimate the power of America's submarine fleet

Folks don't get that days of submarines knifefighting with torpedoes are over.

Proliferationg of high performance, variable depth, combined active/passive array forces submarines to fight at far greater ranges with missiles, where ordnance and communication plays a much bigger role than stealth and sensor, which is the traditional strongsuit of US nuclear attack submarines.

Said high performance arrays, such as SJG-311, are so proliferated that pretty much every Chinese warships built after 2015, from small corvettes like 056 to 055 are all equipped with it, which is speculated to be able to detect submarines 2-3 focal points away, which generally translates to 50-100 kilometeres, on top of being able to obscure the acoustic signatures of the parent vessel.

And these days the worst that the once formidable attack submarines can do is to yeet subsonic AShMs at them, such as the Anti-ship Tomahawk variant.

There are more advanced attack submarines with versatile VLS systems in the pipeline for a good reason.

 

[Harbyharb]

You really think USA cannot hit any ship in the Pacific Ocean. Well ignorance is bliss.

USA can certainly locate and strike any ship in the west pacific in a vaccum, but that is not the point.

After they have raked most major facilities and high value assets in their half of the pacific, and follow up air campaigns have achieved significant results, someone have to plant their boots on those smoldering ruins to make sure that they cannot be restored into working order and establish their circle lasting prescence to assert control. And that's where carriers come in.

The fact that PLAN is doubling down on building more carriers means they perceieve a need to not just contest, but to cement their victory.

 

[Harbyharb]

The same OP who posted this also argues (by posting) that aircraft carriers are obsolete.

I agree that aircraft carriers are obsolete as peer to peer weapons, AKA the way that USN wish to use their carriers.

I view carriers roaming the seas more like armoured anti-IED vehicles rolling down patrol routes. They are a tool of prescence, deterrance, and power projection that can appear where they are needed fast enough, to serve a nation's overseas interest in the abscence of a near-peer threat.

 

[gambit]

I agree that aircraft carriers are obsolete as peer to peer weapons, AKA the way that USN wish to use their carriers.

I view carriers roaming the seas more like armoured anti-IED vehicles rolling down patrol routes. They are a tool of prescence, deterrance, and power projection that can appear where they are needed fast enough, to serve a nation's overseas interest in the abscence of a near-peer threat.

WW II was the first time that fleets fought each other without seeing other. In wars, you do not want to fight a peer opponent. Countries can be military peers, but in actual combat, you do whatever you can to avoid parity, including US. As of now, no one can match, or be peer, to just one US aircraft carrier, let alone several, and someone is deterred by that knowledge, then the aircraft carrier is not obsolete. Most countries are not sea powers but still depends on the seas to some degrees, most countries must import their defense, and even landlocked countries can be attacked from the seas, so from that perspective, the carrier will be the dominant weapon system on the planet for a longer time than people realize.

 

[Raiden]

Depends on where the battle is fought, if in Taiwan strait, aircraft carriers are sitting duck exposing themselves to the overwhelm landbased firepower of artillery fire, rockets and missiles, fighters and bombers and drones...

View attachment 26426

My feeling is the contest for airspace will be shouldered by land based jets. U.S n co will fly and fight from Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines while China from it's closest coastal airbase like in Fujian.

Carriers will be supporting assets, mobile air bases that move rapidly, get in, bomb, get out.

I can't imagine the carrier air wing alone is adequate for hundreds of Chinese land based aircraft and their missile salvo.