076 uses IEP already and why are people calling it the 003A?
00X/004 future nuclear CATOBAR carrier thread
- Thread starter AETHER
- Start date
Update
Looks like they may have inserted the keel of the bow section into the drydock.
Last edited:
AI like the guy said
How much power will the reactors of 004 generate every site is saying 400 to 500mw
Compared to Ford 700 mw wouldn't the 004 require more power if it's will be the size of Ford or slightly larger for all the electronics, radars and 4 EMALS or this info is outdated
Compared to Ford 700 mw wouldn't the 004 require more power if it's will be the size of Ford or slightly larger for all the electronics, radars and 4 EMALS or this info is outdated
400-500 MW reactors for the 004 could be accurate.
Remember that the Nimitz-class carriers use two 550MW (Thermal) reactors.
And with steam catapults, much of that output has to be used to produce distilled water for steam.
And overall, the Nimitz generates 200 MW (electrical) whilst the Ford does 600 MW (electrical)
---
If you launch 30 aircraft with EMALs over the course of an hour, that's like 1 MW (electrical). Even with conversion losses and intermediate steps, that's minor compared to the overall system.
---
And do you really want an aircraft carrier broadcasting its location with as much radar energy as possible?
Then consider that the Arleigh Burke has 12MW of electrical power available, whilst the Type-055 has 30 MW.
Yet their radars are way larger than those on a carrier.
---
I suspect that the US Navy doesn't actually have a use (yet) for all the spare electricity on the Ford.
Last edited:
... That's the point? It's meant to future proof Ford class for the next 50 years including any advanced DEW and other advancement we can't even think of right now. Carriers are going to be around for 50+ years, designing them to be just enough right now is a terrible design choice and completely forgoing future upgrades without intensive power rationing.
Think about it.
Shipborne DEW are like 0.1 MW today. That's a rounding error compared to a carrier's likely electricity generation.
---
Let's assume a future DEW is 10x more powerful at 1MW.
That would be comparable to the Boeing Airborne laser.
But 1 MW is still a minor electricity draw.
---
And remember that a Type-055 has 30MW of electricity generation capacity.
It just makes more sense for large DEW to be put on the escorts, rather than on the carrier.
Last edited:
This just shows you have no idea how DEW works, efficiency of these large scale lasers are miserable, somewhere between 15 percent to 30 percent. Future multi-megawatt class DEW is going to take dozens of MW actual input to run and support and you are going to want more than one of these on your carrier.