Yeah, it is recently confirmed again in the fujian launch video.
CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
I think what is more interesting the pace of these ship. If your rule of 1 replenishment per carrier is correct, it means a roughly 3 year wait for next carrier. That is enough time for next one to be nuclear. And there will not be another 003 conventional type coming. It fits the rumor from nuclear carrier thread that the engine is already ready.
Another interesting point is how immediately 5th replenishment ship is constructed. It could mean China is confident enough that they are building 2 nuclear carriers concurrently.
Maybe I am optimistic, but I think the previous record backs it up. 003's subsystems like EMAL was developed so quick the hull did not use steam catapult. It could mean sub system advancement is quicker than the hull anticipated them. By 2024 everything would be so matured that making 2 hulls concurrently is a non-issue.
Alternatively maybe the 5th carrier is not coming that soon. The 5th replenishment ship is an extra preparing for the conflict over Taiwan. More ships are built in case one is lost to enemy fire.
I think that’s far fetched. AESA radars have traditionally had relatively low peak powers compared to microwave tube radars. This helped them to achieve low probability of intercept. Aircraft AESA radars emit pulses in the low 2-digit kW range.
In terms of focusing capability, AESA radars have no particular advantage.
Now, something like SPY-1 with 6 MW pulses and pencil beams might cause damage at short ranges. There was an incident 10 years ago when a SPY-1 radar was by accident operated while passing a Norwegian Navy ship at a distance of 100m.
All the crew on deck of that ship immediately felt a heat sensation on their skin, even though they were exposed to brief search beams in the microsecond range. They all ended up in the hospital, but fortunately with no lasting damage.
The screens and navigation systems on the Norwegian ship were temporarily disabled and fire alarms were triggered all over. I could imagine if the SPY-1 concentrated its full power on that ship for a prolonged period of time, the consequences could have been more serious. According to that research paper, the radar pulses from SPY-1 at peak power can generate an electric field of 15 kV/m at that distance, which is strong enough to permanently damage electronic equipment.
That's good to know. That's one of the supposed F-22 "capabilities" the f-16.net crowd liked to brag about, about how the APG-77 could fry a Flanker's radar whatnot from BVR distances.
Will need coastal provinces first before moving inland. I'd be super happy if we can use a 'Hebei', means we see a 006 or 007
antiterror13
Brigadier
you meant in 4 yrs?
I would think it's similar to why America built a single Enterprise class carrier. Except for China, the trial is in the integrated electric propulsion and catapult systems.
While China hasn't build carrier sized reactors, they have a world class history with submarine reactors, and as shown by America, you can feasibly design a stop gap nuclear carrier propulsion by having a bunch of submarine sized reactors. This option would have been very safe for China. Compared to that, IEPS is not as well developed technology.
For China it is not important to have nuclear propulsion because the goal is to defend the region and not send them on missions against lightly armed nations further away. The carrier can only travel as far as its escorts, and said escorts are all conventional fueled. IEPS has great value if succesful use on 003 can pave the way for 055B or new navy frigates with said systems.
China will eventually use nuclear propulsion, but likely the main draw is on board space, not ship range. The 004 carrier can be increased in size and deck space by moving the island back, if there's no need to power it with a conventional turbine that demands a smokestack. The more conservative route is a 004 with ~8 submarine powerplants, but there's a good chance China will develop a new type of large nuclear reactor.
The US built a single Enterprise class carrier because the cost overrun on Enterprise herself achieved such monumental proportions, despite such cost control efforts as commissioning the enterprise without any of her planned defensive armaments, that the Navy began to doubt if it could afford a large enough fleet of nuclear powered carriers. so it cancelled the 4 sisterships planned for the enterprise and substituted them with fossil fuel carriers. Then 2 of those got postponed to help cover the cost of the vietnam war, until a variety of factors caused the navy to go back to building nuclear carriers again almost 10 years later, the new nuclear carriers emerges as the Nimitz class
Do we even know for sure this ship uses IEPS? I know the PLAN research group working on EMALS was also working on electric drive but I never heard confirmation of the IEPS being used in the carrier.
The thing with nuclear reactors is typically the bigger you make them the cheaper they will be. Since you will need to produce less components. So using a bunch of smaller nuclear reactors from a submarine really isn't feasible. At least not on a carrier of this size.
The Charles de Gaulle is the only active nuclear carrier with reactors from submarines. But it is a large reactor from a large strategic submarine.
The thing with nuclear reactors is typically the bigger you make them the cheaper they will be. Since you will need to produce less components. So using a bunch of smaller nuclear reactors from a submarine really isn't feasible. At least not on a carrier of this size.
The Charles de Gaulle is the only active nuclear carrier with reactors from submarines. But it is a large reactor from a large strategic submarine.
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