CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread

Blitzo

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
favoriteasian said:
Oh yeah I definitely agree as well! The PLA as a whole imports loads of military hardware from other nations that they deem reliable, no doubt. And I'm sure they do have a lot of confidence in their EM catapult systems. I was just saying that I think their carriers are in a particularly special position within the PLA, and that they use them just as much, if not more for political purposes than for actual tactical/operational purposes. And with that, it wouldn't necessarily be crazy for them to pick one system over the other if it makes them appear on-par with US carriers.

China puts an immense amount of pride in their CV's now that they've joined other powerful countries in the prestigious 2 carrier club. They boast about their carriers all the time on social media and on the state-run news sites. I'm willing to bet for the future CV-18, they're going to use that bad boy for all sorts of political propaganda once it becomes operational. Whether or not they do have functional EM catapults, it would be a massive propaganda win for the PLAN and the PRC as a whole, as they would accomplish only what the US has done for their carriers, and that would be something to be immensely proud about!

And who knows. Maybe one day they might just decide to go for something a little more risky, something new and innovative that would give them a practical advantage over the US. They are getting bolder every day after all.
Click to expand...

As weig said, the Chinese approach to their carrier program has been as pragmatic and cautious as their approach to all other big ticket procurements.

Of course state media and the population are proud of having a carrier, now two carries, and soon three, but they aren't the ones making the decisions.


So going back to your previous question -- I will give you a categorical no, if your question is whether you think pride or bragging rights was part of their motivation to go for EM cats over steam. The PLAN and the PLA do not adopt new technologies unless they think it has a sufficient level of maturity and reliability.
We will know in time what that level is, but at this stage we can likely confidently say it was at least equal to the maturity and reliability of their own domestic steam catapult offering.
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
Orthan said:
Well, it seems that they already has started to add the upper hull modules. So you might say: within a week.
Click to expand...

I prefer to err on the side of caution.

Technically my range was still accurate ;)
 
H

Haot

New Member
Registered Member
9c8f703d8c27c480b02a13c31cfe0e8.jpgAnother processed image from a source. This is a much clearer image taken around last weekend when the first upper hanger module was just added to the hull. The hanger area is about three-stories high and there is a slight tilt on two sides of this big module. The deck structure also comes with this structure, so I guess things will be going rather quickly from now on.
The two giant engine cells are still empty I believe, perhaps they are building it the same way the Type002 and Type075 were being constructed, which was leaving holes on the deck as ships are being built and bring in the engines and turbines later.
 
T

Totoro

Major
VIP Professional
While it's perhaps too early for attempts at hangar measurements as the resolution is just so poor - here's one nevertheless. I am getting some 31 pixels of hangar width and 47 pixels of overall width. At that point the ship is, judging by fairly high res GE imagery, 40 meters wide. Which would imply the hangar is at the same point some 26 meters wide. That may or may not be true, due to possible errors.

But for the reference - hangar widths of some of the other carriers:
Nimitz 34 meters
QE 33 meters
C. de Gaulle ??
Forrestal 31 meters
Kuznetsov 26 meters
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top