Fujian aircraft carrier has attracted the attention of the US media. The US media believes that the strength of the Chinese Navy's aircraft carrier fleet has grown tremendously, becoming the second largest aircraft carrier power in the world. The US media "Navy Recognition" quoted a forecast of the size of the Chinese naval fleet in 2025 to analyze the Chinese aircraft carrier fleet. As can be seen from the data chart, it is expected that by 2025, the total number of aircraft carriers in the Chinese Navy will reach 7.
US media said that these seven aircraft carriers are the Liaoning and Shandong, as well as the subsequent 003 Fujian and 004 aircraft carriers. In addition, there are three brand-new 076 amphibious assault ships. This warship adopts electromagnetic ejection and angled deck . Its full load displacement reaches more than 60,000 tons. It is an out-and-out aircraft carrier . Together, these aircraft carriers will bring the Chinese Navy to a total size of seven aircraft carriers.
So, by 2025, can the Chinese naval fleet really reach the scale of seven aircraft carriers predicted by the US media? Currently, our country has three aircraft carriers, namely Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian. Among them, the Liaoning and Shandong have officially entered the navy and have formed combat effectiveness. The Fujian aircraft carrier has just held a launching ceremony recently. It will be equipped and sea-tried in the future, and the service time will be around 2025. That is to say, regardless of the subsequent construction of new ships, there will be no problem with the three aircraft carriers of the Chinese Navy in active service in 2025.
As for the analysis chart quoted by the US media that Type 004 will enter service in 2025, it is even more debatable. Previously, many foreign media including "1945", "European Times" and other foreign media believed that the Type 004 aircraft carrier would be nuclear-powered. The technical difficulty of this 100,000-ton aircraft carrier is unprecedented for China. It is expected that the construction of the Type 004 nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will be officially launched after the launch ceremony of the Fujian ship. Foreign media believe that the problem of the nuclear reactor of the Type 004 nuclear power is the biggest difficulty affecting its construction. Although many major countries actually have the ability to build nuclear reactors, it does not mean that they all have the ability to build aircraft carrier nuclear reactors. Currently, only the United States has the technology to build aircraft carrier nuclear reactors. The nuclear reactor driving the aircraft carrier must ensure the abundance of fuel and ensure that the 100,000-ton aircraft carrier can advance at a speed of more than 30 knots when the reactor is small enough. This means that the aircraft carrier's reactor power is calculated proportionally. , much larger than ordinary land-based nuclear power plants, so the technology of aircraft carrier nuclear reactors is a test of China's technical strength.
A negative example is France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier . It installed its two nuclear submarine nuclear reactors on the aircraft carrier, but it has been facing problems of insufficient power and high failure rates. Moreover, the continuous operation time of this nuclear reactor is different from that of the US nuclear reactor. The aircraft carrier is thousands of miles away, and it will have to return to Hong Kong in a few years to dismantle the deck and overhaul it. After all this trouble, it might as well be converted into a conventionally powered aircraft carrier. In short, it is absolutely impossible for China's nuclear aircraft carrier to follow the path of France.
Judging from various signs and some previous official announcements, China is now developing its own aircraft carrier-based nuclear reactor. The outside world believes that there is no problem for China to develop a qualified aircraft carrier nuclear reactor. It just takes time and a lot of money. Support. After all, the technical difficulty of 004 is much higher than that of 003 Fujian. Even if construction starts now, it will not be completed and put into service until the 2030s at the earliest. Therefore, some analysts believe that throughout the 2020s, the People's Liberation Army will only have three full-time aircraft carriers in service: Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the 003 deeply modified conventionally powered aircraft carrier will continue to be constructed and put into service in the future. It can only be said that everything still needs time to be verified.
Next are the three quasi-aircraft carriers mentioned by the US media: Type 076 amphibious assault ship. Type 076 is considered to be another upgraded version of the assault ship following the Type 075 amphibious assault ship. Compared with Type 075, Type 076 uses an angled deck for fixed-wing fighter aircraft to launch. It is equipped with the world's most advanced electromagnetic catapult device. The flight deck is more than 260 meters long and the total tonnage of the ship exceeds 60,000 tons. The 076 is also equipped with a 30-ton flight deck elevator, which means that the 076 can It is not a problem to carry heavy carrier-based fighter jets such as the J-15, as well as the lighter J-35 stealth fighter. Some foreign military experts have analyzed that the overall combat power of the 076 even exceeds the Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers in service with the Chinese Navy. The 076 is actually an out-and-out quasi-aircraft carrier.
However, it is said that 076 is still in the research and development stage, and it is not ruled out that the construction of 076 will be carried out by the end of this year. Everything is possible. US media predicts that this 60,000-ton ship will be successfully built around 2025, and it will definitely be put into service in the late 2020s. Not to mention that the US media claimed that the People's Liberation Army will enter three Type 076 ships in 2025. This speed is a bit too advanced.
Therefore, after comprehensive analysis, the data analysis given by the US media that the Chinese Navy will have seven aircraft carriers in 2025 is obviously untenable. Looking at it now, even the most ideal result by 2025 is nothing more than the Chinese Navy's aircraft carrier fleet including Shandong, Liaoning and Fujian. The size of the three active large-scale fleet aircraft carriers is basically a foregone conclusion. As for now, there is no news of the start of construction. 076, it is even less likely that all three ships will be completed and commissioned as claimed by the US media.
