The aircraft carrier "Fujian" was launched not long ago, which attracted the attention of media from various countries. Compared with the Western media's view, the Russian media's perspective is more interesting because China's first aircraft carrier itself originated from the Soviet Union.
The Russian TOPCOR website wrote an article pointing out that Chinese aircraft carriers and Russian aircraft carriers both have Soviet genes, but the modern Russian navy has embarked on a "different development path."
" Chinese model "
author of the article Sergei Marzhetsky pointed out that China began to pay close attention to aircraft carrier as early as the 1980s. Like the Soviet Union, the Chinese Navy came to the conclusion very early that in order to counter enemy aircraft carrier battle groups , it was better to have its own aircraft carriers, rather than being limited to so-called "asymmetric capabilities" and other "original" concepts. China experienced an aircraft carrier for the first time and studied the scrapped Australian Navy aircraft carrier "Melbourne". Later, it also communicated with Spain on the design of a light aircraft carrier. The author pointed out that the real breakthrough came after several former Soviet heavy aviation cruisers "Minsk" , "Kiev" and "Varyag" fell into their hands. After overcoming many difficulties, the purchased "Varyag" was finally completed by China and became the first Chinese aircraft carrier "Liaoning" . On the other hand, the successful copying of the Su-33 heavy carrier-based aircraft also provides a key link. On this basis, China trained the earliest batch of aircraft carrier professionals and carrier-based aircraft pilots.
Thereafter, after gaining practical experience in aircraft carrier operations and discovering the shortcomings of the Soviet design, China built its second aircraft carrier, the Shandong. Like the Soviet prototype, the ship still uses gas turbine power, and the carrier-based aircraft still uses a ski jump deck to take off, but the number of carrier-based aircraft has been increased. What is even more noteworthy is that China's ship planning capabilities are very strong. A large number of escort warships were built in parallel, immediately forming a mature combat-ready aircraft carrier battle group.
But things did not end there. In 2018, China began construction of its third aircraft carrier, named "Fujian". The ship differs significantly from its predecessors in that it has a displacement of 80,000 tons and uses hybrid propulsion. The biggest improvement is that the "Fujian" is not equipped with a ski jump take-off deck, but is equipped with three electromagnetic catapults . The deck is straight. The exact size of the carrier-based air wing is not yet clear, but it will obviously be larger than its predecessor and will include at least one carrier-based early warning aircraft, which will fundamentally improve the combat capabilities of China's aircraft carrier formations.
The Russian author believes that if the "Liaoning" and "Shandong" are conceptually close to the Russian "Admiral Kuznetsov", then the "Fujian" is likely to be adapted from the more advanced Soviet "Ulyan" Novsk" aircraft carrier, the latter's nuclear power plant may be implemented on China's future aircraft carriers.
The Russian author lamented that the Chinese comrades did not waste time and energy debating "whether aircraft carriers are needed." Instead, they directly built aircraft carriers, the first, the second, and the third, and accumulated experience step by step as much as possible. After handing over the "keys" to Chinese comrades, what will happen to our country as the successor of the Soviet Union?
The "Russian model" that has gone astray
The author pointed out that this is not easy for Russia, and the experience of the entire world and the Soviet Union has been completely negated! Even Marshal Gorshkov, the commander of the Soviet Navy who made a large order for four nuclear-powered aircraft carriers ("Ulyanovsk" class), was belittled by later generations as "knowing nothing about the naval profession." The fate of Russia's last heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser, the "Admiral Kuznetsov", objectively reflects all systemic problems. The author of
said that when Russia was fiercely debating whether it needed aircraft carriers, for some reason, it was forgotten that we already have aircraft carriers.The problem is that they can't make this aircraft carrier truly ready for combat: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Black Sea Fleet was divided between Russia and Ukraine, and the "Admiral Kuznetsov" was forced to transfer to the Northern Fleet. But no one in charge is willing to provide infrastructure for its maintenance. As a result, this precious aircraft carrier stood in the Arctic Circle winter for more than 20 years without heat and power supply, wasting this precious legacy.
Even if this aircraft carrier is back on the front line, it is only struggling in a few sea areas. The "Kuznetsov"'s participation in the Syrian campaign exposed all its problems: poor technical conditions, insufficient flight time for shipboard pilots, etc.
The author stated that the construction of new aircraft carriers is not only opposed by many "haters", but Russia also lacks shipbuilding capabilities, lacks professional shipbuilding talents and equipment, and lacks the infrastructure to provide services for aircraft carriers - in the Northern and Pacific Fleet middle. That's really all it is, the tragic end of Marshal Gorshkov's aircraft carrier ideal. The fate of the Russian Navy, turned into "mosquitoes" hiding near the coast, and tugboats with "Tor" air defense systems on their decks?
However, the Russian Navy did not give up completely. Two years ago, two 40,000-ton general-purpose landing ships of type 23900 started construction at the Zaliv factory. These two landing ships can not only carry helicopters to perform anti-submarine and strike missions, but also carry drones. At present, Russia has begun to develop a deck-based drone, and the "Kuznetsov" aircraft carrier is expected to become a training platform for drones.
The first ship of the two large landing ships "Mitrofan Moskalenko" will become the future flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. The ship will be built at the Sevastopol shipyard. The second "Ivan Rogov" will go to the Pacific Fleet, where it will only have to build coastal infrastructure for it.
However, the author of the article is still unwilling to limit his expectations to these. After all, the 23900 landing ship can only be regarded as a " quasi-aircraft carrier ". He believes that Russia still needs to acquire large-scale shipbuilding facilities and experience, and if the Nikolaev Shipyard (still controlled by Ukraine ) returns to the Russian Federation, there may be huge changes. (Author: Tao Mujian)
