The launch of the 003 aircraft carrier not long ago means that China's offshore power has been strengthened. At present, the total tonnage of China's navy is second only to that of the United States. From a numerical perspective, the gap is still very large.
According to a world naval tonnage ranking chart previously circulated on the Internet, as of January 2022, the total tonnage of the US Navy is 7.14 million tons, and that of China is 2.8 million tons. In fact, this statistic was produced by foreign military enthusiasts and seriously exaggerates the total tonnage of the U.S. Navy. China's data is also overestimated.
Let’s talk about the United States first. The statistic of 7.14 million tons should also include the ships that the United States has decommissioned over the years. It is too watery. A blogger on Xouhu.com has worked hard to synthesize various relevant foreign information and come up with more accurate data: As of August 2021, the total number of ships in active service in the US Navy is 295, with a total tonnage of approximately 5.59 million tons. .
In the fourth quarter of last year, the U.S. Navy launched another Lewis-class oil supply ship (nearly 50,000 tons), Virginia-class attack nuclear submarine (7,800 tons), and an Independence-class littoral combat ship (3,100 tons). They are fully equipped. At present, the United States The total tonnage of the navy is less than 5.7 million tons. Of course, this is still at the top of the list in the world, unparalleled.
On the Chinese side, some senior military fans believe that, together with the newly launched 003 aircraft carrier, the total tonnage of the active navy may be less than 2.8 million tons, mainly due to the unknown size of submarine . Even if there are 2.8 million tons, it is only half that of the United States.
However, the navy is a system, and we cannot just compare tonnage. The real strength of both parties must be comprehensively measured from aspects such as technology, maintenance, and manufacturing capabilities. In this comparison, the gap between the navies of China and the United States is not that big. In ten years, the Chinese navy has caught up with the United States to the point of panic, and the gap is much smaller than the superficial data.
Let’s first take a look at the situation of the 11 aircraft carriers in the United States.
According to relevant foreign news, the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier (CVN-68) has just completed maintenance and is undergoing adaptive training. It will not be officially deployed until a few months later; the USS Eisenhower (CVN-69), in the past The overtime tasks for two years are too heavy and we are undergoing maintenance. It will be difficult to return to the team this year.
The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), which is the aircraft carrier where the aircraft crashed in the South China Sea at the beginning of the year, also worked too much overtime and is now undergoing maintenance, which will not be short. The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) is on normal duty. In May, I also participated in an exercise in Alaska .
USS Lincoln (CVN-72), on duty, but has started working overtime, and is expected to have to go to the shipyard for maintenance within two months; USS Washington (CVN-73), is undergoing overhaul, replacing the reactor , originally He returned to the team this year, but the overhaul time has been extended to 2023. The time for an overhaul is about the same as the construction time. The aircraft carriers of the Seventh Fleet work a lot of overtime, and they usually work for half a year and repair for half a year.
USS Stennis (CVN-74) is waiting in line for overhaul and stack replacement. It will not take its turn until the USS Washington, which occupies the dock, comes out. It will not be able to return to the fleet in the next five years. It also depends on whether the Washington can actually be repaired next year.
USS Truman (CVN-75), on duty, is expected to work overtime until August or September, and then go for maintenance; USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), on duty, will enter the shipyard in 3 months.
USS Bush (CVN-77), which is undergoing post-maintenance adaptability training and can be deployed urgently, but will not be on normal duty until the end of the year; USS Ford (CVN-78), due to the instability of the electromagnetic ejection system, was originally scheduled to be deployed this year , delayed again, no exact time. The Ford's mission so far is still to verify its deployment capabilities.
According to this calculation, 4 of the 11 US military aircraft carriers are deployed, and two of them are working overtime and are about to be maintained. The two emergency-deployable aircraft carriers, the Nimitz and the USS Bush, will be able to return to the fleet at the end of this year, but the three currently on duty will have to enter the shipyard again. Unless the USS Theodore Roosevelt works overtime, the deployment scale of the three aircraft carriers can be maintained.
A U.S. military shipyard
The efficiency of U.S. aircraft carrier maintenance was relatively high a few years ago, but now it has obviously become less efficient. For no other reason than the U.S. industrial capacity has shrunk.The three-foot-long freeze did not occur overnight. The United States itself believes that it is easy to make money in finance and other industries, and has gradually weakened its manufacturing industry. Its industrial capabilities have gradually declined over the past two decades.
Take ship repair as an example. The U.S. Navy has many shipyards used for ship repair, but they are all in disrepair and dilapidated. In 2018, the US military plans to invest US$21 billion to upgrade the existing ship repair yard, with an estimated construction period of 20 years. However, funding issues have not yet been finalized. To build a new shipyard, a shipyard requires an investment of more than US$5 billion and a construction period of 5 to 10 years. Not to mention the length of the construction period, funding is basically useless.
Let’s talk about military shipbuilding capabilities. The US military only has four shipyards, all of which are hundreds of years old. They are also slowly upgraded and dilapidated. The U.S. shipbuilding industry has been in decline since 2000. According to relevant statistics, the shipbuilding field has lost more than 20,000 skilled workers over the years. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the shipbuilding industry has further slumped and there is a shortage of qualified workers. Now all shipyards and ship repair yards in the United States are full, and naval ships are often queued for several years for maintenance and overhaul.
The United States has been calling for revitalizing the manufacturing industry, but it is not easy. You can get a glimpse of the whole situation from its shipbuilding industry. According to the current situation in the United States, there is no possibility of revival and it will only make things worse.
On the other hand, China's shipbuilding industry has been rising year after year and is very strong. In 2021, the global number of new ship orders was 1,846, totaling approximately 45.7 million corrected tons (CGT), nearly half of which were manufactured in China. Chinese shipyards undertook 965 ships, totaling 22.8 million corrected tons, accounting for half of the world's shipbuilding industry.
China Changxing Shipbuilding Base
In terms of military shipbuilding, China currently has eight major shipbuilding bases. For example, Dalian Shipyard , Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers, three 055 large drives, and 052D modifications (under construction) are all built here; Jiangnan Shipyard has extremely strong manufacturing capabilities, including 003 aircraft carriers, 055, 052D, 054A, 056A, conventional submarine , hovercraft , almost anything can be built. Others include Liaonan, Bohai , Hudong Zhonghua and other shipyards, each with its own strengths.
China is on the rise, and its ships are getting better and better, such as the 055 large drive, which has advanced technology and extremely strong combat effectiveness. Looking at Blue Star, there is no opponent of the same level. The 003 aircraft carrier directly jumped over the steam ejection and mounted the electromagnetic ejection . Thanks to China's original medium-voltage DC technology, 003's electroelastic performance is stable, and it was ejected without failure for 10,000 times in the test.
It has been almost 10 years since the USS Ford, the most advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the United States, was launched and has been in service for 5 years. However, the medium-voltage AC electric bomb technology it uses is immature. The design goal requires that the Ford's electric bombs can perform an average of 4166 times without failure before it can be officially deployed. , but the Ford really can't do it. It has been tested more than 8,000 times. The reliability rate in 2020 is an average of 181 times. In 2021, it has increased a bit, reaching an average of 272 trouble-free times, but it is still far from the design goal.
The aircraft ejected and had to land on the aircraft carrier. The Ford's arresting device was designed to operate an average of 16,500 times without failure. However, after testing for several years, the average number of times it was reliable was only 41 times. In other words, even if the USS Ford aircraft carrier can launch 272 aircraft sorties without failure, the chance of landing safely is only 41, and the rest can only take a sea bath. This is the reason why the Ford has not been able to form combat effectiveness so far. It seems that it is still far away.
USS Ford aircraft carrier test data
As Chinese academician Ma said, the US$13 billion spent on the first Ford-class aircraft carrier was wasted.
Trump was very angry about this when he was president, and even asked the Ford's electric bombs to be changed back to steam catapults so that they could be deployed as soon as possible. But the answer he got was that the steam ejection equipment factory had closed down. Steam ejection technology is backward and its efficiency is not as good as electromagnetic ejection. However, with the immature electromagnetic ejection technology in the United States, even steam ejection will be useless in the future.
The Ford-class No. 2 and No. 3 aircraft carriers currently under construction in the United States still use electromagnetic catapult technology. Has the problem been solved? No, sources pointed out that its electromagnetic ejection is still the same. In other words, the United States is "operating with a disease" when building aircraft carriers. If the electric bomb problem is not solved for a day, the Ford-class aircraft carrier will be just a "face-saving project."
Not only the aircraft carrier, but also the American Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship has problems. The design speed is 40 knots, but it can only run 12 knots. No matter how fast it goes, cracks or even breakage will occur in the hull. The U.S. Navy is eager to kick the littoral ships to and the Coast Guard , and the Coast Guard doesn't want them either.
There is also the Ticonderoga-class cruiser with a displacement of more than 9,000 tons. It was put into service in the 1980s and is already outdated. Currently, the U.S. Navy still retains 22 Ticonderoga-class cruisers. The Navy is full of complaints and believes that this type of warship is radar and electronic equipment are too backward, but the U.S. Congress has repeatedly delayed the retirement of the Ticonderoga class.
Although the U.S. Navy has many problems, there are other steam catapult aircraft carriers available, and the size of the fleet is also there. It is no problem to scare small and medium-sized countries. However, when encountering an opponent like China, its true colors are revealed.
055 Large drive
For example, the United States Littoral Combat Ship has a displacement of 3,000 tons. If it faces China's 1,400-ton 056A frigate, it will only get beaten. Because the 76 guns and Eagle 83 anti-ship missiles equipped by the 056A completely suppress the 56 guns and Hellfire missiles of the littoral combat ship.
Of course, Chinese aircraft carrier currently does not have real ocean-going combat capabilities. Neither the Liaoning nor the Shandong can take off fixed-wing early warning aircraft. It will take time for the Fujian to be tested and put into service. The carrier-based aircraft also has to wait for mass production.
However, although the United States has many aircraft carriers, only a few can be deployed at the same time. It also has to take into account the global situation, and its ability to invest in the Asia-Pacific is limited. China's offshore defense force is more than sufficient, its modern fleet is quite large, and its combat scope has been greatly increased. We have various types of warships represented by the 055 Dachu, as well as various land-based and air-based anti-ship missiles, which are enough to deter any opponent.
Take the 055 as an example. It can detect enemy situations in advance through shipborne dual-band radar and launch YJ21 supersonic anti-ship missiles thousands of kilometers away. Other types of anti-ship, air defense, anti-submarine missiles are all available, regardless of whether the United States The aircraft carrier is still the amphibious assault ship . If you encounter the 055 in a real fight, you can only retreat.
The United States is declining, China is rising, one is declining and the other is growing. This is the general situation. How anxious the United States is, you can tell by the way it is jumping up and down now, but after all, they are unable to change the historical trend. With the construction capabilities and speed of the Chinese Navy, time is more favorable to us. It is only a matter of time before we fully catch up with the US Navy. We cannot overestimate ourselves, but we must not belittle ourselves either.
