China Cancels Plans for Two Nuclear-Powered Super Aircraft Carriers

China Cancels Plans for Two Nuclear-Powered Super Aircraft Carriers

China Cancels Plans for Two Nuclear-Powered Super Aircraft Carriers | The National Interest



There is also this softer and more gentile to the CCP Boyz in Beijing front page article in the South China Morning Post:

Chinese navy set to build fourth aircraft carrier, but plans for a more advanced ship are put on hold | South China Morning Post




PLA Navy aircraft carrier Type 001 Lioning whose hull was purchased from Ukraine and reconstructed into a carrier by the CCP MIC. Now plans are off the table for two Type 004 nuclear powered carriers due to cost and unmet technological demands.


So the CCP Dictator-Tyrants in Beijing have decided to go for intimidating naval forces in East Asia and South Asia with 4 conventional carriers rather than try to go head to head up against the USA and USN. The Boyz know the outcome of any such engagement against the United States would be a splitting headache for 'em.

Instead, CCP Boyz in Beijing consider that their 4 carriers (coming soon, 4) greatest value is in their prestige, power projection against weaker adversaries -- which is everybody except the United States -- and of course a lick and a promise to build experience for later growth in capability. (In baseball we say 'wait till next year'.)

After all, a six-carrier PLA Navy would still be up against eleven higher-capability U.S. carriers. CCP Boyz can't escape the fact they know they'd get cold feet about sending their two or four best carriers out against the USN and USAF given the overwhelming superiority of the USN carrier fleet and the USN Pacific Fleet, ie, the 7th Fleet west of the IDL and the 3rd Fleet east of the IDL that operate jointly. Plus the US Pacific Air Forces.


South China Morning Post linked here notes, “China doesn’t possess the nuclear technology required, although it has developed many nuclear-powered submarines.” SCMP goes on to note the carriers and their larger scale needs pose greater technical challenges the CCP Boyz in Beijing can't meet or match much less master. The Boyz have thrown their hands up over the next-generation electromagnetic launch systems EMALs that continue to fall apart in testing.


Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter.

PLA Navy needs a next-generation carrier-based stealth fighter to succeed its current conventional J-15s. Indeed, CCP Boyz are still bamboozled over whether they can evolve the lighter, still non-operational J-31 stealth fighter for carriers or try to develop a naval variant of the larger Chengdu J-20 stealth jet currently in service despite engine deficiencies.

Beijing's been putting the arm to Moscow for fighter jet engines and has bought some but the Boyz need the top of the line engines Putin won't approve due to the opposition of his military that continues to fear China more than the USA.

The Boyz are broke and behind anyway. They're the Boyz in arrears in Beijing.

Saying china lacks the nuclear tech is bs, they have the nuclear tech, they just lack experience in building aircraft carriers. What they are saying is what people long knew, they can not go from no real navy to russian styled aircraft carriers which were more missile ships with support aircraft to full aircraft carriers that quickly. China can match the us aircraft carrier capabilities, but it will take them a few decades if they work at it, if they barely built their second reverse engineered soviet aircraft carrier designed by a country that considered aircraft carriers a luxury to the fleet rather than necessity, how would they have the knowhow to build advanced nuclear carriers unless they robbed other nations blueprints for the advancements to happen that fast.

beerftw said:

Saying china lacks the nuclear tech is bs, they have the nuclear tech, they just lack experience in building aircraft carriers. What they are saying is what people long knew, they can not go from no real navy to russian styled aircraft carriers which were more missile ships with support aircraft to full aircraft carriers that quickly. China can match the us aircraft carrier capabilities, but it will take them a few decades if they work at it, if they barely built their second reverse engineered soviet aircraft carrier designed by a country that considered aircraft carriers a luxury to the fleet rather than necessity, how would they have the knowhow to build advanced nuclear carriers unless they robbed other nations blueprints for the advancements to happen that fast.

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True, but you can be sure a lot of misinformation is being drawn in those plans and specs.

In February of 2018 Beijing confirmed construction of the first of two nuclear powered carriers and said the two carriers would be operational by 2025. Now in December 2019 the Boyz in Beijing have cancelled both nuclear powered carriers. In less than two years the full power ahead nuclear carrier program turned kaput.

So whahoppend? It's an easy question to answer for those who need to ask it, ie, it's the classic Chinese flaw of it being a given you are always right when you are in fact wrong -- wrong wrong wrong. In China this happens each day, all day, everywhere and in anything. Let's call it Chan's Law, ie, when the Chinese take being right as a given then you can take it to the bank they are wrong.

Never mind about the carriers anyhow given Chinese engineers still cannot build engines for jet fighters and bombers which they fly anyway despite the inadequate engine design and manufacture. Russians don't want to hand over their best fighter engine technology so the Chinese remain stuck with their inferior engines until they do the impossible, ie, come up with more brainpower to include common sense instead of memorized doctrine. I don't disparage the Chinese however because they're geniuses at making themselves look good when they are not so.



Nuclear power is critical to the Emals carriers yet even after stealing much of it from the US the Chinese nuclear engineers can't get Emals operational. So as with numerous specifics of their carrier program Beijing has to wait for the US to get the Emals squared away so they can steal the solution too. Yet the Chinese troubles with their nuclear carrier program go well beyond Emals alone.

Another major snafu is the Finnish-designed and Chinese stolen Azipods that are standard to each PLAN carrier. The Finnish Azipod was designed for a cruise ship with a maximum speed of 25kts, not an aircraft carrier that exceeds 30kts. Further but not only, the bulbous bow of the Chinese aircraft carriers contravenes the "anti-hogging" design of the Finnish Azipod. Which means the Chinese engineers face the issue of getting the amount of speed that's needed to keep enough "wind across the deck" for launches and recoveries. Which then presents the problem of night operations and so on.

China's grandiose designs to create a blue water navy have left them feeling blue lately given setback after setback. Chinese haven't ever had a navy to speak of and the single fleet of sailing ships China did have briefly was burned by the emperor because it brought back too many barbarian ideas and ways from abroad. Chinese worship the land while many Chinese continue to believe the sea is the place of serpents. (Pearl Buck: The Good Earth.) This is btw in contrast to Japan where the salt and the sea is in the blood of the island nation and its people, as it were.

Chinese naval knowledge and competence is less than zero historically so while China can always find enough sailors to go down to the sea in ships, it has to first design and produce the ships and then master 'em. This will take much more time than anyone can imagine if it occurs at all. All of which is compounded by Trump tightening up on China on a range of items to include exports, trade laws and tariffs, cyber security, intellectual property and so on and so on. Indeed, both the CCP Boyz and the Chinese people are dejected and apprehensive that the USA has stopped being their delivery service.

They are building 2 conventionally powered CATOBAR flat-tops... the first of which is currently under construction in Shanghai



Type 002 aircraft carrier - Wikipedia

They were expected to move on to nuclear carriers but this has been put on hold, most likely due to the slowdown in the Chinese economy.

jbi said:

They are building 2 conventionally powered CATOBAR flat-tops... the first of which is currently under construction in Shanghai

Type 002 aircraft carrier - Wikipedia

They were expected to move on to nuclear carriers but this has been put on hold, most likely due to the slowdown in the Chinese economy.

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That and likely wanting to work on the nuclear power plant design for it. France used the reactors from its subs for theirs and I believe has poor results by doing so.

Now it very well be that China felt the investment was not worth the risk. A couple expensive carriers which China has spent billions on defeating similar carriers makes for a contradiction in strategy.

For power projection 3 non nuclear carriers is enough. In a real war vs the US or even Japan 7 with nuclear power would not be enough. They most likely would be sunk fairly early on