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China is working on an enormous aircraft carrier that rivals the biggest in the U.S. fleet, analysts say

Summary

Satellite images suggest China is developing a massive nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, potentially matching the size and capabilities of U.S. supercarriers, analysts told NBC News.

The ship, possibly the Type 004, appears to feature four electromagnetic catapults for launching fighter jets, a design shift from China's current fleet.

Experts say this move aligns with China's goal of building a "blue-water navy" to rival the U.S.

While Beijing has not confirmed the project, U.S. officials view China's military expansion as a strategic challenge in the Indo-Pacific.

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12 comments

  • Just to put this into perspective: There are 13 ships comparable to US "Aircraft Carriers" on the planet. The US operates 11 of them. France has one. China is building one.

    There are an additional 38 ships on the planet designed to carry aircraft, but with less than half the capacity of actual carriers. The world calls them carriers; the US calls them "Amphibious Assault Ships" and operates 9.

    If we remove all 11 US "Aircraft Carriers", its 9 Amphibious Assault Ships still carry more than twice as many aircaft as the entire Chinese Navy.

    The real advantage of CATOBAR carriers is the ability to deploy heavily loaded, long-range strike aircraft and large support aircraft, like the Hawkeye, Growler, buddy tankers, etc.

    STOBAR and STOVL carriers are reliant on land-based support aircraft.

    • Not quite? China already has 1, the type 003. Which while gas powered is able to carry a similar compliment as the Nimitz class and more than the French Charles de Gaulle.

      Your also ignoring that China has 2 types of Amphibious Assault ships as well, the type 075 and 076. In terms of pure numbers, if you removed all of the US carriers, China will have a similar number of aircraft in their navy. The quality and abilities of these aircraft would be wildly in USA's favor, but that's not what you said.

      • In terms of pure numbers, if you removed all of the US carriers, China will have a similar number of aircraft in their navy.

        To be fair, I assumed 30 aircraft on the Wasp and America class ships. 20 is a more realistic number, so my estimate was high. I don't know why I had it in my head that they could carry 30 aircraft each, but that was the basis of my claim. I was also under the impression that that 003 was another STOBAR carrier, rather than a CATOBAR.

        Still, 9 US ships times 20 STOVL aircraft:

        • 180 US aircraft total.

        001, 002, and 003 are reported to carry 24 STOBAR, 24 STOBAR, and 50 CATOBAR aircraft, respectively:

        • 98 Chinese aircraft total.

        My claim of "more than twice as many" was wrong, but by single-digit margins.

        Their Type 075 and 076 ships are described as "Helicopter Docks". To the best of my knowledge, China doesn't currently have any STOVL aircraft to operate off these ships. They are developing a STOVL aircraft, the J-35, which would almost certainly be able to operate off 075/076, but it's not operational yet. I'm disinclined to count the four operational 075s, and the 076 they are building.

        The US Navy has 13 "Landing Platform, Docks" (San Antonio Class) that I'm not counting, because they only carry helicopters (up to 78 total) or tiltrotors (up to 65 total). They did do some evaluations on using them with the Harrier, but I dont think that went anywhere.

        Pretty much every large ship in both navies can embark a couple helicopters; I'm not counting any of them either.

12 comments