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OPINIONS
With homemade aircraft carrier, Chinese navy may see major restructuring
China Military - Editor Huang Panyue - 2017-03-29
BEIJING, Mar. 29 (ChinaMil) -- China's first indigenous aircraft carrier has once again made headlines recently.
The Chinese navy may see a major restructuring after its homemade aircraft carrier enters into service, said Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo, a Chinese naval expert, in an interview.
Photos posted online this month indicated the aircraft carrier had been painted with red primer and was being equipped with radar and other facilities, Taiwan media reported on last Saturday.
The newest photos also showed its deck was being cleaned, the report said, adding that the carrier was quite likely be launched in water on April 23, the founding anniversary of the Chinese navy.
According to Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo, the online photos showed the domestic aircraft carrier’s island had been almost completed, installation of power systems and cabins in the lower part of the ship finished, and the deck already sealed.
The hull exterior was painted with red primer, an anti-fouling paint which is toxic, so the ship will not be left in open air for too long and will soon be launched in water, Yin explained.
According to Senior Captain Cao Weidong, another military expert from a naval institute of the PLA Navy, building a warship usually consists of three major phases: first, cutting steel plates, signaling the beginning of construction. Second, launching in water, meaning the hull is finished. Third, the ship enters into service.
There is still much work to do at the carrier's outfitting stage after its launching. Then functional debugging for its devices will be carried out before a trial on the sea, Cao said.
Some foreign media reports speculated that Chinese navy’s capability would exceed the US navy in West Pacific in the next two to three decades.
In response, Yin said Chinese navy’s structure will see significant changes after the aircraft carrier enters into service, i.e. the aircraft carrier formation will become the core of the surface force.
Nevertheless, China will not seek development on such a large scale as that of the US navy, which has 11 aircraft carrier formations, Yin said.
Foreign media reports often adopts a kind of “kill-with-flattery” tactic toward China when it comes to making comparisons between Chinese and US military forces, at the cost of compromising objectivity, Yin noted.
Not just US, but everybody. You have to overestimate. Any homeowner must, upon seeing one intruder, assume that there could be another. If you see the shadow of something with length, do you assume a stick or the barrel of a shotgun ? Military history is filled with events where one side underestimated its opponent.Hear hear the last paragraph.
@cirr @Shotgunner51 @AndrewJin
This is also happening in technology. The Bull shit report on quantum that both cirr and Shotgunner51 cited was a propaganda piece to get the Congress to shill out more money for research.
The overplaying threat and capabilities of adversary is a long time tool employed by Americans both at individual level and in groups.
It is so sad however that flattery still gets to Chinese members here.
Not just US, but everybody. You have to overestimate. Any homeowner must, upon seeing one intruder, assume that there could be another. If you see the shadow of something with length, do you assume a stick or the barrel of a shotgun ? Military history is filled with events where one side underestimated its opponent.
Chinese Defense Ministry Foreign Affairs Office Major General Qian Lihua said: "The navy of any great power has the dream to have one or more aircraft carriers. The question is not whether you have an aircraft carrier, but what you do with your aircraft carrier".
I am not making this up...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7732679.stm
The implication is serious and clear: That a one-carrier navy is essentially a 'showboat' carrier navy.
You may not like the derogatory tinge but that is the reality of power projection and worse -- war. General Qian made that implication yrs before the Liaoning was commissioned.
At its core, naval airpower is the delivery of the military's most potent weapon -- airpower -- to an area outside of home support. A single hull navy is predictable, you know where he will be and where he is going to land. No different with a navy that have only one aircraft carrier, you know where his extraterritorial airpower is heading and where it will be employed. A two-carrier navy is more difficult to predict, and more so with a navy that have multiple carriers fleets. Not even restrictive waters like the Mediterranean Sea is immune from multi-front naval airpower assaults. One way or another, that adversary will find air assault avenues in that restrictive body of water.
China is looking to at least control -- if not outright own -- the South China Sea region. The size of the Liaoning and her coming sister carriers will serve China's plan for the SCS very well. While these ships are not of the 'super carrier' class, each will not require as much escorts and support as the American super carriers, making each fleet quicker to respond to any potential threat in the SCS, especially when China's potential naval challengers in the region are essentially coastal, not quite open water navies.
The US is overplaying China's threat and capabilities ? Try also Viet Nam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, and even Australia in this mix.
Cordial does not mean they are not suspicious of China's motives. No one is denying the fact that China is trying to control the SCS. Even you is dancing around that issue.I don't think that Malaysians, Indonesians, or even Australians play up china threat. China has very cordial relations with Malaysia and Indonesia at least.
This is about long term goals.Also, I would say for its most immediate goals, aircraft carriers are not really required by China. All major hotspots of trouble are actually quite close to land bases of China.
As much as I am a proponent of airpower, the reality is that airpower is not persistent. For the seas, you need naval airpower.One can very easily project force upto at least 500 km from land bases.