
How does China’s first aircraft carrier stack up? - finid
http://chinapower.csis.org/aircraft-carrier/
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hackuser
Based on my reading, most experts, and maybe a consensus, think aircraft
carriers are weapons for the last major war, and will be of little use in the
next war between major powers (if such a thing happens). Missiles can travel
2-3 times further than planes, and modern technology makes them very accurate.

Therefore the carriers won't get close enough to the battle to fire a shot (or
launch a plane), much as carriers kept their predecessors, battleships, out of
range and helpless in WWII.

Also, a carrier concentrates a very large amount of value in one very juicy
target: Maybe $15-20 billion in assets including planes, 5,000 lives, and
around 20-33% of available naval air power. An enemy could target a carrier
with 1,000 missiles costing $1 million each, and still get a large economic
net benefit ($1 billion spent to destroy $15-20 billion + 5,000 casualties).
Current plans for high-end war use 'distributed lethality': Spread out the
offensive power and assets so one lost ship isn't so costly.

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taneq
As they exist today, they're a large, vulnerable target, but then again
they're fairly similar now to what they were 50 years ago: Basically a mobile
airfield with missiles.

Fast forward 20 years and I'd expect them to have evolved into a mobile base
of operations for swarms of autonomous (not just remotely operated) air and
sea vehicles. Large arrays of independently targetable beam weapons and mid-
sized cannon, huge reserves of long-range cruise missiles, a wide range of
sensing, cloaking, and electronic warfare equipment, all in a mobile base
smaller than current aircraft carriers but still much larger than standard
gunships.

~~~
niels_olson
The most durable value proposition of an aircraft carrier is the ability to
park 4 acres of sovereign US territory 2 miles off the coast of almost any
country in the world within a few days. In close second is the fact that in
it's default configuration, it comes with more combat aircraft than most
national air forces. We have 12 of them.

Now, that said, current Nimitz-class carriers have a life-span of 50 years. It
takes 3 years to refuel them. Changing carriers is a slow process. But 4 acres
of sovereign territory anywhere in the world is _extremely_ useful in a
crisis.

~~~
SpaceRaccoon
How do you define a crisis? They're useful for projecting power against
countries that have difficulty defending themselves. They would not be useful
against Russia, for example, a country that possesses cutting edge missile
technology.

~~~
Kalium
A nuclear reactor and water purifiers are also useful for humanitarian
response.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
The Nimitz class carries come with a lot of fun facts, including this one:

 _Distillation plants providing 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water
daily, enough for 2,000 homes._ [1]

What's a gallon? 1,514,164 litres a day!

1\.
[http://www.public.navy.mil/airfor/cvn71/Pages/FACTSANDFIGURE...](http://www.public.navy.mil/airfor/cvn71/Pages/FACTSANDFIGURES.aspx)

~~~
hga
Indeed, some people twitted "What use is it to seen a carrier to help with the
Indonesian tsunami?", and this was pointed out, plus its fleet of helicopters
which can be used to deliver the water and whatever food stores were on the
ship that could be spared for this.

And in terms of pure survival, depending on how hot it was and the resulting
sweating, 400,000 gallons of water could save many, many people (the problem
would be delivery, they've got only so many helicopters).

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s_q_b
This should also be discussed in the context of the first combat usage of an
Admiral Kuznetsov-class carrier, which Russia began today. After passing
through the English Channel, the Admiral Kuznetsov, accompanied by a Russian
carrier group comprising most of the Northern Fleet including a nuclear-
powered battlecruiser, established station, and began a renewed aerial
bombardment on the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Over the next few months, we can expect the dominance of the United States
Navy to be increasingly challenged, as the other great powers try to determine
the limits of the President-Elect's isolationism.

~~~
trynumber9
For a comparison the Kuznetsov is carrying 3 Mig-29K and maybe twice as many
Su-33 [1]. And here's what a USN CVN looks like on its way to deployment [2].
I'm too lazy to count the aircraft.

[1]: [http://i.imgur.com/egMni6q.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/egMni6q.jpg)

[2]: [http://i.imgur.com/IRlG9ti.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/IRlG9ti.jpg)

~~~
mjmahone17
For a Nimitz-class, it looks like ~90 aircraft, or in terms of squadrons, 4
fixed-wing attack squadrons, an electronic attack squadron, an early
warning/command squadron, and two helicopter squadrons [1].

While it looks like the Kuznetsov may be capable of carrying twice as many
aircraft as pictured, that's the equivalent of one helicopter squadron and one
mixed attack/air superiority squadron. Then again, there's a reasonable
assumption that Russia's main force projection is due to how much of the
populated world is nearly immediately accessible via Russian-controlled land
bases, with much less need for force projection across oceans compared to the
US.

[1]:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_C._Stennis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_C._Stennis)

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Animats
China's second carrier is definitely under construction, and the third
carrier. a larger model, seems to be.[1] The PLAN's near-term goal seems to be
dominance of the South China Sea and the strait of Taiwan, everything inside
the "nine dash line". (Or the "ten dash line" version, which goes outside
Taiwan.) That's consistent with their land-based anti-ship missiles, new large
Coast Guard cutter type ships, and airfields being built on expanded islands
in the South China Sea.

China now has some blue-water naval capability. So far, it's been used mostly
to protect China's supply chain, in anti-piracy operations. That's good
practice for operating far from home base. This worries some people. There are
very few countries today with a military that can operate effectively on a
large scale far from home. China may want to join the superpower club.

[1] [http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/eastern-arsenal/model-
chi...](http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/eastern-arsenal/model-chinas-next-
aircraft-carrier)

