China unveils its latest weapon of war,
its most advanced aircraft carrier to date.
But can a paper tiger float?
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
This episode is sponsored by MOVA Globes.
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can appreciate the beauty of our planet, and our oceans.
You know who else appreciates the oceans? The Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese regime is rapidly expanding its navy. By some estimates,
it makes a new ship every month. The People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN,
already has more ships than the US Navy. It’s central to the Chinese Communist
Party’s plans to take over Taiwan, and dominate the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
But the key to operating a blue water navy—a navy that can operate anywhere
in the world—is aircraft carriers. The United States currently has 11 in operation.
And China wants to match the US.
China’s first aircraft carrier was the Liaoning, also known as Type 001. It was an old Soviet
carrier that China bought from Ukraine, refitted, and put into service in 2012.
But it uses outdated technology, and has had a host of technical problems.
Not the least of which being it had to have those red pegs removed from it.
In fact the Liaoning was, “recognized as one of the worst carriers in the world”.
An expert at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies called it “not very impressive”.
But with all its problems, the Liaoning was just the start of China’s aircraft carrier ambitions.
In 2019, China built and launched its first homemade aircraft carrier, the Type 002,
the Shandong. It’s very similar to the Liaoning.
Including the problems.
Who knew red pegs were such a common issue.
But making their own aircraft carrier was still a breakthrough for the Chinese Communist Party.
And now, last week, China launched the Type 003,
the Fujian—its most advanced aircraft carrier to date.
It is a major step up. And it could mean big trouble for Taiwan. More after the break.
Welcome back.
For quite a while now, we’ve been watching
satellite images of China’s newest aircraft carrier, the Type 003 Fujian, being built.
Which was scary, but less depressing than
other satellite images we’ve been watching come out of China.
And right off the bat we could tell this was
different from any of China’s previous aircraft carriers.
For starters, it’s much larger.
“It has a full displacement of more than 80,000 tonnes,
as much as 20,000 tonnes more than the other two aircraft carriers.”
Good lord. A ship that size… why, it’d take *six* red pegs to sink it instead of five!
But the biggest difference is its electromagnetic aircraft catapult.
You see, most countries, well, the few countries that even have aircraft carriers,
use what’s called a ski jump. Aircraft have to accelerate
really fast and get a boost from the ramp so they can get airborne.
It’s kind of like when you jumped your bike as
a kid… on a ramp that cost a hundred million dollars.
But, that limits the weight of the aircraft. In other words, it limits its payload of weapons.
Catapult aircraft carriers use a catapult to shoot a plane off the deck at high speeds.
The most advanced use an electromagnetic catapult.
This new catapult design going to give the Fujian a lot of new capabilities.
According to the state-run Global Times, the Fujian could eventually “get an improved version
of the J-15 heavy fighter jet compatible with catapult launch, an electronic warfare
variant of the J-15, a next-generation stealth fighter jet reportedly to be called the J-35,
a fixed-wing early warning aircraft dubbed the KJ-600, and armed reconnaissance drones.”
Man, this sounds like it could be the villain of the next Top Gun movie.
MAV3RICK. Mav-three-ick? Not really sure how I’m supposed to pronounce that, but it looks cool.
So what are China’s ambitions for this new aircraft carrier?
Well, according to the Chinese Communist Party,
it's to “enhance the ability to safeguard world peace”.
Of course. “We need more firepower to feel safer.” They’ve gone from quoting Marx to quoting the NRA.
But the reality is obviously quite different. There’s a
reason the new carrier is named the Fujian.
Fujian is the Chinese province closest to Taiwan.
Which China has promised to invade and take over by force if necessary.
In other words, “safeguarding peace.” And in theory, this gives China’s navy
the ability to extend far beyond Taiwan, deep into the Pacific or even the Indian Ocean.
China has already started preparing its military base in Djibouti for aircraft carriers.
And just as the Fujian is setting sail,
we’re seeing signs of China’s fourth aircraft carrier taking shape—a nuclear powered one.
But the Fujian may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
First of all, rumors were it was originally supposed to launch in
April, to coincide with the 73rd anniversary of the PLA Navy.
But the ship was built in Shanghai and that’s when the city was getting locked down for Covid.
Always a reminder of the power microscopic organisms have over any military.
If only we could “safeguard” them, too.
And the Fujian is at least two to three years away from being operational, according to experts.
An aircraft carrier is a complicated beast. All the various departments on board,
from aviation to the engine room, to meteorology, to the guns, have to learn to work together.
Then they need to learn to work with a huge variety of different naval vessels and aircraft,
in all sorts of different weather conditions.
And then there are combat drills on top of that.
And China frankly does not have the kind of experience operating this kind of network
the way the United States does. Though China is trying to change that quickly.
But as it stands, “The Liaoning is so far the only Chinese aircraft carrier
with initial operational capability or the basic level of combat readiness.”
So despite any posturing the Chinese Communist Party may do,
it is not ready for a full on confrontation with the US yet. Yet.
But the Chinese Communist Party’s military, like everything else
in China, is run on politics. And that can get in the way of combat readiness.
According to a Taiwanese military expert, “The Type 003 may have been rushed into production
to satisfy Chinese officials and some of its parts
might not work as designed or as well as peers from other countries.”
But then there’s the biggest problem with the Fujian:
There are not a lot of good places to park it.
Other than Djibouti, the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t have
any military bases overseas. At least not officially. There’s rumors of China building
bases in all parts of the world. But with no fully equipped overseas military bases,
the Chinese navy cannot operate far from Chinese shores. Especially the Fujian.
And that means, “Type 003’s aircraft-carrying technology is energy consumptive and some of
it might do poorly in a battle outside the first-island chain—far from Chinese ports.”
Meaning they would have to go from using electromagnetic catapults to just
regular catapults.
Good news for India. Not so great news for Taiwan.
As this episode may have made you realize,
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Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.