CVA 003 aircraft carrier

The launching ceremony of China's third aircraft carrier was held on the morning of the 17 June 2022, at the Jiangnan Shipyard of China State Shipbuilding Corporation. At about 11 o'clock, the launching ceremony began, the audience sang the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, and the five-star red flag rose slowly. At the ceremony, a naming certificate was awarded to the chief officer of the receiving unit, and military and local leaders jointly cut the ribbon for the launching of China's third aircraft carrier. Afterwards, a bottle-throwing ceremony was performed. The champagne bottle smashed into the bow of the ship, and the two sides sprayed gorgeous ribbons. The ship blew its whistle, the dock door opened, and the aircraft carrier slowly moved out of the dock. The launching and naming ceremony ended with the singing of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Th date 17 June is a day to remember. On thei day in 2021, Shenzhou 12 was successfully launched, setting a number of "firsts in China"; today, 55 years ago, China's first hydrogen bomb exploded successfully, becoming the fourth country in the world to have a hydrogen bomb. The three special nodes all mark the new achievements of China's scientific and technological undertakings again and again, and also reflect the country's "sonorous progress and never-stop ambition".

Approved by the Central Military Commission, China's third aircraft carrier was named "Fujian Ship of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy", with the hull number "18". The Fujian ship is the first catapult-type aircraft carrier designed and built by China completely. After the ship is launched, mooring tests and sailing tests would be carried out as planned. China's first aircraft carrier is the Liaoning ship, and the second aircraft carrier is the Shandong ship. With the launch of the third aircraft carrier for the first time, China's aircraft carrier ushered in the "third child". Once upon a time, aircraft carriers were out of reach for the Chinese people. After several generations of efforts, China previously owned two aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and Shandong.

The Liaoning ship's hull number is "16", and it was officially delivered to the People's Navy in 2012. On December 17, 2019, China's first domestically-made aircraft carrier Shandong Ship was officially delivered to the People's Navy, with the hull number "17".

Situated at China's southeast coast, Fujian Province lies west of Taiwan Province. Separated only by a strip of water, Fujian and Taiwan are regarded as sister province as their people are joined by ties of blood and similar dialects. The province covers an area of over 139,000 square kilometers and has a population of 36.89 million (2010). The period of the Tang Song and Yuan Dynasties saw rapid development in Fujian. It was during this period that Quanzhou became a major trading part in China. It was also in that period that Fujian saw the flourishing of culture and literature. Many of the Province's grand and elegant ancient buildings were built during that period. Fujian was officially proclaimed a province in both the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

On November 26, 2018, an article on the official WeChat account of Xinhua News Agency revealed the development status of China's third aircraft carrier. In "6 years ago, this "style" was popular all over the country, and it still makes people emotional! "The article pointed out that on November 23, 6 years ago, China's first aircraft carrier "Liaoning" successfully took off and landed the J-15 carrier-based aircraft. In the past 6 years, our domestic aircraft carrier has undergone sea trials, and its commissioning is just around the corner, and the new aircraft carrier has also been launched. Orderly construction on the slipway.

Upon its completion, the gigantic ship would displace more than 80,000 tons of water, making it the largest and mightiest warship any Asian nation has ever built and also one of the world's biggest naval vessels of all time. According to the People's Liberation Army Navy, the ship would use electromagnetic launch system, or electromagnetic catapult, to launch fixed-wing aircraft, which would give the carrier a much greater combat capability than its two predecessors that use a ramp to launch jets.

Navy spokesman Colonel Liu Wensheng released relevant information on the naming, deployment location, performance characteristics and test arrangements of the Fujian ship. When talking about why the third aircraft carrier was named Fujian ship, Liu Wensheng said that according to the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy ship naming rules, aircraft carriers are generally named after provincial administrative divisions. The North Sea has the Liaoning, the South China Sea has the Shandong, and the Fujian ship is definitely for the East China Sea Fleet.

The U.S. military recently publicly predicted that China's 003 aircraft carrier may enter service in 2024. The US media also commented that "the launch of the Type 003 aircraft carrier would become a crucial step for the Chinese navy to enhance its own aircraft carrier strength." So, what is the difference between the 003 aircraft carrier built by China and the previous Shandong and Liaoning ships?

First of all, the two "predecessors" of the Shandong ship and the Liaoning ship were designed as 60,000-ton aircraft-carrying cruisers in the Soviet era. The potential and performance are relatively limited. China's maritime rights protection task is heavy, and a more powerful aircraft carrier is needed to display more tactics and deal with stronger enemies. The 003 aircraft carrier is a strategic aircraft carrier based on the US 100,000-ton aircraft carrier, representing infinite room for improvement.

Secondly, the inclination design of Shandong and Liaoning aircraft carriers makes it difficult for them to carry catapult devices to assist in the launch of carrier-based aircraft. However, our country has successfully designed electromagnetic catapults, breaking the monopoly of the United States. In the future, if our aircraft carriers are to carry For other large carrier-based aircraft, a catapult with a smaller volume and stronger thrust is essential, and the inclination design would limit its combat performance; while the 003 aircraft carrier is different, its direct-to-deck design can be perfectly equipped with electromagnetic catapults. It can assist carrier-based aircraft to take off and land, and can also meet the needs of ship-based aircraft in the future.

While the 320 meters (1,050 feet) length is comparable to American super-carriers, the CV18 Fujian is rather less beamy than the 270 feet that would have been expected based on US carrier design. HISutton notes that "The Chinese ship does have a narrower flight deck however. It’s width of about 73 meters (240 feet) is very similar to preceding Type-001 and Type-002 carriers. There may be logistical reasons for this, such as dry dock sizes. Or it may simply be that the Chinese planners were happy with the width of the current carriers."

The Type-003 appears to have inherited its dual elevator arrangement directly from the Russian Admiral Kutzenov class. The Ford Class has three aircraft elevators, one less than the preceding Nimitz Class. The Chinese ship however has only two. Both are rectangular and on the starboard side of the flight deck. The large island sits between them, and the forward elevator is very close to the catapults. As the blast deflector is right next to it, rather than forward of it, which may limit its use while aircraft are taking off. Although in theory the Chinese carrier would have a larger usable deck area thanks to fewer elevators, it will take the Chinese longer to move aircraft up from the hangar.

The fighter plane ejector is a device indispensable on every aircraft carrier on the aircraft carrier.Used steam pressurized to launch the fighter plane technology since the own in the world aircraft carrier, this technological shortcoming is that power consumption is big, volume heaviness etc. An electromagnetic catapult for a fighter aircraft on an aircraft carrier, which comprises a plurality of elongated channels, wherein the elongated channels are arranged in parallel; the upper parts of the side walls of the adjacent elongated channels are connected by an elongated deck chute. The electromagnetic catapult not only is beneficial to generation of stable and reliable large thrust but also has the advantages of simple structure, low construction cost and less energy consumption in the use process.

The Chinese catapult launching system is based on DC, not AC as used by the catapult launching system installed in the Gerald R. Ford carrier. Starting in the late 1880s, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla were embroiled in a battle now known as the War of the Currents. Edison developed direct current -- current that runs continually in a single direction, like in a battery or a fuel cell. During the early years of electricity, direct current (shorthanded as DC) was the standard in the USA. But Direct current is not easily converted to higher or lower voltages. Tesla believed that alternating current (or AC) was the solution to this problem. Alternating current reverses direction a certain number of times per second -- 60 in the U.S. -- and can be converted to different voltages relatively easily using a transformer.

As the winner of the People's Liberation Army's top military award in 2017, Rear Admiral Ma Weiming is a familiar name to Chinese. In 2018 his research team developed a medium-voltage, direct-current transmission network to replace the older alternating current system for the country's domestically built Type 002 carrier, which could provide more power for its electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). The innovative design meant that high-energy consuming launch systems and weapons could now be used on a vessel driven by conventional power.

So, how significant is the birth of the 003 aircraft carrier to the development of China's maritime military forces? On the one hand, although the Shandong and Liaoning ships are enough to deter Xiaoxiao [ie, small actors], they are still not enough to compete with the superpowers at sea. If you want our aircraft carrier battle group to continue to improve the combat effectiveness, to meet China's requirements for dealing with any maritime conflict, develop its own large-scale The strategic-level aircraft carrier is the most suitable route, and the 003 aircraft carrier is the product of this development goal. Its appearance proves that China has the ability to build large-scale strategic aircraft carriers. In the future, the 003 aircraft carrier would be used as a template, or 100,000-ton aircraft carriers such as 004 and 005 would be born.

On the other hand, with the 003 aircraft carrier, the collocation of naval carrier-based aircraft would no longer be greatly restricted in the future, and it can concentrate on the development of various carrier-based aircraft and strengthen the strength of the aircraft carrier fleet. At that time, the aircraft carrier formation composed of the 003 aircraft carrier would truly have the ability to fight in the open sea, rather than the Shandong and Liaoning ships, which cannot travel far because they need to seek the help of land combat power.

Furthermore, the launching or commissioning of 003 has truly broken the U.S. military’s monopoly on the power of aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific region. From the perspective of the United States, a medium-sized war requires two aircraft carriers, so the U.S. military often holds two aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific or eastern Taiwan. Aircraft carrier drills, while three aircraft carriers appear at the same time, are very rare. After the arrival of China's 003, it also means that China can dispatch 3 aircraft carriers at the same time, and it also includes "super aircraft carriers" such as 003. In this way, whether it is the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea, if the United States wants to carry out substantive operations, it must consider it well.

The Type 002 aircraft carrier is also known as 003 carrier, since it would be the third Chinese aircraft carrier. Every move of the 003 aircraft carrier attracted the attention of the world, the US media was paying close attention to it, and said that the 003 aircraft carrier has begun to fill the dock with water. The news that "China's new aircraft carrier is about to be launched and undocked" spread like wildfire. It is publicly predicted that the ship may enter service in 2024.