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China’s Future Aircraft Carrier Force Could Be a Financial Train Wreck
Washington Free Beacon ^ | 4-26-2017 | Reuben F. Johnson

Posted on 04/26/2017 7:08:21 PM PDT by blam

SINGAPORE—China's launch of its first homegrown aircraft carrier on Wednesday could be the beginning of a financial train wreck, according to carrier design and construction specialists.

Unless seriously revised, China's plans for its future carrier force could become a major financial difficulty for the country. The resources poured into aircraft carriers are a massive budgetary burden, even in the United States, according to Andrew Marshall, former director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment.

China's first "indigenous" aircraft carrier, assigned the hull number of CV-17, is expected to be named the Shandong and will be slightly larger at 70,000 tons than the CV-16, China's first-ever aircraft carrier.

The CV-17, characterized by the Chinese as a "homegrown" design, is an upgraded version of the Liaoning. The Soviet-built Liaoning, however, was not developed either in China or with China's naval requirements in mind. Ukraine sold the unfinished ship in 1998 to Chinese middlemen "pretending to have no connection to the navy," according to one China military analyst in Washington. "This was done under the ridiculous pretense that the carrier would be tied up at the docks in Macau to become a floating casino painted in battleship grey."

The ship was eventually towed to the Dalian shipyards, where it underwent more than a decade of re-fitting as the People's Liberation Army Navy worked to develop aircraft for carrier-based use.

This new carrier will be "just enough different from the Liaoning that the PLAN will enjoy minimal benefits—if any—and no synergism from having two similarly-designed ships," according to a U.S. aircraft carrier design specialist who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. The troubles that the Chinese will have with their carrier fleet "are only going to multiply geometrically if they follow through on their previously declared plans for future ships."

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aircraftcarrier; china; navy; plan
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1 posted on 04/26/2017 7:08:21 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam

Maybe we’ll see them in a Harbor Freight parking lot sale this summer.


2 posted on 04/26/2017 7:14:55 PM PDT by tumblindice (`)
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To: blam
If we get in hot war with China/PLAN they will crank out those ships like crazy. Yeah we may sink their ships but they have massive steel infrastructure and industrial capacity to make good on their losses.

OTH the USA has ONE shipyard that can make CVNs. We have a declining industrial base not capable of making good on our ship losses. Maybe not today but the direction of power is slowly shifting towards the Dragon and away from the Eagle.

Well they tell me there will never be another naval war between large navies. So who cares right?

3 posted on 04/26/2017 7:18:32 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: blam
China’s Future Aircraft Carrier Force Could Be a Financial Train Wreck

Now that's how you misuse a metaphor.

4 posted on 04/26/2017 7:19:36 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: tumblindice

The ShanLongDong?


5 posted on 04/26/2017 7:19:51 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God Bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: central_va
"Well they tell me there will never be another naval war between large navies. So who cares right? "

You'll fight with what you have on hand. The war will be over before anyone builds any new ships, IMO.

6 posted on 04/26/2017 7:20:51 PM PDT by blam
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To: jiggyboy

China’s bridge to future dominance may leave them up the creek without a paddle.


7 posted on 04/26/2017 7:21:13 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Abortion is what slavery was: immoral but not illegal. Not yet.)
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To: blam

Sink the ‘Dong!


8 posted on 04/26/2017 7:24:49 PM PDT by bobby.223 (Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a great life!)
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To: A CA Guy

The King Kong Long Dong.
What I don’t understand is why would China attack us their best customer? Who is going to buy all their goods at top dollar?


9 posted on 04/26/2017 7:25:42 PM PDT by ar10
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To: blam
You'll fight with what you have on hand. The war will be over before anyone builds any new ships, IMO.

Not how WWII played out. If things go nuclear then you are right but a long drawn out conventional war there will be massive ship building going on.

10 posted on 04/26/2017 7:29:43 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

This is how we managed to drive the Soviet Union into bankruptcy. We made them believe they had to develop a missile shield defense, so they could “shoot down a missile with another missile”, and they poured so many resources into their version of “Star Wars” they were driven to insolvency.

Let the Chinese try to launch a naval air force. They won’t be able to crank out state-of-the-art vessels at a great enough pace to keep up with losses.


11 posted on 04/26/2017 7:32:50 PM PDT by alloysteel (Islam is not the highest and best end goal to be aspired to by mankind.)
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To: blam
Ssssshhhhhhh!

Never interrupt your enemy when they are busy making a mistake.

"Ceterum censeo Islam esse delendam."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)

LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

12 posted on 04/26/2017 7:33:43 PM PDT by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)
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To: ar10

Once the ChiComs have the upper hand all of their factory capacity will be used for munition making. Forget that consumer stuff. That is just being done now to de industrialize the USA so it cannot win a war of attrition.


13 posted on 04/26/2017 7:34:06 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: alloysteel
Let the Chinese try to launch a naval air force. They won’t be able to crank out state-of-the-art vessels at a great enough pace to keep up with losses.

They are not going to do that now. The time is not right. The ChiComs want to corner the world market on industrial production. They have the manpower and they don't give sh!t about CO2. It may take 50 more years but when they have all of the heavy industry that is when they will kick into military overdrive.

They think in terms of centuries.

14 posted on 04/26/2017 7:39:11 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: A CA Guy

Hu Flung Dung?


15 posted on 04/26/2017 7:41:25 PM PDT by tumblindice (`)
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To: central_va
The United States now operates 10 Nimitz-class "supercarriers," aircraft carriers that dwarf all other flat-tops worldwide both in size and capability. The Nimitz carriers are 1,092 feet long and weigh a whopping 101,600 tons—60 percent larger than their nearest counterparts, the Queen Elizabeth class.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/g2412/a-global-roundup-of-aircraft-carriers/

16 posted on 04/26/2017 7:47:02 PM PDT by Ken H (Best French election ever!)
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To: central_va

A century ago China was a weak democracy that had just thrown off its monarchy. I doubt the rulers then planned for a communist takeover in 1949, followed by a slowly emerging authoritarian capitalist state after the death of Mao.


17 posted on 04/26/2017 7:56:05 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: Ken H

I was in the Navy and I am very aware of the capabilities of the US surface fleet and CVNs. I would rather have 6 active CVNs and 6 drydocks/shipyards making CVNs than 10 CVNs and only ONE shipyard that can make/repair them. Shipyards and drydocks are the key to naval warfare.


18 posted on 04/26/2017 7:56:59 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

That may be true but long term planning is in their DNA.


19 posted on 04/26/2017 7:58:12 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: ar10
What I don’t understand is why would China attack us their best customer?

Because they do not care about the "economy", they would have their people eat grass if necessary to destroy us.

20 posted on 04/26/2017 8:00:40 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Die Gedanken sind Frei)
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