I’m rooting for the US to sell India either the Kennedy or the Nimitz.
1) It would make the Chinese drop a load in their trou.
2) The Indians are good at reverse engineering, so would soon have their own carriers based on those models, with improvements.
The problem with carriers is that you need strong propulsion, very strong stabilization, and a very competent crew to operate these. Then on top of that, you need a very competent command crew, and a very competent deck/flight crew.
Oh, yes, and something the Japanese didn’t have, and cost them plenty, very, very competent damage control.
The US has a 90 year lead on this. Technically speaking, if Japan wanted to, it could build nearly a Nimitz class aircraft carrier and be able to operate it, before either India or China could do so.
Something that China should be very careful about.
“Technically speaking, if Japan wanted to, it could build nearly a Nimitz class aircraft carrier and be able to operate it, before either India or China could do so”
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Yep. And I was told they (Japan) have some prior experience with Naval Aviation.
The question is whether countries like India and Japan have enough manpower to effectively utilise ships of the Nimitz/Kennedy class. There’s a reason why only the USN builds such ships. The Russian Admiral Kuznetsov, which is the largest non-US carrier has a complement of about 2000, which is less than half the number of men found on a Nimitz class ship.
Then of course there’s the need for plenty of escort and replenishment vessels. You can’t build and deploy those within a short period.
“Oh, yes, and something the Japanese didn’t have, and cost them plenty, very, very competent damage control.”
That’s the Achilles Heel for a ChiCom fleet is damage control. They’re unable to compose damage control strategies because such things are considered ‘defeatist’, ‘counter-revolutionary’, and they’re also considered a recognition of foreign military superiority. Very short political and military careers are in store for Chinese who advance the ideas of damage control.