What is the global level of Chinese aircraft carriers?
When it comes to aircraft carriers, of course, the United States is the best, unparalleled, with the largest number, the most advanced technology and the strongest combat effectiveness. Before we learn about Chinese aircraft carriers, let's look at the aircraft carriers of the United States and other developed countries.
After the end of World War II, all countries in the world focused on the development of aircraft carriers suitable for their own countries in order to safeguard their maritime interests. After the war, the United States modernized the "Essex" class and "Midway Island" class aircraft carriers. The modified items include the addition of inclined flight deck, steam catapult and landing aid equipment, which improved the efficiency and safety of carrier based jet aircraft. High performance jet aircraft can be carried to modern aircraft carrier, and the displacement of aircraft carrier is increasing.
"Forrest" class aircraft carrier is the first class of conventional power aircraft carrier built for carrying jet aircraft after World War II. The United States still finds some shortcomings when using this class of aircraft carrier, so it carries out large-scale transformation and upgrading when building the next class of aircraft carrier, which is the "Kitty Hawk" class aircraft carrier. It is the largest displacement class I conventional powered aircraft carrier in the world and the last class conventional powered aircraft carrier in the United States.
In 1958, the United States began to build the USS Enterprise cvn-65 when it was building the Kitty Hawk class aircraft carrier. This is the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the world. "Enterprise" was commissioned in 1961, which can be called "enterprise" class, but only one ship was built in this class. The biggest advantage of using nuclear power is to improve the endurance capability. Nuclear power fuel can continuously sail hundreds of thousands of nautical miles at a time, so that the aircraft carrier has almost unlimited endurance capability, eliminating the impact of large chimney of conventional power aircraft carrier on flight operation.
After seeing the advantages of nuclear power, the US Navy built a series of Nimitz class aircraft carriers with a displacement of 100000 tons. This is the most powerful, bulky and displacement aircraft carrier in the world. Its blueprint is based on the "Hawk" class aircraft carrier.
The US Navy announced on January 16, 2007 that the new class US nuclear powered aircraft carrier was officially named USS Gerald R. Ford (cvn-78) in memory of former US President Gerald Ford who died on the evening of December 26, 2006. The Ford began construction in 2007 and was delivered on July 22, 2017 to replace the USS Enterprise cvn-65, which has been in service for more than 50 years. This is also the first class aircraft carrier built by the United States in the 21st century.
After the war, the "vertical take-off" and "vertical take-off" stages were developed in Britain. In the 1982 dispute between Britain and the Malvinas Islands, Britain relied on it to win 8000 miles away from home. By 2014, all "invincible" aircraft carriers will be decommissioned. In 2009, the construction of Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier, a new British class aircraft carrier, began. There are two aircraft carriers of this class in service on December 7, 2017 and December 10, 2019 respectively.
The "Kiev" class aircraft carrier (known as the "heavy aircraft cruiser" by the Soviet Navy) with VTOL aircraft was equipped with long-range missiles. The aircraft carrier "Kuznetsov" built later adopts sliding jump deck to avoid the installation of complicated ejection devices.
France has ten aircraft carriers in history. Since the late 1950s, France has entered the stage of independent development of aircraft carrier. Two "Clemenceau" class aircraft carriers, "Clemenceau" and "Fu Xu" began service in 1961 and 1963 respectively.
The aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle" is the only nuclear powered aircraft carrier not under the US Navy in the world. It is also the only aircraft carrier in active service of the French navy. It is the symbol of the French navy. Charles de Gaulle is the tenth aircraft carrier in French history. Its name comes from Charles de Gaulle, a famous French military general and statesman. The "Charles de Gaulle" aircraft carrier marks that France has established the most complete R & D system of defense industry in all European countries. Most of the key weapons have achieved independent R & D and production. In many aspects, it is enough to set up a school of its own beyond the two powers of the United States and the Soviet Union.
In contrast, Chinese aircraft carriers are still in the primary stage of experiment, but they are making rapid progress, accelerating growth in both quantity and quality.
China's first aircraft carrier "Liaoning" is the first aircraft carrier of the PLA Navy that can carry fixed wing aircraft. Its predecessor is the No.2 ship "Varyag" of "Kuznetsov" class aircraft carrier built by the Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, when the "Varyag" was built in Ukraine, it suffered the collapse of the Soviet Union, resulting in the interruption of construction projects, with a completion rate of about 68%. In 1999, China purchased the "Varyag" and arrived at Dalian port on March 4, 2002. From April 26, 2005, the Chinese Navy continued to build and improve it. The PLA's goal is to modify and manufacture this unfinished aircraft carrier and use it for scientific research, experiment and training purposes. On September 25, 2012, it was officially renamed "Liaoning" and delivered to the PLA Navy for use. On December 17, 2019, China's first domestic aircraft carrier "Shandong" came into service.
With the growth of China's aircraft carrier, it will play an important role in maintaining maritime security and world peace.
What is the global level of Chinese aircraft carriers?
A: primary level.
