According to a report by the U.S. magazine MSJ on October 8, China's new aircraft carrier does not surpass the United States through its own performance, but rather gains a practical advantage that allows the aircraft carrier to play a role earlier, by relying on a much larger missile system.

On the surface, the article's title only acknowledges one advantage of China's aircraft carrier, but upon clicking into the article, it is completely different from the title. The body lists a whole set of systemic strengths, including missile saturation strikes, theater air defense umbrella, geographic interior deployment, electromagnetic catapult carrier aircraft, shore-based supply support, and air-ground joint operations.

The article points out that although the U.S. aircraft carrier still holds traditional advantages in flight deck and carrier combat capabilities, it has to cross multiple layers of strike zones established by China before entering the operational radius.

In contrast, China's aircraft carrier can intervene early under the protection of a missile umbrella, becoming part of the system's firepower, rather than advancing alone.

This approach reflects the evolution of the People's Liberation Army's overall combat system.

While emphasizing the advantages of ballistic missiles, the U.S. media also acknowledges that China has built a complete kill chain from reconnaissance, targeting, striking, to evaluation, providing a safe window and operational rhythm for the aircraft carrier.

China's aircraft carrier

The anxiety reflected in this article is not about how strong China's aircraft carrier has become, but that the U.S. aircraft carrier has become a mere showpiece when facing China.

The article emphasizes that the greatest risk for the U.S. aircraft carrier lies in the disparity in ammunition conversion and resupply: the PLA can continuously launch DF-21D and DF-26 anti-ship ballistic missiles from the mainland, and can also add the DF-17 with maneuverable hypersonic warhead, while coordinating with air-launched and sea-launched cruise missiles to build a high-density, multi-wave, multi-directional fire coverage.

Although the U.S. aircraft carrier has the Aegis system, SM-6 interceptors, ESSM medium-range air defense, electronic warfare decoys, and close-in weapon systems, each interception means consuming limited inventory in the magazine, and the aircraft carrier strike group lacks the ability to resupply ammunition at sea.

In other words, China can afford the ammunition war, while the U.S. cannot afford the barrage of missiles.

More deadly is that the interception cost is generally higher than the price of the incoming missiles, which equates to waging a deficit war.

Hypersonic missiles further exacerbate this dilemma, as their flight paths are difficult to predict, compressing radar warning and interception response time, making even the carrier's shield unable to guarantee protection against this combined salvo.

If the U.S. aircraft carrier cannot withstand the first wave of missile rain, even if its performance is strong, it would be unable to reach an effective combat position.

DF-26

The U.S. media also mentioned another advantage of China's aircraft carrier, which is that geographical location itself is part of the weapon, giving China the first-strike advantage.

The First Island Chain is naturally a battlefield boundary, and China is precisely located inside this boundary.

Whether it's a conflict in the Taiwan Strait or a crisis in the South China Sea, China can operate within hundreds of kilometers of its territory, while the U.S. aircraft carriers have to sail from Guam, Hawaii, or even further from the mainland to cross the ocean to enter the area.

China can launch missiles, take off aircraft, mobilize land-based air force and rocket forces within the first minute of war, while the U.S. can only slowly move in with its naval forces.

More realistically, China's missile launch platforms are all on land, capable of mobile deployment and rapid resupply, whereas once the U.S. aircraft carrier enters the battle zone, it not only has limited magazines, but also has to deal with saturation pressure from different directions.

If during the Cold War, the U.S. relied on time and range to project power globally, now the reality is that the setting of near-sea as a battlefield has rendered these traditional advantages completely ineffective.

China's aircraft carrier

The most critical factor is China's kill chain system.

The U.S. media pointed out that China has already been building a full-dimensional strike chain from space to the sea, where all information is transmitted to the land command center, then processed by artificial intelligence assistance systems to calculate the strike, and then guided by the东风 (Dongfeng) missiles to carry out the strike.

This process relies on dense missile rain and wide-area coverage, sufficient to inflict the first damage before the enemy's air defense system completes its interception deployment.

This means that as long as the kill chain remains closed-loop, even if there are errors, they can be compensated by the number of missiles.

And in the first three days of the war, this kill chain is the most complete and lethal.

Although the U.S. military can interfere through electronic warfare, cyber attacks, or even destroy the chain nodes, it is impossible to directly break the entire chain due to the complex and dispersed Chinese reconnaissance network.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7559064241794236955/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author, and we welcome you to express your opinion by clicking on the 【like/dislike】 button below.