Source: China Radio International Military
The U.S. "Ford"-class aircraft carrier "John F. Kennedy" recently completed its first week-long sea trial and returned to the shipyard in Virginia. The carrier is expected to be delivered to the U.S. Navy early next year.
Performance Leap
Photo: The U.S. "John F. Kennedy" aircraft carrier left port for sea trials (Source: Reference News)
The "Ford"-class aircraft carriers are the new generation of nuclear-powered carriers of the U.S. Navy. Compared with the "Nimitz"-class carriers, what performance improvements does the "Ford"-class have? Military analyst Cui Yiliang analyzed this.
Cui Yiliang:
The "Ford"-class aircraft carrier adopts a completely new overall design, including the nuclear power plant, flight deck layout, as well as the catapult system and arresting recovery system, all of which have been comprehensively upgraded. The electromagnetic catapult system equipped on the "Ford"-class is said to significantly increase the sortie rate of carrier-based aircraft. A higher sortie rate means stronger combat capability. At the same time, the "Ford"-class is equipped with an upgraded dual reactor, significantly enhancing its power generation capacity, which can provide sufficient power support for the electromagnetic catapult system.
Political Interference
Photo: The moment the steam catapult on the U.S. aircraft carrier launches a carrier-based aircraft (Source: The Paper)
Although the first ship of the U.S. "Ford"-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the "Ford", has been in service for several years, it still suffers from unstable performance of the electromagnetic catapult system. Therefore, former U.S. President Trump announced in October last year that he would sign a presidential executive order requiring the U.S. aircraft carriers to revert to using steam catapults. This technological "step back" immediately caused a huge uproar.
In Cui Yiliang's view, if the U.S. Navy's future aircraft carriers truly return to traditional steam-powered catapults, it will affect the combat effectiveness of the U.S. aircraft carriers.
Cui Yiliang:
Although the current maturity of the electromagnetic catapult system on the "Ford"-class is not sufficient, this does not mean that the technical direction is wrong; it just means the technology is not yet mature enough. The most reasonable approach should be to improve the maturity of the system, rather than abandoning this technical route. If the aircraft carrier technology regresses to steam catapults due to Trump's order, it will significantly affect the construction progress and combat effectiveness of the U.S. aircraft carriers.
Two-Ocean Deployment
Photo: The U.S. "Ford" aircraft carrier
It is understood that the home port of the "Ford" aircraft carrier is the Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia, USA. After the "Kennedy" aircraft carrier enters service, it is reported that it may be stationed at the Ketchikan Naval Base west of Seattle, thus enabling the U.S. Navy to deploy one of the latest aircraft carriers on both the east and west coasts of the United States.
Regarding the implications behind this deployment, Cui Yiliang conducted the following analysis.
Cui Yiliang:
This is actually related to the U.S. "Two-Ocean Fleet" concept. The U.S. believes that both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are crucial to the United States, so it aims to balance the deployment of the latest aircraft carriers in both directions. This move aims to ensure that the U.S. military can respond quickly in wartime and effectively intervene in regional situations.
Value Argument
Photo: The U.S. "Ford" aircraft carrier battle group
In modern warfare, with the accelerated application of artificial intelligence technology in the military field, the number of weapons capable of threatening aircraft carriers is increasing, and the threshold is gradually decreasing. For example, anti-ship cruise missiles and suicide drones can all pose a threat to aircraft carriers. At the same time, the cost of large and medium-sized aircraft carriers is becoming increasingly high, and they require a strong and complete combat system as support. Therefore, in recent years, there have been arguments advocating the so-called "aircraft carrier uselessness theory".
Cui Yiliang believes that although technological development has brought more threats to aircraft carriers, their unique role in long-range troop deployment remains irreplaceable for now. The key to winning future naval warfare is systematized combat, not relying on a single platform. Therefore, the value of aircraft carriers needs to be dynamically assessed in the context of new war forms.
Cui Yiliang:
In recent years, with the breakthrough development of technologies such as space-based sensors, unmanned equipment, and hypersonic weapons, the dominant position of traditional aircraft carriers at sea has faced more severe challenges. But does this mean that aircraft carriers are "useless"? The answer is no. Aircraft carriers can provide many capabilities, especially when operating far from home territory, where they can exert the power of force projection, which is difficult to replace by other means.
How to deal with the new threats faced by aircraft carriers? This requires consideration at the level of operational concepts. In actual combat, aircraft carriers do not fight alone but form a fleet. Therefore, to evaluate whether aircraft carriers are useful, a comprehensive assessment must be made from the perspective of joint combat systems. Of course, we must face the reality that aircraft carriers are facing more and more threats, which is a problem that any country developing aircraft carriers must consider in the future.
Reporter: Yu Lan
Original article: toutiao.com/article/7606257064830173730/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.