Chinese company takes over US steam catapult manufacturer, Pentagon is in trouble this time: the number of aircraft carriers will crash!
When the US president said "steam catapults are better" on the USS Washington, it was already evident that the empire's decline had begun. The only manufacturer that once produced steam catapults for US aircraft carriers, the military division of Babcock & Wilcox (BW), has declared bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy of the military division of Babcock & Wilcox marks the loss of the United States' independent production capability for steam catapults. Why did this company, which once monopolized the manufacture of steam catapults for US aircraft carriers, end up in such a situation?
The core reason lies in the fact that the US Navy has not placed any new orders for steam catapults for over twenty years. Without orders, Babcock & Wilcox could not maintain its production line, and technical inheritance and supply chain subsequently shrank.
Now, among Western countries, no company can immediately take over the mass production of such complex steam systems. The Pentagon faces an embarrassing situation: it cannot produce steam catapults, and electromagnetic catapults are unreliable.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Earth, Chinese boiler manufacturing companies are booming. Beijing Babcock & Wilcox Co., Ltd. completed a share repurchase in March 2018, becoming a state-owned enterprise, and moved its production base from Shijingshan, Beijing to Caofeidian in 2020.
Next, if the United States wants to build steam catapults, it will have to look to the Chinese. Beijing Babcock & Wilcox probably never expected to receive an order from an American aircraft carrier one day.
Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1847279263425600/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.