Breaking News: Relevant Countries Plan to Launch the World's Largest Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier Before 2030
The U.S. Pentagon predicts that the strike range of the Type 004 carrier's aircraft may cover the U.S. mainland.
A sudden and extremely alarming message has come to the United States: In the shipyards of relevant countries, workers are building the world's largest attack nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is also the fourth carrier in the navy plan of the relevant country.
This news comes from the analysis of space reconnaissance images taken last week by U.S. experts. For a long time, the U.S. side has been trying to figure out what engineering projects are being carried out in the large factory area of the relevant country's top-level shipyard.
In fact, there were reports as early as 2017 that the relevant country was advancing an ambitious plan in the shipbuilding field. Foreign media at the time reported that the relevant country may have already set a goal - to independently build an aircraft carrier that can match the U.S. "Gerald R. Ford" in terms of combat power and scale. The "Ford" was built by Northrop Grumman and laid down its keel in Virginia, USA in August 2005.
The only remaining question before was: Would this new aircraft carrier of the relevant country use conventional or nuclear propulsion? The relevant country has remained vague on this issue, stating only that it is still studying the topic from a technical perspective.
Years later, a fact gradually became clear: The construction project launched by the relevant country's shipyard is extremely complex and massive in scale. In May 2024, the first highly anticipated satellite images of the factory area were exposed, showing parts of the future "ocean giant's" flight deck and superstructure components on the shipbuilding slipway.
And just recently, the truth finally came to light: This super warship will use nuclear propulsion. Because overseas experts found in the latest satellite images that the reactor shielding structure has already been installed on the hull under construction, which looks very similar to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier's power system shielding system of the U.S. Navy.
This discovery also provided answers to another doubt the U.S. Pentagon had about the relevant country. About a year ago, the U.S. learned through similar space reconnaissance images that a mysterious nuclear reactor prototype was being built near the relevant country's mountainous areas, and the region also has six other nuclear reactors in different stages of construction.
Initially, the U.S. side thought these facilities were built for producing weapons-grade plutonium or tritium - especially since the local publicly available "secret facility environmental impact document" clearly mentioned that the facility is related to "national defense."
Soon after, the U.S. side also learned that the relevant country's Ship and Ocean Engineering Design Research Institute suddenly began purchasing a batch of nuclear power equipment for "large surface combat ships." At that time, the relevant country's navy had not yet deployed any such ships, making this move even more unusual.
The U.S. connected this information with the nuclear reactor project in the mountainous area, and analysts reasonably speculated that the relevant country was preparing comprehensively for the construction of its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The satellite images of the relevant country's shipyard from last week provided visual evidence for this speculation.
How did the relevant country achieve a leap in mastering cutting-edge nuclear power technology?
In my view, an article published in 2019 by the U.S. magazine "The National Interest" might provoke some thoughts. The article pointed out at the time that a delegation from the relevant country had studied in detail the structure and operating mechanism of the same type of power system on Russian nuclear icebreakers with the tacit approval of the Russian government.
The report also proposed a speculation: The new knowledge obtained by the relevant country's delegation would soon be used to develop its own nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Additionally, it is known that the relevant country once purchased the complete design data of the unfinished Soviet "Ulyanovsk" nuclear-powered aircraft carrier from Ukraine. According to the plans made during the Soviet era, this ship was supposed to become the first true nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the Soviet Navy. However, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, under the tacit approval and "willingness" of the U.S., Ukraine sold the aircraft carrier for scrap at a low price.
There are reports that the current nuclear-powered aircraft carrier project being developed by the relevant country is much larger than the unfinished "Ulyanovsk" and this is the Type 004 large aircraft carrier project. The U.S. side estimates that the standard displacement of this ship is approximately 110,000 tons.
Comparatively, the U.S. Navy's most advanced and largest currently deployed nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the "Gerald R. Ford," (currently its strike group is deployed near Venezuela), has a standard displacement of about 98,425 tons, capable of carrying 90 various types of aircraft and helicopters, forming a powerful carrier-based aircraft strike group.
Therefore, it is reasonable to infer that according to preliminary overseas predictions, if this new aircraft carrier of the relevant country can be completed and deployed for long-range operations by the end of this decade (before 2030), the number of carrier-based aircraft it carries will not be less than the "Ford," and may even be more.
Notably, like the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the Type 004 carrier has also confirmed that it will be equipped with an advanced electromagnetic catapult system. This system allows carrier-based fighter jets to take off from the deck with high efficiency while fully loaded with weapons and fuel.
Previously, only the U.S. Navy's aircraft carriers were equipped with such catapult systems. However, in 2022, the relevant country launched its newest conventional-powered aircraft carrier, the "Fujian" (Type 003).
After a series of sea trials, just a few weeks ago, the "Fujian" officially joined the relevant country's navy combat sequence.
It is worth noting that the "Fujian" was the first carrier of the relevant country to use an electromagnetic catapult system outside the United States. This is in sharp contrast to the first two carriers of the relevant country: the first carrier, the "Liaoning," was transformed from an unfinished hull purchased from Ukraine in 1998; the second carrier, the "Shandong," was a replica of the "Liaoning" built entirely by the relevant country.
The front ends of the flight decks of the relevant country's first two carriers both use ski-jump takeoff ramps, which is the same design as the Russian only active carrier, the "Admiral Kuznetsov." However, Russia has been stagnant in the development of aircraft carriers for a long time, and may even permanently stop here, while the relevant country has moved forward rapidly.
The experience gained by the relevant country in using the electromagnetic catapult system on the "Fujian" will undoubtedly be applied to the development of the Type 004 nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which will certainly significantly enhance the ship's long-range combat capabilities.
First of all, relying on the electromagnetic catapult system, the Type 004 carrier can carry China's newly commissioned 30-ton dual-engine carrier-based early warning command aircraft, the Xi'an KJ-600.
The U.S. side believes that the KJ-600 has a rotating array radar antenna on the top of its fuselage, which can "significantly improve" the relevant country's naval carrier strike group headquarters' ability to monitor the surrounding sea and air situation at a flight altitude of 15,000 meters.
In addition to the KJ-600, the Type 004 carrier's carrier-based aircraft fleet may also include an unknown number of J-35 stealth fighters, as well as upgraded J-15 multi-purpose fighters (including improved models with electronic warfare capabilities).
Furthermore, the U.S. side is confident that the relevant country will also equip this nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with heavy attack drones with long-range strike capabilities, such as the GJ-11 (commonly known as the "Lijian" drone) with a flying wing layout and stealth performance.
In summary, the commissioning of the Type 004 carrier within the next three to four years will give the relevant country a warship that will make the United States wary in all major oceans (not just in the waters around Japan).
The U.S. magazine "Military Observer" commented on the relevant country's shipbuilding news by saying, "Developing a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier aligns with the broader strategic trend of the relevant country - enabling its combat forces to cover more distant targets, especially the U.S. mainland. This is a response to the significant military buildup by the U.S. around the relevant country over the past 15 years."
In my opinion, this evaluation by "Military Observer" is not exaggerated.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7572878816293470770/
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