China’s landlocked carrier

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, October 16, 2009 - 5:10 PM Share

China has constructed what looks like an aircraft carrier -- but it is stuck far inland, and indeed dwarves the small body of water to which it is adjacent.

The thing is almost the size of a mammoth Nimitz-class carrier, and it has what appears to be jets and helicopters on what appears to be its flight deck.

But is not a mock carrier for practice, but actually part of a kind of Communist Disney World, reports this blog.

(HT to John McCreary and NightWatch)

EXPLORE:CHINA, MILITARY

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ERIC C. ANDERSON

6:58 PM ET

October 16, 2009

Old News...but check the following out

The "Disney world" carrier is old news, but there is evidence of a more serious campaign to consider carrier options elsewhere...the following link connects to some of the best pictures on same:

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=166985

as best the amateur intel types can tell this thing is a mockup for deck crew training...not substantial enough for actual flight ops...there is a larger debate over the status of the airframes on the structure...the fixed wing bird appears a mockup, the helo may be the real McCoy

TYRTAIOS

9:56 PM ET

October 16, 2009

It would also seem China has

It would also seem China has the intention to build up a capability that approximates a U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit or Force, as we've seen LPD (land platform dock) type amphibs on display since 2003. That being the case, it would stand to reason that since control of the sky is essential, at least while the amphibious landing and/or build-up is occurring, China would also include airpower along with this blue water force projection - ergo, aircraft carrier.

Former Chinese Admiral Liu Huaqing studied under Russian naval strategist Admiral Sergei Gorshkov. It would further stand to reason, prior to his retirement, he set a future course for China developing a blue water force projection to challenge the U.S. in the Pacific which must include an aircraft carrier(s).

MED

12:19 AM ET

October 17, 2009

While I don't necessarily

While I don't necessarily disagree with your statements, I would like to point out that the Chinese cannot match US military might head-on anytime soon. So they are taking a path of undermining (looking for the soft underbelly) tried and tested weapon platforms, while trying to maintain technological parity in up and coming ones. Let me elaborate from Chinese actions over the years. The Chinese know US spy satellites can effectively track most land based nuke platforms, thus they made them mobile (much harder to track). They also know that GPS is absolutely vital for US military, thus they showed the world they can shoot down a satellite. They also know that Networked weapons are the heart and soul of several weapons platforms (Aegis, F-22, Patriot, and so on and so on), thus they are becoming increasingly adept at cyber warfare. The list really goes on;they have been doing their homework. While on the other hand, US armed forces are making revolutionary headway in robotics technology (UAV, robotic tanks, etc), metamaterials (invisibility), or anything the USN decides to put their mind to (or Darpa for that matter). The Chinese are not only playing catch-up they are almost maintaining parity, if not they corner the market on the rare and limited resources required to make those weapons. Here are my sources:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-10/china-bootlegs-us-uavs-designs-indigenous-uav-stealth-fighter
https://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-04/hackers-china-syndrome
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/09/09/going_green
- on china taking all the materials needed for this kind of stuff
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-10/black-hole-fits-your-pocket
- now the black hole and its application to theoretical physics is unimportant to this blog, its about its potential for weapons. quite alot.

MED

10:11 PM ET

October 16, 2009

Aircraft Carriers

Are so Old School, even the USN is trying to figure out if it wants to go down the road of less aircraft carriers and battle groups and into more nimble smaller boats. Why you ask? Because it turns out one well place cruise missle/nuke/icbm takes out a whole battle group. And our best defense against it, The Phalanx, is a debatable piece of equipment. I say let the Chinese build as many aircraft carriers as they want, waste their hard earned money and treasury bonds on this stuff. I'm all for placing them in strategic places as that picture above.

BRETT

4:30 AM ET

October 17, 2009

My initial thoughts were that

My initial thoughts were that it was a mock-up for training purposes, for the day when they actually do build an aircraft carrier. But that still wouldn't explain why it was so far in-land - wouldn't they want to do exercises closer to the sea?