Decoding China's first Aircraft Carrier

http://the-diplomat.com/2011/08/13/deco ... carrier/3/

................."What is China’s first carrier actually capable of?

China’s own declaration that the ship is ‘obsolete’ and ‘for training purposes’ is probably fairly accurate. Naval analysts Andrew Erickson and Gabriel Collins have described the ex-Varyag – widely reported to have been renamed Shi Lang – as a ‘starter carrier,’ and it’s hard to imagine it ever being used as a weapon of war. This is a ship with training wheels for a navy that has never operated a carrier before. The first major milestone, after confirming that the ship itself functions, will be equipping the carrier with its air arm of naval J-15 fighters, which are themselves unproven and still in development. Dean Cheng, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, estimates that the PLAN could achieve this objective within a six to 18-month timeframe. But training pilots to fly off carriers will be a long and costly exercise, he says.


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China's navy is pretty embarrasing. They are recruiting officers from the army instead of the merchant marine. But they have the money, lets see if it translates to competence in 20 years.

So is this an argument that we can reduce the defense budget? Besides China, what are our other major threats in regards to large ships and more modern planes and tanks?

Just asking, because I haven't researched it. I know Congress is looking into reductions. And it will cost jobs, which is tough in this economy.

pineinthegrass wrote: So is this an argument that we can reduce the defense budget? Besides China, what are our other major threats in regards to large ships and more modern planes and tanks?

Just asking, because I haven't researched it. I know Congress is looking into reductions. And it will cost jobs, which is tough in this economy.

Since before the Berlin Wall has come down, the US military industrial complex has been trying to turn China into the new evil empire replacement for the Soviet Union. Frankly I don't see it. China is going to be throwing their weight around in their spheres of influence in the region, but that is their right.

The US military industrial complex has to have a boogeyman to scare us into buying all those new weapons and platforms.

WayneH wrote: The US military industrial complex has to have a boogeyman to scare us into buying all those new weapons and platforms.

I'm sure there is some of that, but I'd guess it's more political. Congress has approved programs that even the military didn't want. So dollars contributed and local state jobs count for those votes as well.

I support cutting the defense budget, but as I said, jobs will be lost. And those with lost jobs will get unemployment insurance which they deserve, but it's been going beyond the usual 6 months for about 2 years now, adding to the deficit even more. So the defense cuts won't be so obvious when you consider the whole picture.

Agreed. The same goes for closing down government agencies to save money.

The United States Navy is bigger than the world's next 17 largest navies combined.

WayneH wrote: Agreed. The same goes for closing down government agencies to save money.

The United States Navy is bigger than the world's next 17 largest navies combined.

Do you have a link for that?

WayneH wrote: Agreed. The same goes for closing down government agencies to save money.

The United States Navy is bigger than the world's next 17 largest navies combined.

I also would like to see a link to that also. Since we are down to286 ships. Of those, what we call the gator navy side is about 1/3 of it. So actual combatants are less. Right now we have I believe it is 11 carriers of which at least 2 are usually in maintance and upkeep and any given time. There are currently 2 planned. Tonnage wise we might be bigger, number of actual ships we are not. Russia alone has almost double the number of ships. We just happen to have the largest carrier fleet. Throw in the LHA's (look them up) and that contributes to the tonnage right there. Now take into account that a couple of the carriers are getting near thier 50 years service date and alot of the cruiser and destroyers are also getting up there in age.

Just for info these numbers are as of Jan of 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy

I do know the French/UK Libyan naval operations may need to be suspended since the French carrier is overdue for maintenance and they don't have a backup.

So maybe tonnage wise, the US is the largest, it takes a lot of patrol boats to make up for one carrier and the Russians may have a lot of ships but it looks like most of them never leave port. Semi-mothball? Same with Chinese naval assets, very few on station in other areas beside Somalia.