China's aircraft carrier is now undergoing sea trials, according to the BBC. The ship is actually a renovated Russian vessel the Chinese bought and salvaged. So is this a case of "a much ado about nothing?"
Today's running commentary includes:
Wonder how our AirSea Battle concept plans to deal with this balance of power shift?
The Kuznetsov....? I guess one way to deal with it would be with torpedoes or an Alpha-Strike. What are they going to fly off of it, anyway. Surely not Yak-36s?
I was thinking 2 ADCAPs would do it, but a third just to make sure. That leaves a 4th for an escort.
Hardly a balance of power shift from a piece of crap like this. Limited fuel and weapons loadouts for the fighters coming off the ski jump, rotary wing AEW platform, and small air group because of the cramped hangar deck. The Chinese didn't build this with the USN in mind. It's a political prestige symbol and any operational role it has is in regional dustups against rival South China Sea claimants like Vietnam. I'm glad to see they are sinking resources into stuff like this...
The idea for this carrier is to test systems and techniques (TTPs for you Army types) in preparation for their new carriers whenever they finally come to fruition. This is much like their Golf SSB was a test platform for their SSBN.
Like back in the thirties and forties. Countries like Greece and Sweden had ‘battleships’ but the Greeks lost theirs the first day and Sweden scrapped their ‘pocket BB’ during the war. France had a substantial number of BB but scuttled some and did not use any of the rest, except after the armistice and than it was against the British. But countries like Argentina, Chile and Brazil all had BB, all built for them exclusively I believe. Not because of a ‘threat’ from the US. Prestige items, never used and eventually dumped.
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