China’s future aircraft carriers may be nuclear-powered, says a big Chinese defense contractor.
State-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) reportedly said in a statement on Tuesday that it plans to “speed up the process of making technological breakthroughs in nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, new-type nuclear submarines, quiet submarines, maritime unmanned intelligent confrontation systems, maritime three-dimensional offensive and defensive systems, and naval warfare comprehensive electronic information systems.”
The Chinese Communist Party tabloid Global Times says it’s the first time a state-owned Chinese defense contractor has openly identified building nuclear-powered aircraft carriers as one of its projects.
The newspaper quoted Chinese military experts as saying that Beijing may be making progress in developing nuke-powered aircraft carriers and that officials may eventually confirm the news.
“I think we can say that China has made major breakthroughs in the implementation of nuclear power on large vessels,” Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“In a veiled reference in November, CSIC Chairman Hu Wenming said in a speech at the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company construction site in Liaoning Province for China’s first domestically made aircraft carrier that China is capable of designing and building any type of aircraft carrier,” the newspaper noted.
“Hu’s speech indicates that China can build aircraft carriers powered by diesel, gas or nuclear power,” Li said. “The country has mastered all the fundamental core technologies, including ski-jump and catapult-assisted launch technologies.
“In the future, China’s national interests will continue to expand overseas. Without a fleet of large nuclear-powered vessels, the Chinese navy cannot sail for a long time to faraway waters.”
Reuters reported that the announcement by CSIC appears to have been subsequently edited on the company’s website to remove the mention of nuclear-powered ships. But the story remains generally accessible on China’s internet.
This all started when the US first tried to peel China away from Russia. Well just look at how that has turned out.
Folks, China had 『learnt the carrier ropes』even before the 2008 Olympics, as I personally had gotten wind of from sources ????who are commited to extremes of discretion???? who have relatives toiling it out in China’s naval ship building industry saying China held off on the idea to ease regional fear, i.e., fear as in Japan principally.
In order to NOT alarm its neighbours, and most probably to AVOID SANCTIONS, she low keyed the rusty bucket purchase, which was stripped of everything. YES EVERYTHING. Zilch. Niet. 未有, NOTHING and macerated it as a Casino and tourist purchase.
She would have had another two decades of set backs, results of sanctions, if the US had thought she had the capability of refitting the Varyag as she did. Never in their (US’s) wildest of expectation that China was capable of a feat and we would have been guranteed to have been tossed a Kim Jong-un if the US knew we had the capability.
Now that China had proven its worth in banging together domestic carriers and moving into the 80,000 tonne class (Nimitz sized boats), logic starts to present to us this question: what’s stopping her from stripping a reactor or two out of the older but retired 092 SSBN’s and the 091 SSN’s and refit it into the 003 class CSN CV-18?
Just a thought.
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