Original I am Ivan the Great
Recently, an enthusiastic netizen shared a photo of the Chinese Navy's "Shandong" aircraft carrier and "Hainan" amphibious assault ship seaside array. From the photo, the "Shandong" ship occupies the C position of the lens, and in the distance is the shadow of the "Hainan" ship. Due to the use of a compressed telephoto lens and a good composition design, this photo was taken with a sense of oppression, although we do not know the time and place of this photo, but Ivan the Great from the lens, vaguely see the appearance of the "great navy".
However, let's talk about it, after the Type 002 aircraft carrier "Shandong" and the Type 075 amphibious assault ship "Hainan" successively served in a certain unit of the Southern Theater Navy, they have always been the focus of Chinese military fans focusing on the Chinese Navy. In the current special situation, what kind of campaign and tactical purposes will these two warships bear, or what kind of tactical role the two warships can play when they are "combined", that is the topic that everyone is most concerned about.
Therefore, today we will start with a special chapter on what kind of tactical missions the "Shandong" and "Hainan" warships will be given under the current campaign situation, and if the two warships can be "integrated" and become a mixed combat group, will they erupt into stronger combat effectiveness?
"Shandong" ship
First of all, let's talk about the "Shandong" ship, since the ship was officially listed in the Chinese Navy on December 17, 2019, in the past two years, it has chopped waves and forged ahead, and has completed single-ship navigation, single-ship tactics and aviation operations, formation joint tactics and aviation operations exercises, and J-15 carrier-based fighters have also conducted combat training on the "Shandong" ship many times, marking that the ship has initially formed combat effectiveness. As a product with optimized design and in-depth improvement on the basis of the 001 aircraft carrier, some of the technical and tactical indicators of the "Shandong" ship have been greatly improved compared with the "Liaoning" aircraft carrier.
However, even so, we must also point out that from the perspective of the Chinese Navy, the "Shandong" ship still has certain technical problems: First, the way of sliding and jumping off limits the fuel carrying coefficient of the carrier-based aircraft to a large extent, which in turn limits the combat radius of the carrier-based aircraft and the time for air combat patrols.
This is not a big problem for the Soviet Red Navy, after all, the Red Navy does not have the concept of offensive air superiority and air combat patrol, but hopes to use the Su-33 carrier-based aircraft as an interceptor aircraft, continue to export small groups to the main threat direction, and establish an air defense blockage area. Since at the end of the Cold War, the aviation-based sea combat equipment equipped by the US military has actually made little progress compared with the 1970s, and has been stuck at the level of the "White Star Eye" TV guided bomb and the "Harpoon" anti-ship missile, in fact, the Soviet army's requirements for key technical data such as the interception radius and stay time of the Su-33 carrier-based aircraft are not as high as many people think.
However, the idea of the Soviet Red Navy has obviously become a problem when it comes to the Chinese Navy, not only because the Chinese Navy's aircraft carrier strike group is actually taking the route of the US Navy-style offensive air superiority and the establishment of a dense air defense intercept line, but also because the US Navy currently has more and more means of aviation and sea control, and the range is getting farther and farther. Therefore, whether it is based on the 1143.6 improved "Liaoning" ship or "Shandong" ship, the problem is actually the same, that is, the air defense combat radius of the carrier aircraft fleet is insufficient, the air lag time is insufficient, and the effective airspace control capability is low.
Z-18Y early warning helicopter
In addition to this problem, the defect in the aviation operation capability of the "Shandong" ship also brings about a second problem: the "Shandong" ship has not been equipped with a carrier-based early warning aircraft so far, and the early warning helicopter alone can only be "barely enough", thus further deteriorating the "Shandong" ship's situational awareness and tactical ability to carry out offensive air superiority.
It is precisely because of the above two "restrictive conditions" that before the new generation of aircraft carriers are officially commissioned, whether it is a "Liaoning" or a "Shandong" ship, the tactical tasks that can be undertaken are relatively limited and must be added with a bunch of pre-factors:
From the perspective of "pre-factors", when the "Shandong" ship is in action, it must be supported by shore-based early warning aircraft, campaign-class electronic reconnaissance aircraft, electronic jammers and anti-submarine aircraft, and the scope of action is difficult to exceed the radius of activity of the above large aircraft;
Judging from the "undertaking of tasks," the "Shandong" warship is likely to undertake the task of sealing off some important strait waterways, establishing air cordons, and preventing some countries outside the region from sending forces into the waters of the South China Sea or the main island of Taiwan through such areas as the Bashi Strait and the Miyako Strait.
At the same time, the "Shandong" warship can also be used as a mobile maritime strike platform by virtue of the Existing Superiority of the Chinese Navy in the South China Sea, thus further strengthening the campaign and tactical superiority of our army in the South China Sea. However, it seems premature to expect the "Shandong" warship to be able to go out to the open seas and fight now.
"Hainan" ship
After talking about the "Shandong" ship, let's talk about the "Hainan" ship, compared to many readers may have some unrealistic fantasies about the "Shandong" ship (laughs), I believe that everyone has not so many ideas about the "Hainan" ship, after all, the amphibious assault ship, how to use the US Navy, the Chinese Navy almost use it.
It is nothing more than that because of the difference in naval strategic theories and the different emphases of naval tactical tasks, the amphibious assault ships of the US Navy are more focused on using advanced tactical corps to carry out relatively independent campaigns and tactical missions in the case of carrying amphibious expeditionary task teams (MEU); while the environment and preset battlefield used by the Amphibious Assault Ships of the Chinese Navy are relatively specific, nothing more than a certain strait and a certain sea area, and in use, they are often strongly supported by the basic campaign corps of the Army and Air Force, which is part of the synthetic combat system.
The Chinese Navy has entered a new era of development (Source: Nishi Kasai Shipbuilding Military CG)
However, compared with the impact of the "Shandong" ship on the Chinese Navy for the time being, it seems that the significance of the "Hainan" ship to the Chinese Navy is the real "charcoal in the snow". Ivan the Great believes that the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, when used as a core delivery platform for amphibious landing operations, will give the Chinese Navy two rather critical tactical capabilities:
The first is the ability to set up forward presence points in the wave transfer area and directly deploy gunships, which will enable the first echelon to receive close air support from gunships at all times when landing on the pan-water, capturing landing sites, and carrying out in-depth attacks. When carrying out a deep attack, the efficiency of the task of carrying out deep anti-tank and anti-impact by the helicopter gunship will also be quite high, and this advantage will greatly enhance the operational efficiency of the first echelon to seize the landing shore section for the landing force.
After all, judging from the overall defensive campaign layout of an island, it is basically equivalent to "resisting the western front and preserving the eastern combat strength", and the so-called "combat strength preservation" operation carried out by the island on the eastern coast is basically relying on the two base groups of Hualien-Jiashan and Zhihang-Jian'an. These two base groups are difficult to completely suppress by ballistic missiles alone, relying on aerial bombs or cruise missiles and other suppression efficiency is even lower, if the use of army units to attack, it is necessary to cross the rugged central mountains, and its task is no less difficult than the mountain attacks scheduled to be carried out in Okayama, Shizuoka and other places during the "Little Crown" operation of the US military.
The island believes that these two major bases on the eastern coast can be used as important "foreign aid bases" to be used as a starting point for counterattacks after gathering strength, and if our army is equipped with amphibious assault ships and air-force task forces, then it is entirely possible to use air assault from the relatively weak fronts of these two bases, that is, from the coastline, to implement airborne landing points. At that time, the air assault infantry will face the airfield guard unit and the B reserve force, which are quite weak in combat effectiveness and a small number, and the reserve force that wins the battle and destroys the opponent in one fell swoop is not a problem, which is why the defense department of a certain island is very nervous after the 075 amphibious assault ship is served, and believes that the threat of this type of combat equipment to them is "very huge".
Two ships combined
After talking about the "Shandong" warship and the "Hainan" warship, we should talk about the "integration" of these two types of warships and how to integrate them into joint operations. In fact, from a common sense point of view, aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, the two are not easy to jointly operate, after all, the speed is not very equal: a thing that can run 30 knots, and a thing that often runs forward at a speed of 20 knots, to jointly operate, one will definitely drag down the other.
U.S. aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships
However, if we can think of it in terms of "unconventional", perhaps amphibious assault ships can serve as "arsenals" and "reconnaissance eyes" for aircraft carriers:
Type 076 amphibious assault ship imagination (Source: Weibo @ Nishi Kasai shipbuilding military CG)
When used as "reconnaissance eyes", a large number of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft can be deployed on amphibious assault ships, and these unmanned reconnaissance aircraft have the potential to improve the situational awareness range of aircraft carriers;
Image source: Large package 00
When serving as an "arsenal of weapons", it is even possible to consider deploying Achathi integrated UAV on an amphibious assault ship to make up for the relatively limited number of aircraft carrier sorties of large fleets and the fact that offensive air superiority and air defense operations still need to consume a part of the number of aircraft.
Image from the internet
This should be the way to open the joint operation of the Type 075 amphibious assault ship and the Type 002 aircraft carrier - but compared with the 075 type of amphibious assault ship that is still relatively "simple", Ivan the Great is more looking forward to the future as a new generation of amphibious assault ships as a follow-up type of Type 075 amphibious assault ship, and even a new generation of large fleet aircraft carriers. So, what kind of surprises will the future Chinese Navy bring to us in the construction and equipment of amphibious assault ships and aircraft carriers? Let's look forward to the wonderful performance of the Chinese Navy in the next five to ten years.