Recently, foreign media published an article saying that China's 004 nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has started construction.
China's 004 aircraft carrier or construction has begun!
Foreign media also disclosed four announcements related to ship development issued by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd., namely "Announcement on the Study of Technical Requirements for the Installation of Main Equipment of Power Units Suitable for Shipyard Construction";
"A monitoring and personnel health management principle requires a research bid announcement", "A security principle requires a research bid announcement", "Equipment installation process and design and manufacturing integration 3DE platform implementation plan research bid announcement".
Foreign media believe that this marks the much-anticipated Type 004 aircraft carrier, the preliminary bidding work has been completed, and now it has entered the stage of building the Type 004 aircraft carrier, and this is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
According to netizens, CCTV's 7 sets of national defense and military channels broadcast the news of "The People's Navy Moves Forward, Towards Deep Blue" a few days ago, the tonnage of the 004 aircraft carrier will be larger, and the market speculation may be as high as 12~130,000 tons.
China will use three original technologies
On the 004 aircraft carrier, China will use three original technologies, the first is the 32-sided shield phased array radar technology pioneered by the Fujian ship will be upgraded to digital radar technology, China's Fujian ship uses a 32-sided phased array radar system, including two S+X dual-band active phased array radars, four S-band long-range warning radars, four X-band fire control radars, etc., the Fujian ship's phased array meter-wave radar can also conduct reconnaissance on the most advanced B21 stealth bomber in the United States. It can maintain continuous, stable and accurate detection and tracking capabilities for air targets, and quickly send information to carrier-based aircraft while tracking, so as to achieve detection and destruction. The performance far exceeds the SPY-6(V)3 radar system used by the Kennedy, the second Ford-class aircraft carrier in the United States.
Digital radar is the third generation of radar technology, digital array radar is a kind of receiving and transmitting beams using digital beamforming technology of full digital array scanning radar. Since the transmission and reception beamforming is realized digitally, it retains all the information of the antenna array unit signal, and can use advanced digital signal processing technology to process the array signal, and excellent beam performance can be obtained. The application of digital radar will also indicate that China has achieved a cross-generational lead in radar technology for the United States.
China will also adopt China's original disruptive technology on nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the medium-voltage DC integrated power system, in fact, China has already adopted the medium-voltage DC integrated power system on the Fujian ship, which is a whole generation ahead of the medium-voltage AC integrated power system in the United States.
The integrated power system can realize the centralized control of power distribution between propulsion and shipborne armed systems, especially the power supply mode of ring grid plus regional power distribution system, which provides a physical way for the reasonable flow of electric energy, which is very beneficial to further improve the reliability of shipborne weapons and equipment. It provides a wider range of options for the combat use of ships, enhancing survivability and operational effectiveness in high-threat environments.
Finally, China's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier or will use more advanced metal reactor existing nuclear aircraft carriers are pressurized water reactors, this system structure is simple, compact, small size, operation is more flexible, but like the United States "Nimitz" class aircraft carrier such a large nuclear aircraft carrier, the reactor is large and complex, various valves, main pumps occupy more space, nuclear aircraft carriers need to free up more space for nuclear reactors, in addition to the reactor also needs more manpower. The United States has made some improvements in the design of the Ford-class aircraft carriers, which have simplified the reactor manufacturing process and reduced personnel requirements, but this improvement has a very high failure rate.
Compared with pressurized water reactors, metal stacks have certain advantages, among which, the biggest difference between the two is that pressurized water reactors rely on the steam pressure generated by boiling water to power the aircraft carrier, while metal stacks are not, which rely on liquid metal heat transfer to generate electricity, although the price of metal stacks is higher than pressurized water reactors, but small size, can save a lot of space for aircraft carriers, and this space can be used to carry more advanced weapons and equipment.
Combat power surpasses that of the Ford
In terms of carrier-based aircraft configuration, China will be equipped with J-35 medium stealth carrier-based aircraft; J-15 heavy conventional carrier-based aircraft; J-15D Roaring Shark electronic warfare aircraft; KJ-600 carrier-based AWACS aircraft; Z-18 carrier-based helicopter; Z-20 carrier-based helicopter; Carrier-based attack UAVs.
It can be said that thanks to China's more advanced electromagnetic system, the Ford-class aircraft carrier because of the immature electromagnetic system, seriously affecting combat effectiveness, far better than the Ford in combat, it is foreseeable that after China's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier launched, China will achieve a strategic transformation to the deep blue sea.