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Preface:
In the Songhu War of Resistance in 1932, Japan dispatched two aircraft carriers to bomb Shanghai in turn. In this tragic battle, we lost thousands of soldiers and nearly 20,000 civilians. At that time, we did not have aircraft carriers and were bullied by the Japanese.
In 2012, the "Liaoning" was born, which was the first aircraft carrier on the mainland; In 2022, the Fujian ship will be launched, which is already our third aircraft carrier, and more advanced aircraft carriers are under intensive development and construction.
From being bullied in 1932 to the independent research and development of an aircraft carrier in 2022, how many people's efforts and efforts have been condensed in 90 years.
The aircraft carrier is a symbol of national strength and brings the whole country a great sense of security, so in 1987, there were news rumors that "China does not build aircraft carriers", former naval commander Xiao Jinguang was so excited that he called Liu Huaqing, the commander of the navy at the time: What is going on?
Aircraft carrier forces
The importance of aircraft carriers, as evidenced by the many wars since World War II.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, six Japanese aircraft carriers approached Pearl Harbor, and their goal this time was to blow up the American aircraft carrier anchored there.
The attack began, bombers took off from the aircraft carrier, catching the Americans who were still sleeping, and the whole of Pearl Harbor was thrown into chaos, with thick smoke, artillery fire, screams and cries.
In the end, Pearl Harbor was bombed into ruins, the US Navy fell into a six-month trough, and the power of the aircraft carrier cannot be underestimated.
However, in this battle, the American aircraft carrier happened to be out of the harbor, so it escaped the bombing. The preservation of aircraft carriers was a guarantee for the rise of US naval power at that time.
On June 4, 1942, the American aircraft carrier and the Japanese aircraft carrier "met in a narrow road" at Midway. This time, bombers on American aircraft carriers took off one by one, destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers, blowing up Japan's momentum in the Pacific theater, and the strength of the Japanese Navy was severely damaged.
Since then, all nations have realized the importance of aircraft carriers in maritime warfare.
Of course, aircraft carriers are also needed in peacetime.
First of all, aircraft carriers are a symbol of national power, because of the high cost and high technology of their construction.
The cost of building an aircraft carrier starts at tens of billions of yuan, and the annual maintenance cost is as high as more than a billion, and it costs millions to go to sea at a time, such a high cost, not an ordinary country can afford. For example, Australia used to be a country with aircraft carriers, but then they could not afford it, and eventually their aircraft carriers could only be decommissioned.
At the same time, the technical requirements for building aircraft carriers are also unattainable by ordinary countries, so only 9 countries in the world currently have aircraft carriers.
Secondly, the aircraft carrier is a sign of combat effectiveness. It is because in war, if there is an aircraft carrier, then you can easily obtain air and sea supremacy, which is crucial to victory in the war.
Finally, aircraft carriers have a strong deterrent. The aircraft carrier can ensure that the overseas interests of the country will not be damaged; Moreover, China has an aircraft carrier, which is also a strong guarantee for the maintenance of world peace.
Therefore, even in the early eighties of the last century, when the economy was not prosperous, Xiao Jinguang and Liu Huaqing, as two naval commanders, insisted on developing our own aircraft carriers.
History of the development of the Chinese Navy
When Xiao Jinguang became the commander of the navy, it can be said that there was almost nothing at that time, and it was his thirty years of conscientious work that allowed our naval power to achieve "from scratch". When Liu Huaqing took over the baton, he actively promoted the construction of China's aircraft carriers, laying a solid foundation for the development of China's aircraft carriers.
In 1950, facing the mainland's more than 32,000 kilometers of coastline, Chairman Mao began to think about the formation of a navy. And Xiao Jinguang is the best candidate for naval commander in his mind.
At that time, almost all of our maritime military equipment and personnel came from captured troops in the war and the Kuomintang insurgent forces, and Chairman Mao believed that the first step for a naval commander to take office was to carry out rectification on this basis.
Xiao Jinguang had not only carried out the task of rectifying and reforming the army before, but also completed it very well, so his ability in this area was recognized by Chairman Mao.
At the same time, at that time, we mainly learned relevant technologies from the Soviet Union, and Xiao Jinguang was proficient in Russian, which was a great advantage in communication.
Therefore, although Xiao Jinguang would even get seasick at that time, he still accepted this important task without hesitation under the encouragement of Chairman Mao.
In this process of starting from scratch, at the beginning, the naval team led by Xiao Jinguang did not even have an exclusive office location, not only needed to borrow places everywhere, but also always needed to be scattered in various locations to work.
When Xiao Jinguang first went to Qingdao as a naval commander, the group was very low-key, living in a simple house, and even the bed was not enough for everyone to sleep, and some people directly bunked the floor.
Under such difficult conditions, Xiao Jinguang did not flinch at the thought of Chairman Mao's instructions and the importance of naval strength to a sovereign country.
Not only is he not afraid of difficulties, at the beginning of the construction of the navy, it is inevitable that some people in the team will be afraid of difficulties, Xiao Jinguang will calmly carry out the channeling work, it is under his leadership that the Chinese navy has developed step by step.
From the Navy's first political meeting, the establishment of the Naval School, to the establishment of the first submarine base, to the first military parade at sea, Xiao Jinguang led the Chinese Navy to gradually flourish and grow.
Until his retirement in 1980, he remained in the position of naval commander for three decades, during which time the Chinese navy made progress in many ways, but did not have an aircraft carrier of its own, much to Xiao Jinguang's regret.
Two years later, Liu Huaqing became commander of the Chinese Navy. As early as the fifties of the last century, Xiao Jinguang sent Liu Huaqing to the Soviet Union to study, and Liu Huaqing's willingness to build China's own aircraft carrier was as strong as Xiao Jinguang.
Liu Huaqing once said: "If China does not build an aircraft carrier, I will not die blind!" ”
In 1980, Liu Huaqing led a team to the United States to inspect their aircraft carriers. At that time, the Americans were very arrogant, and when they talked on the aircraft carrier, the United States deliberately did not let Liu Huaqing touch anything on the ship.
In order to learn more about aircraft carriers, Liu Huaqing often needs to stand on tiptoe to look carefully, you must know that he was already a 64-year-old man at that time, fighting on the battlefield for many years, he was a heroic and invincible general on the battlefield, but for the development of Chinese aircraft carriers, he endured the unreasonableness of the Americans.
So when Xiao Jinguang called him and asked: Is it really not building China's aircraft carriers? Liu Huaqing immediately told Xiao Jinguang that this news was not true, and the aircraft carrier must be built.
In 1987, Liu Huaqing submitted a plan for the construction of an aircraft carrier, and at the same time began to train the captain of the aircraft carrier, and the first captain of the "Liaoning" was Li Xiaoyan among the training personnel!
In 1997, Liu Huaqing retired from the position of naval commander, but he still kept an eye on the progress of aircraft carrier construction. In 2005, when he learned that the country had officially begun to prepare for the construction of aircraft carriers, he was so excited that he said: Wow! Wow!
In 2012, the "Liaoning" was officially launched, at this time Xiao Jinguang had died 23 years ago, and Liu Huaqing also died the year before, they all regretted not to see this scene, but it is precisely because of their efforts that there is now a Chinese aircraft carrier.
They may not have seen the mainland's aircraft carriers launching and going to sea, but their spirit is everywhere in the navy and their hard work is everywhere on the aircraft carrier!
Today, we have three aircraft carriers, starting from the second "Shandong ship", which is completely the result of our own research and development, which opens a new chapter in the development of mainland aircraft carriers, and the third "Fujian ship" has achieved unprecedented innovation in technology and led the world.
"Fujian ship" and the future
On June 17, 2022, the "Fujian ship" was officially launched, and his "electromagnetic catapult system" is not comparable to the latest aircraft carrier of the United States, how I hope Xiao Jinguang and Liu Huaqing can see this scene! The future of China's aircraft carriers has unlimited possibilities.
The ejection system of the "Fujian ship" is completely independently developed by the mainland, and the one who also has an electromagnetic catapult system is the American "Ford".
As early as the eighties of the last century, when our first generation of aircraft carriers had not yet been born, the United States began to develop electromagnetic ejection technology for aircraft carriers.
At that time, the most advanced aircraft carrier in the United States also used a steam catapult system, which simply means "boiling water" to provide power. But the disadvantages of the steam ejection system are very obvious: high maintenance costs, large volume, inflexible use, low efficiency, etc.
For this reason, the United States has been looking for ways to eliminate steam systems and replace them with electromagnetic ejection. The Ford is America's greatest expectation in terms of electromagnetic ejection.
But since it officially entered service in 2017, even the United States itself has admitted that it is full of faults and is far from reaching a real battle at sea. In the process of building the Ford, the United States even had the idea of abandoning electromagnetic ejection because it was too difficult and too far from what was expected and too far from what it expected.
China's development of the "Fujian ship" directly skips the stage of steam ejection and begins the era of electromagnetic catapult aircraft carriers from scratch.
Compared with the "Ford", the electromagnetic ejection of the Chinese "Fujian ship" is much more stable, mainly because China uses "direct current" different from the American "alternating current", and "alternating current" consumes too much energy in use, resulting in system instability.
All these phenomena show that the mainland has been quite mature in the technology of aircraft carrier construction and stands at the forefront of the world.
With the "Fujian ship" intensively carrying out power tests and mooring tests, China's new generation of aircraft carriers is also stepping up development.
As a country with a sea area of more than 4.7 million square kilometers, the mainland's aircraft carrier business will certainly continue to develop. The beautiful vision of Commander Xiao Jinguang and Commander Liu Huaqing has been gradually realized, and in the future development, they will pass on their spirit, so that we will never stand on tiptoe to look at other people's aircraft carriers!
Resources:
1. Profile of the People's Republic of China Chinese Government website
2. What are the advantages of electromagnetic ejection used by Fujian ships? Straits Metropolis Daily
3. Fujian ship, launched! People's Network
4. CCTV announces new trends in Fujian ships, military experts: sea trials at the earliest or in the second half of the year China Youth Network
5. "If China does not come up with aircraft carriers, I will not die blind!" The Central Committee of the Komsomol League
6. Heavy weapons of big countries - aircraft carriers Central South University for Nationalities
7. The 1.28 Incident and the Songhu War of Resistance [2] Chinese Communist Party News Network
8. "Commander of the Navy for Life" - Senior Admiral Xiao Jinguang Xiao Jinguang
9. Xiao Jinguang, a general of the Republic, Qingdao History Network of the Communist Party of China