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Today, the "Shandong" ship has become the pride of the Chinese Navy, and its continuous improvement in combat effectiveness is remarkable. However, the latest ocean-going exercises revealed an important problem – logistical shortcomings. This article will discuss the status and performance of the "Shandong" ship, and analyze the challenges and development direction of our navy in logistics supply.
Over time, China's Shandong ship has made impressive progress. Looking back at its service history, we can see the hardships and struggles along the way from the initial aviation operation capability to today's "full combat effectiveness". Even so, however, a recent ocean-going exercise revealed some problems. In this article, we will delve into the status and performance of the "Shandong" ship, as well as the challenges and development direction in the field of logistics supply of our Navy.
In January this year, the "Shandong" ship had just completed a military exercise, followed by two months of refinement, and then quickly prepared for another trip out of port. This shows that the "Shandong" ship is in very good condition. It is worth mentioning that when it entered service in early 2019, the "Shandong" ship had not yet reached the "initial combat effectiveness" standard of the US military, and only had aviation operation capabilities. Therefore, in the following years, the "Liaoning" has been undertaking ocean-going training tasks. However, in recent years, the progress of the "Shandong" ship has been remarkable.
At the end of last year, according to CCTV, the Shandong ship, which had passed several tests, was given a "pass" for combat readiness training and qualified to go to the western Pacific for exercises. According to the practice of our Navy, warships that were previously able to go to the western Pacific must pass the "full training test" and have full combat effectiveness. Therefore, it can be proudly said that after 4 years, the "Shandong" ship has reached the state of "full combat effectiveness" of the US army. So, how did it perform in this ocean-going exercise?
According to data released by Japan's Joint Staff Supervision Department, in the week from April 10 to 16, the "Shandong" ship carried out a total of 210 takeoffs and landings of carrier-based fighters and helicopters, with an average of about 30 fighter takeoffs and landings per day. Among them, 140 takeoffs and landings of fighters and 70 takeoffs and landings of helicopters, with an average of about 20 takeoffs and landings of carrier-based fighters per day. This data is close to the best state of the "Shandong" ship, but there is still a gap between the US aircraft carrier "Nimitz".
After all, the Shandong is a conventionally powered aircraft carrier with ski-jump takeoff, which can only carry up to 31 J-15 fighters. Under normal circumstances, the number of carrier-based aircraft is only about 26. However, it took us four years to eject and take off all the carrier-based aircraft on the "Shandong" at one time, which is already a huge progress for our Navy.
In the course of the exercise in the western Pacific, the "Shandong" ship will inevitably be "tailgated" and "harassed" by warships and fighters from other countries and regions, including the Japanese helicopter carrier "Izumo" in the United States, the destroyer "Mastine" in the United States, and RF-16 in Taiwan Province on the mainland. In addition, there is a saying circulating on foreign social media that the 055 large destroyer dragged its feet in the process of the "Shandong" ship formation to the western Pacific region, what is the matter?
According to relevant information published by the Eastern Theater, the aircraft carrier group began to cross the Bus Strait and enter southeastern Taiwan to carry out exercises on April 8. However, some outside speculation suggests that the Shandong may have left its home port as early as the end of March. For nearly a week, the Shandong waited for the other ships in the formation to take their positions before finally crossing the Bus Strait together on April 8.
According to data released by Japan, on April 12, the aircraft carrier formation of the "Shandong" ship carried out a rotation of ships, which exposed an important problem, that is, the basis for the "055 dragging its feet" statement. In this ship rotation, 1 Type 055 destroyer and 1 052D withdrew from the aircraft carrier group, while 1 Type 054A and 1 Type 091 supply ship joined the "Shandong" aircraft carrier group.
After completing this rotation of ships, the "Shandong" aircraft carrier group began to rush to Guam. Over the next few days,
The "Shandong" aircraft carrier formation only has two 054A escorts, but the maneuvering distance has been significantly improved, and the performance is more outstanding than before.
From a combat point of view, only two ships escorted by 054A "Shandong" are not very suitable for ocean-going operations. Because the 054A has a full load displacement of only more than 4000 tons, its air defense capabilities are relatively limited. Ocean-going escort missions are clearly more feasible if carried out by the 055 large destroyer. So why such a rotation of ships? Actually, it's about logistical replenishment.
The "Shandong" ship uses steam boilers, which need to reach a certain speed before it can safely carry out the takeoff and landing of carrier-based aircraft. The use of steam power means that once a certain speed is reached, repeated acceleration and deceleration will greatly increase fuel consumption, especially when taking off carrier-based fighters.
However, it is not that the ships of our Navy are not fast enough, but that once the required speed is reached, fuel consumption increases sharply. Initially, the escort task of the "Shandong" ship was carried out by the 055 large destroyer, and despite the excellent speed and combat effectiveness of the ship, the demand for fuel was also quite large due to the use of full-combustion power. The 054A uses a diesel engine as power, and its high-speed endurance is better than that of the 055. Therefore, in the case of limited resources, we must rationally allocate limited replenishment resources. Therefore, the 055 large destroyer withdrew from the escort formation and gave the escort task to the 054A with lower fuel consumption, which was a measure of last resort. Only in this way can it be ensured that the "Shandong" ship formation has sufficient logistical support on the way to Guam under the condition of limited supplies.
This warship rotation incident highlights the weak link in the logistics supply of our Navy. At present, our Navy has only three types of logistics supply ships, namely Type 901, Type 903 and Type 904. Among them, the Type 904 supply ship did not accompany the supply capacity, while the Type 903 did not fully consider the supply needs of the aircraft carrier because it was in service earlier, and could only carry more than 10,000 tons of fuel at a time, which could not meet the ocean-going combat needs of the aircraft carrier formation.
For example, the US Nimitz aircraft carrier has a built-in 9,000 tons of fuel and can only last for about 7 days in combat condition. If the Type 903 is resupplied, it can only extend its combat time by 5 to 6 days. The latest supply ship in service with our Navy is the Type 901, which can carry 15,000 tons of fuel, but there are only two at present, and there will be five in the future. This means that unless all five Type 901 supply ships are fully commissioned, the logistical support required for ocean-going operations for an aircraft carrier group cannot be met. If China plans to enter service with more than five carrier formations by 2030, it will need more supply ships. Therefore, the construction of overseas bases that can provide logistical support for aircraft carriers and the increase in the number of supply ships have become a top priority for the development of our Navy. Otherwise, the lack of logistical support will greatly limit the combat effectiveness of our Navy.
To sum up, despite the continuous improvement of the combat effectiveness of the "Shandong" ship, the problem of logistical supply still needs to be solved. The challenges of our Navy in this area are obvious, but with the increase in supply ships and the construction of overseas bases, we are expected to overcome these problems and ensure that the aircraft carrier group's ocean-going combat capabilities are not limited and continue to play an important role in international waters.
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