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The year 2023 that has just passed is not so exciting for naval fans.
Because only 55,000 tons of ships were launched this year, which is less than half of the 120,000 tons in 2022.
Except for the two heavy battleships Type 005, which were launched this year, the rest of the models launched were mainly small frigates such as the 054AG.
But the mainland navy never disappoints military fans.
In mid-December last year, a long-range photo was widely circulated on the Internet, showing a corner of the Jiangnan shipyard, and although the photo itself is blurry, you can still see a number of ships under construction, including the Fujian ship, which is undergoing various outfitting work and mooring tests.
For other ships under construction, foreign media mostly believe that they are the upgraded version of the Type 052DL destroyer and the Type 055B with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons.
Among them, the 055 can be said to have attracted the world's attention, and the American military magazine "1945" has paid long-term attention to the Chinese Navy, which believes that there are at least two 055Bs built in the second batch of China, and it is expected to be launched in the second half of 2024.
The total displacement of these warships under construction alone has exceeded 100,000 tons, which can be combined into a conventional aircraft carrier battle group.
This has made some US media outlets, including Reuters, feel like a big enemy.
But in fact, in addition to the aircraft carrier battle group, if the US military dares to invade, we still have a trump card in hand that is sufficient to deter the US military.
Do you know what it is?
How many ships are under construction on the mainland?
The military power of the continent, especially the navy, has always been a mystery, but we can sort it out in terms of the limited information available.
The existence of the Fujian has long been no secret, and the biggest question is when the sea trials will occur.
The Fujian was launched in June 2022, but the launch was only a signal, after which various finishing touches were to be carried out, followed by sea trials, and finally before it could be commissioned.
There are two main finishing touches on an aircraft carrier, namely mooring and outfitting.
The first thing to be clear is that the launch of an aircraft carrier does not mean that it will be officially put into service.
This move is mainly to facilitate the follow-up outfitting work, and there are many outfitting processes.
In general, it is very complicated to improve all the functions of the ship, including ventilation, ducts, electrical, communications, weapons, etc.
After the outfitting work is completed, the entire aircraft carrier will be able to operate normally.
Outfitting tasks often account for more than half of the total ship construction tasks.
By the beginning of January, most of the outfitting work of the Fujian had been completed, the ship's weapons and various communications equipment were in place, and the mooring test had begun at the end of November last year.
The mooring test is a preliminary sea trial, but it is only carried out at the shipbuilding dock, and the hull is basically stationary.
However, it took more than a year for the last aircraft carrier, the Shandong, to carry out these two tasks, and the finishing work of the Fujian, which has a new electromagnetic catapult device, may grow a lot.
However, it is clear that the finishing work of the Fujian will not last as long as three or five years.
In addition, the Type 052D destroyer is currently the main destroyer of the mainland navy, which is completely independently developed by the mainland and improved from the 052C, and the first 052D ship was launched in 2012.
And this batch of 052D under construction this time is already the fourth batch.
And for the improved Type 052DL, Jiangnan Shipyard and Dalian Shipyard are currently under construction at the same time.
There are at least 10 ships in this batch, of which the 26th ship has been launched in 2022, three more in 2023, and at least 6 remaining, and it is optimistically estimated that they will all be commissioned in 2027.
At that time, the mainland navy will have at least 35 Type 052D destroyers, which will be in the leading position in the world.
Judging from last year's progress, it should be no problem to launch another 3 to 4 052Ds this year.
And then there are the Type 055 destroyers, which have attracted much attention.
Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers?
In 2019, the original Type 055 destroyer Nanchang was unveiled, which attracted the attention of the United States and the West early on as a Type 005 with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons and completely independently developed by China.
NATO calls it a "Renhai" class warship, but the corresponding Chinese characters have not been announced, and we call it "Blade Sea".
005 has strong air defense and anti-submarine capabilities, and has always been one of the big killers of the mainland navy, with 8 ships currently built.
Judging from the news from all sides, the Jiangnan shipyard should be an improved and upgraded version of 055 - Type 005B, with a displacement of more than 13,000 tons, and some foreign media believe that it will reach 15,000 tons.
If the 005B under construction can really reach this magnitude, then just 2 ships already have enough deterrence.
With an aircraft carrier with a displacement of more than 80,000 tons, plus several heavy destroyers, the mainland's ship construction is really like a "dumpling".
According to the article released by Jiangnan Shipyard, we will build more aircraft carriers in the future.
In this article, a CG drawing of an aircraft carrier is particularly eye-catching.
The aircraft carrier does not have a large chimney and the island is relatively small, which are the hallmarks of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Concept drawing of the No. 005 aircraft carrier released by Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard
And Jiangnan Shipyard revealed that the displacement of the aircraft carrier will be more than 100,000 tons, while today's conventionally powered aircraft carriers rarely have a displacement of more than 80,000 tons, which once again confirms the speculation of military fans.
In addition, the number of the aircraft carrier is 20 and it should be lined up to 005, which means that we may build two aircraft carriers at once, and at least one of them may be nuclear-powered.
Of course, this is a later story, and these ships we are currently building are already a vital force that cannot be ignored.
These ships under construction at the moment, just looking at the data on paper, is not enough to explain anything, but if you compare it with other ships of the same type, the strength of our navy will be clear at a glance.
Let's start with 052D.
Some netizens have always wondered, since we have built a lot of 055 with better performance, why do we have to build 052D in large quantities?
This is actually because although 052D is inferior to 055 in terms of tonnage and firepower, it is definitely world-class in terms of comprehensive strength.
The 052D has a full load displacement of around 7,000 tons, while the improved 052DL can reach 7,500 tons.
As soon as the 052D was born, it received great attention from the American and Russian media, and since then it has been performing well and becoming the main ship of the mainland navy.
The 052D has two major advantages over other destroyers.
One is the outstanding comprehensive performance, and the other is to realize the standardized manufacturing of heavy ships, that is, it can "make dumplings".
052D has excellent anti-submarine and anti-ship capabilities, and air defense capabilities are the highlights, the shield ship system is an important standard for measuring world-class warships, the so-called shield ship, in fact, is a ship with an air defense system with vertical launch capabilities, and now there are 14 countries with a shield ship system, and the first shield ship on the mainland is 052C.
After 052C, the continental navy has the ability to catch up with the world's first-class.
The new 052D has a Type 36A digital active phased array radar.
It should be noted that the active phased array radar is a watershed of phased array radar, and with this radar, the 052D can achieve detection, identification, and guidance without dead angles.
As for the shield ship system, the 052D adopts a new type of hot and cold co-frame design to achieve different combat strategies for different targets.
The superiority of comprehensive performance is only one of the advantages of the 052D.
Compared with other heavy destroyers, including 055, the cost of 052D is about 3 billion yuan, which is at least 40% cheaper than 055.
The cost of each of the Burke-class destroyers, the main force of the US military, is more than $2 billion.
Reliable, inexpensive, and mass-produced, it makes sense that we build the 052D in batches.
Hidden Naval Ace
Let's talk about the Navy's Mingpai 055 first, and it is not too much to call it the top destroyer in the world today.
However, the main Burke-class destroyer of the US military is indeed much better than the 052D in all aspects, including the "Aegis" and AN/SPY-6 active phased array radar on board.
But there are better alternatives to these 055s.
In addition, the 055 also has a technically mature gas turbine power, with a maximum speed of more than 30 knots, which is suitable for ocean-going and multi-terrain operations.
As for the shipboard armament, the 005 has a 112-year-old vertical hair unit, equipped with Hongqi-10 anti-aircraft missiles, and 30 close-in anti-aircraft guns with 11 mm caliber 1130 tubes provide fire support.
005 is slightly inferior in range, but it is supplemented by powerful firepower, coupled with excellent anti-submarine and ground capabilities, 005 is enough to rank among the top in the world.
At present, compared with the US Navy, the biggest shortcoming of the mainland Navy is actually the number of ships.
The number of 052Ds can rank second in the world, and there are less than 10 055s at the higher level.
But with the newly built improved version of the 055 and another trump card, if it really comes to the US Navy, we are not afraid at all.
Once the mainland's aircraft carrier battle group is formed, it will be a combat force with few opponents, and this is something that the US Navy has to pay attention to, but in fact, we still have a trump card against the US Navy, and its deterrence against the US military is stronger, and it does not even come from the sea, but from land.
For a long time, the use of land-deployed missiles to strike aircraft carriers was considered a goal that was both fearful and extremely difficult for carrier formations to achieve.
It was not until the advent of China's anti-ship missiles Dongfeng-21 and Dongfeng-26 that foreign media were surprised to find that if the US Navy really sent troops to the South China Sea, it would probably face a head-on attack.
Although the anti-ship missile is not the first in the mainland, but the former Soviet Union, in terms of practicality, the DF-21D is more outstanding, and it is not equipped with a nuclear warhead like the Soviet Union, but a conventional warhead, but such a deterrent is greater, because it can be used in actual combat.
Moreover, the mainland has already achieved batch deployment.
The US "Defense Weekly" once published such an article on future wars, which described: When the US Navy sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to raid China in 2030, China launched 24 DF-21Ds in a row, killing tens of thousands of naval officers and men in the Pacific Ocean......
According to the estimation of US military experts, due to the deployment of DF-21D in China, the United States cannot achieve effective interception, and then DF-21D will advance at a speed of at least Mach 10 per hour, which can break through the US air defense blockade and eventually cause great damage to the aircraft carrier.
In addition to many deductions, Dongfeng 21-D finally confirmed the title of "aircraft carrier killer".
The mainland navy not only has excellent overall performance of warships, but also can realize the batch construction of "dumplings", and the marine power constituted by it is simply bursting with a sense of security!
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Bibliography:
[1] Guo Zhenyu, Tao Yuyu.055 type destroyer[J].Science Popular(Primary School Edition),2022,(Z2):66-67.