According to Western intelligence analysts, the Type 076 amphibious assault ship under construction is expected to be launched by the end of this year. As a type of ship that began to undergo dock assembly at the end of last year, this conclusion marks that the dock assembly cycle of 076 is only 1 year, which is enough to make Western satellites more and more alarming the more they look at it.
Because if China can continue to build at this efficiency, with the Type 003 Fujian ship currently being outfitted, and the Project 004 aircraft carrier, which is likely to be under construction, the PLA will have 10 aircraft carriers by 2030.
[Dock 076 photo taken by Western commercial satellites]
Recently, photos taken by Western commercial satellites recorded the latest construction progress of the domestically produced Type 076 amphibious assault ship. Compared with the photos taken at the beginning of the year, there are more hulls suspected to be 054A or 054B frigates in the dock where 076 is located in the new photos, bringing the total number to three.
At the same time, the hull structure of the 076 is also becoming more and more perfect, although it is still a few days before the assembly of the flight deck, but according to the analysis of some open source intelligence analysis experts and the shipbuilding experience accumulated by Hudong Shipyard on the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, as long as the construction work can be carried out smoothly, the Type 076 amphibious assault ship will be expected to be launched before the end of this year.
As soon as this conclusion was disclosed, it sparked heated discussions in the outside world, because the Type 076 amphibious assault ship only began to be assembled in the dock at the end of 23 years, and it has not been half a year so far. If the ship can be launched before the end of this year, then this means that the dock assembly cycle of the 076 is only about 1 year, which is 2 months longer than the 075 amphibious assault ship with an average docking period of 10 months.
[076 photos from earlier periods exposed at the beginning of this year]
This is obviously not good news for the United States, because under the influence of the wave of deindustrialization, the US Navy is also trying to invest in the construction of American-class amphibious assault ships.
However, it took four and a half years for the Bougainville, the No. 3 ship under construction, to enter the dock to lay the keel and officially launch it. Second, due to the shortage of skilled workers, inflation, and the loss of shipbuilding technology, the No. 4 ship, Fallujah, which was built in September last year, may even face more serious delays, further delaying the US Navy's iteration on the amphibious assault ship issue.
[Amphibious assault ship Bougainville that has been launched]
In addition to the various delays in the construction of the newly built amphibious assault ships, the US military is also full of loopholes in the maintenance of the two attacks in active service. For example, the Boxer, the No. 4 ship of the Wasp-class class, announced in March that it had completed a major overhaul and was scheduled to take over the Wasp for overseas deployment in April.
However, due to factors such as the negligence of shipyard workers, poor shipyard supervision, and loopholes in the overhaul process, the U.S. Navy found three more large-scale engineering accidents during the reception and inspection of the Boxer, resulting in the ship returning to the shipyard for repairs just two weeks after leaving the factory.
[U.S. Navy's amphibious assault ship USS Boxer]
In this case, in the face of the construction efficiency of 1 075 in 10 months and 1 076 in 1 year on the Chinese side, the stock superiority of the US Navy will be overtaken by the Chinese Navy in the foreseeable future.
Not to mention that the Type 076 amphibious assault ship not only has a construction speed that the United States cannot reach today, but the strategic value of the ship is much higher than that of other ships of the same type. Even to some extent, 076 does not have ships of the same type, and the outside world calls it an amphibious assault ship purely without other suitable adjectives.
After all, whose amphibious assault ship will be equipped with an electromagnetic catapult capable of taking off and landing fixed-wing UAVs and even manned carrier-based aircraft that are not short take-off and landing?
[076 amphibious assault ship image]
The addition of electromagnetic catapults has significantly increased the comprehensive combat capabilities of the 076, so much so that in the eyes of some overseas military observers, the 076 is already considered a "medium-sized" aircraft carrier.
And this also means that at the construction rate of one Type 076 in one year, by 2030, the PLA will have at least six Type 076 amphibious assault ships. Together with the three aircraft carriers Liaoning, Shandong, and Fujian, which were already officially put into service at that time, as well as the No. 004 aircraft carrier, which was likely to be completed, the PLA will have as many as 10 "aircraft carriers" capable of aviation operations, effectively narrowing the gap between the PLA and the US military in terms of carrier-based air forces.
It is worth mentioning that 076 does not have a substitution relationship with 075, at least so far. The evidence is that after the official construction of the Type 076 first ship, the outside world found that Hudong Shipyard was still building the No. 4 ship of the 075 amphibious assault ship at the same time.
[Imagination of two different configurations of 076 amphibious assault ships]
This shows that for the PLA, traditional amphibious assault ships that rely on helicopters for operations still have an important position in the combat system.
The reason for this is likely to be that 076 has reduced the carrying capacity of the landing force in order to improve its own aviation operation capabilities. Whether the ship has a dock that can accommodate the landing craft is a matter of debatable, and this makes it necessary for the PLA to use the 075 to make up for the shortcomings of the amphibious battle group in the carrying capacity of the landing force.
It can be said that with the steady progress of the construction of the 076 amphibious assault ship, China is constantly closing the gap with the United States in terms of naval strength. This has laid a solid foundation for the PLA to further consolidate its dominant position in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, and as more and more of these weapons and equipment are transformed into China's strategic advantages on foreign issues, the risk of a military conflict between China and the United States will be limited to a certain extent.
Because in the final analysis, the hegemony of the United States is based on its own unchallengeable military power. This is an "invincible myth", and once the myth is broken, the hegemonic system of the United States will also collapse.
It is precisely for this reason that the United States is constantly trying to strangle countries that may pose a threat to its position. And when China's special case grows to the size of enough to defeat the United States, a strategic retreat while declaring that it is not losing but is "turning in" has become one of the few viable options for them to maintain their hegemony.