With the official sea trials of the domestic Fujian ship, the 076 amphibious assault ship took over the aircraft carrier and became the large ship under construction that friends are most concerned about. And 076 is currently in the final sprint period of dock construction, it can be said that one day changes, three days of great changes, in just one month, what floating deck, bow flight deck have been unveiled. And recently, the 076 electromagnetic catapult that everyone is most concerned about has finally come to the forefront, and this time it was very unexpected, the two catapults turned out to be different in length, and it is estimated that many people have imagined the details of 076 countless times in their minds, and they never thought that this way would be adopted.
According to the pictures shared by netizens, we saw that in the newly built giant dock of Hudong Shipyard, the 076 amphibious assault ship and a number of new batches of 054A frigates are being built in the same frame, and there are currently 5 ships in this dock that are starting construction at the same time. You say this posture, can the West not be confused when it sees it? Among them, the fastest construction speed is probably the 076 amphibious assault ship, the bow flight deck that appeared before has now been installed, and you can see that the bow part has been closed and closed. The slotted structure of the electromagnetic catapult on the deck is already very noticeable.
Now the general appearance of 076 is still very close to what military fans imagined, both of which are two catapults at the front of the bow, the only difference is that the length of the two catapults seems to be different. It can be seen that the port catapult is significantly longer, while the starboard catapult is shorter. According to speculation, the longer catapult on the port side is about a third of the overall length of the ship, about 70-80 meters, and the shorter ones are 50-60 meters. This length is much larger than the 40-meter electric bomb that was previously guessed, which is also unexpected. So the question is, why did the 076 use two catapults of different lengths?
In fact, this is also very simple, this is similar to the bow catapult of Western aircraft carriers, and the inclined deck catapult uses different sizes, so that different aircraft are ejected, the bow catapult catapults carrier-based fighters, and the inclined deck catapult catapults small aircraft such as transport aircraft and early warning aircraft with less power. It can be guessed that the two catapults of 076 are of different lengths, and they must also be prepared for catapulting different aircraft, which can meet the demand while reducing the energy consumption of the ship.
Then in the most ideal state, a catapult of 50-60 meters can be used to catapult the Attack-11 UAV, a Pterodactyl long-endurance UAV, and a longer catapult of 80 meters can catapult the J-35, or the recent Hongdu domestic "Little Hornet" carrier-based aircraft. According to the C-13B catapult used on the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the 76-meter length can catapult 35 tons of take-off weight, while the J-15 take-off weight is only 32.5 tons, and the smaller J-35 must be no problem to eject. Then 076 can fully meet the J-35 and Attack 11, manned aircraft and UAVs taking off and landing at the same time.
At present, the 076 ship has given us too many surprises, two catapults of different lengths, although it is not a black technology, but this design method is something that many people have not thought of. It is generally believed that since it is two parallel bow catapults, it should be the same length, and it seems that the design vision of the grandmaster is still very different from ours. In any case, it can be regarded as a clear positioning of 076, that is, it must not only be able to launch UAVs for long-endurance dynamic perception and long-range precision strike guidance, but also need to be able to launch manned fixed-wing fighters to seize air supremacy. Although it is said that it is necessary to have both and easy to take care of one or the other, since 076 dares to design it like this, it must be able to do two things at the same time in the system, after all, 076 is most likely to act together with the aircraft carrier.
In general, 076 may be launched in a few months, and now the hull is basically completed, and all that remains is the hoisting of the island, and then it will be able to enter the mooring test stage. At that time, more details of the ship will be more clear, and you can also see this two electromagnetic catapults of different lengths, originally installed on the amphibious assault ship electromagnetic catapult, it is already the world's first, and the two are not the same length but also take into account manned aircraft and UAVs, I believe that the development of the global navy after the completion of 076 will be more far-reaching. Finally, this time it is the turn of the Chinese Navy to lead the development trend, and the West should be convinced this time.