Chinese "America"? Why the Middle Kingdom is a huge UDC
Cold sea war
It is difficult to say where regional interests end and geopolitical ones begin. Partly because the economic and political situation in the world is constantly changing. Nowadays, the South China Sea has become the busiest crossroads of the planet and the new "Great Silk Road": earlier, experts considered that approximately 25% of all world trade passes through this segment of the World Ocean. In simple terms, the country controlling this sea will receive a key to the economies of other Asian states. This is interesting to all regional players, and especially to China.
Creation for him powerful fleet - One of the stages on the path to full regional and hypothetical world domination. I must say, success is already very tangible. In May of this year, Popular Mechanics reported that China surpassed the United States in the number of warships. Celestial then reached a "psychological mark" in 300 ships of different classes, which, according to experts, is thirteen combat units more than that of the US Navy.
As you know, “they consider chickens in the fall,” however, now no one will thoroughly count all the ships and warships of the USA and China. This simply does not make sense, since America had, is, and in the foreseeable future there will still be a qualitative superiority. This applies primarily to aircraft carriers, large non-aircraft carriers and, of course, nuclear submarines. And also universal landing ships.
UDC - the whole head
In the post-Soviet space, one can often find a skeptical attitude towards UDC, as well as to traditional aircraft carriers. However, this is fundamentally wrong. The concept of a universal landing ship itself was formed on the basis of the very rich experience of the Vietnam War, when the United States badly lacked naval combat units that combined the functionality of various types of landing ships and at the same time could carry Aviationwithout which a modern fleet is impossible.
Apparently, the role of UDC in the 21st century will only grow: this can be seen according to the plans of the Americans to put in place instead of eight ships of the Uosp type, eleven UDCs of the America type, of which one is already in service. And most of all, the increased role of UDC is noticeable in how much the air group of ships of the Marine Corps increases. Indeed, instead of the old Harrier fighters, each America will be able to carry several dozen belonging to the fifth generation F-35B.
China has so far only dreamed about it, but the number of ships released, as previously noted, is genuine admiration. Recall, on June 6, the PRC launched the eighth landing ship of the 071 type, having a displacement of 19 thousand tons and capable of transporting up to one thousand paratroopers with equipment.
The first after aircraft carriers
This giant is “nothing” in comparison with the new Chinese ship, which was launched on September 25 this year. Experts from the notorious bmpd blog drew attention to this event. The launch ceremony of the first universal landing project 075 was held in Shanghai at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard of the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group. According to the blog, UDC is being built for the Chinese fleet since 2016, they want to put it into operation in 2021.
According to data from open sources, the calculated characteristics of the UDC of the 075 project look like this:
Displacement: 36 thousand tons.
Length: 250 meters.
Width: 30 meters.
Speed: up to 23 knots (42 kilometers per hour).
Aviation group: up to 30 helicopters.
Means of self-defense: two 30-mm H / PJ-11 anti-aircraft artillery systems and two HHQ-10 anti-aircraft missile systems.
Earlier media reported that the 075 project has two aerial elevators, and up to three hovercraft can be transported in the docking chamber.
What conclusions can be drawn from all this? Even provided that the ship is slightly smaller than what is written in the media, it is obvious that it will become the largest in the Chinese fleet after the Shandong and Liaoning aircraft carriers. And given that they, in general, have become yet another variation on the development of the Soviet 1143 project, the new UDC can be called the largest Chinese ship in general. And he will remain so until the mysterious Type 002 is born - a “purely” Chinese aircraft carrier.
The conceptually landing project ship of the 075 project is similar to the "America", however, the kinship with smaller large universal landing ships is even stronger. Recall that the American UDC has a total displacement of 45 thousand tons: that is, somewhat more than that of the “Chinese”. But the most important difference from the US ship is the smaller role of the air group and, probably, the greater stake on naval landing. This is understandable: China has neither its conventional F-35B, nor the V-22 Osprey analogue of the convertiplane. “Therefore, combat capabilities (such as 075. - Approx. Aut.) Will be significantly reduced. In addition, our helicopters are lagging behind in their development, therefore, judging by all the indicators, 075 cannot enter the ranks of the world-class UDC, lagging behind it, ”experts from the Chinese publication Sohu noted earlier.
However, high expectations are inappropriate here, as well as overly emotional criticism. Nevertheless, for China this is undoubtedly a huge achievement both in a purely technical and political sense. In other words, the ship fits well with the modern development strategy and will be able in the future to provide even more confident positions of China in the international arena. According to reports, China intends to receive six of these ships. The Celestial Empire also believes that the experience gained during the development of the 075 project can allow the creation of even more advanced ships.
Here, of course, much rests on a plane of short take-off and vertical landing. Recall that Japan wants to soon convert its helicopter carriers into carriers of F-35B fighters. China has no such option. And there is no reason to talk about a new version of the VTOL aircraft based on J-31, since, as far as one can judge, this aircraft was never created as a vertical landing fighter. It is most often seen as a kind of analogue of the American F-35A: like its overseas counterpart, the fighter is also hoped to be actively exported.
Strange as it may seem, the future of Chinese carrier-based aircraft is associated with the already adopted J-20 fighter. The aircraft, according to reports, will be taken as the basis for the development of a carrier-based fighter of the future. Allegedly, such a decision has already been taken by the Central Military Council of the PRC. However, this fighter seems too cumbersome even for conventional aircraft carriers, not to mention UDC. If China wants to create a VTOL aircraft from scratch for the 075 project (or another UDC), then this can take more than a decade. This means that it is not entirely appropriate to consider a new ship an analogue of UDC of the “America” type, as already noted above.
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