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China Launches 'Fujian,' its Most Advanced Aircraft Carrier
China launches 'Fujian,' its most advanced aircraft carrier:
China launched its largest and most advanced aircraft carrier on Friday at a shipyard in Shanghai, in what state media called a "short but festive ceremony."
The 80,000-ton Fujian, named for the southern coastal province opposite Taiwan, is the first of China's three carriers to be fully designed and built domestically. Unlike China's Liaoning and Shandong carriers, which use ski-jump ramps, Fujian will launch planes using electromagnetic catapults, the technology used on current U.S. carriers.
"Although it will be years before the [carrier] enters military service and achieves initial operating capability, its launch will be a seminal moment in China's ongoing modernization efforts and a symbol of the country's growing military might," said analysts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, in an article earlier this month.
China Launches Third Aircraft Carrier: State Media - Times of India
China launches third aircraft carrier: State media - Times of India:
[...] However, it will take years before it reaches operational capacity, as the Ministry of Defence has not announced a date for entry into service. "Sailing and mooring tests will be carried out as planned after the ship is launched," CCTV reported. China has two other aircraft carriers in service. The Liaoning was commissioned in 2012, and the Shandong entering service in 2019.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 19 2022, @10:01PM
How are the 100 fiberglass motorboats supposed to get out into the open water? How are they supposed to surround a ship that would never go below 25 knots in a combat situation? How stealthy are these motorboats exactly? Remember this is a ship with radar designed to spot a submarine snorkel, it has no problem spotting an outboard motor, much less a hundred of them. How brave are these motorboat crews that they can make a frontal attack with two heavy machine guns and probably the 5" main gun shooting at them?
The bomb used against the Cole was a shaped charge that had to be positioned precisely, something only possible because the ship was in port. An ordinary 500 pound explosive in proximity rather than contact would do a lot less damage.
Your scenario just isn't plausible, but there is one that sort of is.
Iran and North Korea have a bunch of what used to be called PT boats or torpedo boats, because they're cheap to build, but these are not stealthy at all and they are only useful in coastal waters. These are somewhat a threat, because today they are typically armed with short range missiles, but it's a question of how they can be used. One or two aren't too dangerous, and you would use SM-2 or SM-6 missiles against them (as well as against the missiles they would fire). These missile boats use exactly the sort of missiles that Aegis destroyers are designed to counter. There are 96 missiles in the destroyer's launcher, although some of them are typically going to be anti submarine only. A hundred of these missile boats would 1) be about half of the North Korean navy and 2) absolutely be something you would have used a carrier group against, not a lone destroyer.