CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 12

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
might cause disruption of some systems of both sides, American
warships will have advantage because they are greater in numbers
and have more accomplished and advanced network.
● In practice, an aircraft carrier has never been hit by a ballistic mis-
sile so far. Above mentioned Chinese missile still have to demon-
strate their reliability.
● Such ships, as proven in practice, are not immediately hit and sunk
even with one ton of combat payload, and aircraft on deck can take
off and complete their mission.
● The American main surface ships can launch their missiles from
about 1000-1500km off the coast: “BGM-109, Tomahawk Block
IV” has 900-1000ml. or 1600km launching range. 26
● Submarines can do it from a closer distance as they can be detected
with more diffi culty.
Here we should also note that Chinese side has problems also in mat-
ters of fl eets; so in number and total tonnage of ships they are inferior to
US Pacifi c fl eet and if we take into account allies’ fl eets then the diff er-
ence multiplies not in favor of China.
The Chinese fl eet has an aircraft carrier CV-16 Liáoníng Jiàn, de-
signed with the basis on the 1143.6 Soviet project. China is building a
similar carrier by their own design – Type 001A or CV-17 – that is to be
tested soon. 27 Both ships are listed in the same series as the Russian “Ad-
miral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov” carrier. Some experts claim
that China is making big steps already and can push the U.S. out of the
fi rst island chain (Japan, Korea, the Philippines) even with two or three
of these carriers. We consider that claim to be too optimistic, as even in
case of mass production, the Chinese aircraft carriers will still have a
number of issues. Firstly, the lack of catapults means that the fi ghters take
off with half of fuel and weapons. For the same reason, the ships cannot
carry large airplanes with airborne command posts and aerial refueling
capacities. This shortcoming further undermines the abilities of Chinese
carriers, which take on board and operate half the amount of planes their
American counterparts do as it is. Another issue is the fi ghting effi ciency
of the aircraft, although it is not the whole story. Accompanying combat
and logistics ships (bunkers, supply ships, etc.) play a big role in the op-
eration of aircraft carriers. Combat ships in a squadron must be able to
protect aircraft carriers with their major weapons and support the carriers
26
27
“Tomahawk Cruise Missile,” US Navy fact fi le,http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.
asp?cid=2200&tid=1300&ct=2 (accessed November 5, 2018).
Gabriel Dominguez, “Future Chinese carriers to deploy J-20, J-31 stealth fi ghters, says re-
port,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, December 7, 2017, http://www.janes.com/article/76242/future-
chinese-carriers-to-deploy-j-20-j-31-stealth-fi ghters-says-report (accessed November 5, 2018).
12