Dva članka na temu ovog novog/budućeg Kineskog nosača, oba na engleskom ali koga zanima razumjet će.
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Leaked Detail About New Chinese Aircraft Carrier Leaves Bigger Questions Unanswered
By Ryan Faith
February 3, 2015
Earlier this week, China's state media accidentally published a report that mentioned the construction of a new aircraft carrier in Dalian, a city on the East China Sea near the border with North Korea. Dalian is home to a major shipyard that builds a number of different vessels, including warships. An overly excited government official blurted that a local firm was super excited after "winning the contract for China's second aircraft carrier."
Shortly after realizing that this was technically "secret" information, authorities quickly tried to yank the story from news, social media, and other sites. Of course, the officials weren't quite fast enough to prevent people from noticing and getting all wound up.
China's plans for a second (and third and maybe fourth) carrier have been known for a long time. But here's the thing: China already has one aircraft carrier — the Liaoning — a Soviet-built ship that was purchased from Ukraine as a gutted hull. It took ages to refurbish. Hyping up the news that there's a second carrier under construction is like an exposé revealing that there's binge drinking at keg parties.
But while reports about the leak have wrestled mightily with the fact that this news event is a non-event, it does give us an opportunity to figure out what this Chinese aircraft carrier business means and whether we should all be digging a fallout shelter in the backyard or just brushing up on our Mandarin.
Here's what it means: Nobody really knows.
China's carrier ambitions are going to take decades to fully mature. The country's long-term military plans are not immune to the various political, academic, and budgetary debates that plague every military.
It takes many years to master naval aviation. A number of countries have aircraft carriers, but very few harness their full potential. The technology involved is complex and fussy. Those steam-powered catapults that US carriers use to launch planes off the flight deck are immensely expensive and intricate. Brazil and France are the only countries, other than the US, that can even manage to build and operate a steam catapult. More countries have nuclear-powered submarines capable of launching missiles from underwater — no small technological feat — than have steam catapults.
And that only covers takeoffs. Landing essentially requires pilots to intentionally crash their planes to a halt on a tiny moving platform in the middle of an ocean.
There's also the fact that aircraft carriers require a sizable supporting cast of submarines, ships, and aircraft to protect against attacks. All those support vessels need to be refueled and resupplied. The navy needs to learn to coordinate operations with other sea- and land-based forces. That level of integration poses a significant challenge, especially since every nation deploys their carriers differently based on their own national strategic imperatives. China can't just borrow from someone else's playbook. They'll be writing an original composition.
Finally, the Chinese are probably still debating what they want in their carriers. There's likely a discussion over whether the carriers should be nuclear-powered or use diesel fuel. There's a decision to be made about what type of aircraft the ship should carry. There's learning to be done about simple operations, like moving aircraft around the deck efficiently. These issues won't be settled years, perhaps even decades.
The more interesting aspect of the Chinese aircraft carrier news is figuring out the politics behind this huge expenditure and what China thinks their newfound prestige purchase will buy them. But that's a story for another day — or perhaps another accidental Chinese media leak.
https://news.vice.com/-------------------------
Reports that China is building second aircraft carrier deleted from websites
Social media message from Chinese authority which won contract appears to confirm construction and is then removed2 February 2015
A firm has won a contract to supply cabling for a second Chinese aircraft carrier, comments by local authorities suggested in the latest sign that Beijing is boosting its maritime power, although news of the development was swiftly deleted online.
Authorities in Changzhou said on a verified social media account that “in 2015, our city will focus on promoting some major programmes”, including Jiangsu Shangshang Cable Group “winning the contract for China’s second aircraft carrier”.
The Changzhou Evening News carried a similar report at the weekend, although both the newspaper article and the post on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service, were deleted shortly after publication.
Neither report gave details of the ship.
China’s first aircraft carrier was purchased from Ukraine through an intermediary and was commissioned in 2012, while the country’s defence spending has been increasing sharply in recent years.
The deputy chief of staff of China’s navy, Song Xue, said in April 2013 that the country “will have more than one aircraft carrier” but left the timing open.
In a subsequent leak, Wang Min - the Communist Party secretary of Liaoning province, where China’s first aircraft carrier is based - said the country was already working on a second ship to be completed around 2020.
Propaganda authorities ordered that all reports of Wang’s remarks be deleted, according to US-based China Digital Times, which monitors censorship in China.
Nevertheless, China’s nationalist commentators quickly responded to the latest reports, calling Monday for more aircraft carriers to be built in the face of “Western-backed provocations”.
“China is now the world’s second-largest economy, but its only flattop is a training ship rebuilt from an ex-Soviet aircraft carrier,” said an op-ed by Sun Xiaobo in the Global Times, which is affiliated with the official Communist Party newspaper, the People’s Daily.
“This is no match to the country’s economic strength.”
Though China’s defence spending is growing by double digits and it has acquired its first aircraft carrier, the country remains far behind the United States in military capacity and reach.
The defence ministry said last week that China’s military training this year will focus on “improving fighting capacity” to win “local wars”, with Beijing embroiled in several territorial disputes.
China has been involved in occasionally tense confrontations with Japan and the Philippines over maritime disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea respectively, amid fears that the disputes could result in armed clashes.
http://www.theguardian.com/