Just for arguments sake...
Are there any historians on here that remember how battleships were made obsolete?
Aircraft carriers day is coming as well.
I'm not suggesting old pajama bottoms can do it...but just imagine the impact it would have if one was sunk by missiles
Originally Posted by TheDaliLama
Hmmm... if they're becoming obsolete, why did China just launch its second one?
China Launches First Home-Built Aircraft Carrier, Boosting Naval Power
Beijing’s second carrier will undergo two years of trials before becoming operational
By Jeremy Page and Ben Kesling
Updated April 26, 2017 7:14 p.m. ET
BEIJING—China launched its second aircraft carrier—and the first one entirely home-built—taking another stride in its quest for a world-class navy that can protect Chinese economic and security interests far from its shores.
The new carrier, festooned in red flags and ribbons and with a bottle of champagne smashed over its bow, slid from a dry dock into the water in a shipyard ceremony in the northeastern port city of Dalian on Wednesday, state media reported. About two years of sea trials are expected before the still-unnamed ship becomes fully operational, Chinese and Western military experts say.
“We aim to safeguard our sovereignty and state interests and world peace by developing our military forces including maritime forces,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a regular news briefing on Tuesday.
The launch of the carrier is just one of many naval technologies the country is developing, long a concern of U.S. military officials.
In nearly every category, China is far behind the U.S. in technological capability, U.S. officials said. The difference between Chinese and U.S. submarines is like “comparing a Model T with a Corvette,” said Adm. Harry Harris, head of the U.S. military’s Pacific Command, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
“There’s no comparison [between] a U.S. Virginia-class submarine and anything that China can field,” Adm. Harris said.
However, the current U.S. fleet of 52 submarines is set to shrink to 42 and, combined with Chinese technological developments, the U.S. advantage could erode, he said.
“The point is that in 20 years or so, that China will work hard to close that technological gap,” Adm. Harris said. “And if we don’t continue to resource our submarine fleets and our military in general, then they will be able to close that gap and that will put us in, I think, in a bad place.”
The admiral said he also is concerned about Chinese development of next-generation weapons including hypersonic missiles and space-based weapons and about the development of bases on man-made islands in the South China Sea.
China has been rapidly modernizing and expanding its naval operations over the past two decades, partly to ensure military superiority over Asian neighbors, some of which contest Chinese territorial claims, and to prevent the U.S. from intervening in regional conflicts.
India has one active carrier—a refurbished Soviet ship—and launched its first indigenous model in 2013, but that ship isn’t expected to become operational until the early 2020s. Japan’s has two large helicopter carriers but none capable of launching jet fighters.
China has also been sending ships and submarines deep into the Indian and Pacific oceans in recent years. That is part of a longer-term strategy to establish itself as a global military power capable of protecting its overseas economic interests, especially oil and gas supplies, as well as its expatriate citizens, military experts say.
Ruling the WavesAs China begins trials of its second aircraft carrier, provisionally known as Type 001A, the U.S. still dominates the world's oceans. Here are the countries with the biggest aircraft carriers.
China’s first two carriers are both conventionally powered and significantly smaller than the U.S. Navy’s 10 nuclear-powered Nimitz class carriers, which can sail for far longer without refueling and each handle about double the number of aircraft.
The U.S. also has decades of experience of operating carriers, whereas Chinese pilots began learning to take off and land at sea only five years ago and their capabilities remain unclear. Still, China’s carriers significantly boost its efforts to build a blue-water navy, capable of conducting combat and other missions far from its shores.
“China wants to put an emerging trickle of aircraft carriers at the center of basic blue-water operations: dazzling with naval diplomacy, strengthening influence across strategic sea lanes, and responding to emergencies that don’t require fighting other great powers,” said Andrew Erickson, an expert on China’s military at the U.S. Naval War College.
He said other evidence of China’s long-term plans included constructing a new class of supply vessels modeled on leading U.S. counterparts, a new class of cruisers designed in part to protect carriers, and its first overseas naval facility, in the East African nation of Djibouti.
China “appears to be priming other ports to support its growing seaward presence,” Mr. Erickson said.
China ultimately needs at least three aircraft carriers to have one conducting operations, one undergoing repairs and one being used for training, at all times, military experts said. But the country could be aiming to deploy as many as six, these people say.
Rear Adm. Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor at China’s National Defense University, was quoted in state media predicting that over the next 20 years, China would produce two larger conventionally powered carriers, with steam-powered catapult systems, and two even bigger nuclear-powered ones with electromagnetic catapult systems.
The U.S. Department of Defense said in an annual report on China’s military last year that “China’s current aircraft carrier and planned follow-on carriers will extend air-defense umbrellas beyond the range of coastal systems and help enable task group operations in ‘far seas.’ ”
It said China’s next generation of carriers would probably be able to sail for longer and launch more-varied types of aircraft, including early warning and electronic warfare, “thus increasing the potential striking power” of a Chinese carrier group “beyond its immediate periphery.”
The widely anticipated launch comes six years after China dispatched its first carrier, the Liaoning, which is based on the refurbished hull of an old Soviet model, the Varyag, purchased from Ukraine in 1998.
Since entering service in 2012, the Liaoning has conducted exercises in the disputed South China Sea but has been used mainly for training naval personnel, especially fighter pilots, in carrier operations. It can operate 24 J-15 jet fighters, military experts say.
The new carrier is conventionally powered, like the Liaoning, and uses the same ski-jump runway to launch J-15 jet fighters, rather than the catapult system used on the U.S.’s larger nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carriers, Chinese state media reported.
But China’s new carrier—while around the same size as the Liaoning—is designed to carry more ammunition, fuel and aircraft and is likely to be used for actual operations including sea-lane patrols and humanitarian missions, according to Chinese officers and military experts.
“The main body of the carrier has been completed, with equipment of the major systems installed,” including its engine and electrical gear, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. “After the launch, the new carrier will undergo equipment debugging, outfitting and comprehensive mooring trials.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-l...wer-1493182896
Notes: The list doesn't include Brazil, which is decommissioning its carrier, and Italy and Thailand, whose sole carriers are relatively small; List reflects each country’s largest carrier class.
Sources: U.S. Navy; Jane’s Fighting Ships; Indian Navy