At present, a large country has officially owned three professional aviation ships, that is, two 60,000-ton sliding platforms, plus one 80,000-ton or more extremely advanced pure flat electromagnetic catapult platform. Although there is still a huge gap between the total number and total tonnage compared with the 11 all-nuclear-powered megaplatforms currently in service by the superpower, there is still a huge gap with the naked eye. But there is one outstanding feature in common on these three self-owned platforms, which is enough to fully crush a total of up to 10 Nimitz-class ships, plus one Ford-class that is nominally already in service. This is the platform of the three ships, and on the island of each ship, there are 4 large shields with an active phased array system. The performance of these 4 shields is very powerful, and the function is basically the same as that of the 4 large shields on the Aegis destroyers that were in service at the same time. It can be said that the detection capability ranges from the sea and air within 500 kilometers to thousands of large and small targets in space within a radius of 3,000 kilometers. This capability is not available to the 10 Nimitz-class ships currently in service.
On the Nimitz-class ship island, there is only one large, single-sided rotating PD mode conventional radar. The maximum detection range, multi-target tracking and locking ability, ultimate detection accuracy and comprehensive situational awareness are completely different from the professional 4-sided active shield on the same order of magnitude. It was only on the Ford that the actual installation of an active phased array radar shield was achieved for the first time. However, even the 110,000-ton Ford Class is equipped with only three main shields instead of four, and the Ford Class can only be regarded as a "half-sized shield" instead of a full-size active shield. The total number of its TR unit components and the actual performance, compared with these 3 standard active "shield ships" from the East, still need to be discounted by a big discount. The installation of 4 active shields on the most professional aviation main battle platform can be said to be the first of its kind in the world. Not only are the three existing forming ships like this, but the main aviation platforms that will continue to be built in batches in the future will definitely follow the prescription.
Then the total number of shield ships in the country should not only count the Aegis destroyers, which are approaching 50 ships at once, but also include 3 aviation platforms. After all, the standard Aegis system is not enough to have four large shields. A complete Aegis should be based on four large shields plus its internal combat system as the core, and then control all the vertical and non-vertical missile strike systems on the ship, together to form a free-play offensive and defensive system in the far, medium and near, which is a complete Aegis. However, apart from carrier-based aircraft, there are currently no missiles or even artillery with a range of more than 20 kilometers on the hulls of the three large air ships! Isn't it a waste of four large active shields that can easily reach 500 kilometers at every turn, as well as the powerful ability to fight against thousands of targets at the same time? In fact, it is one-sided to think in this way. The three self-owned platforms were finally installed with four active shields, and its origin was somewhat accidental. This is the earliest continuation platform, which was originally born from a large aircraft-carrying cruiser.
Originally, there were also heavy ultra-long-range anti-ship missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometers, as well as anti-aircraft missiles with multiple ranges, so it needed to have a very strong comprehensive sensing capability. Of course, even today, the main successors of the USSR are not able to develop the technology of an active large shield. Therefore, on the island of the ship, there are still 4 steel plates, and the interior is empty. However, a large country has indeed installed 4 active shields, and the benefits brought by this are huge. This is that in terms of comprehensive battlefield situational awareness, the large aviation ships themselves can be completely self-sufficient, and there is still a lot of wealth. Finally, there is no need to be like the Kitty Hawk class and the Nimitz class, the battlefield situation and the main air situation, and the Tikon or Burke next to him need to be "reported" when they come. As a result, for the first time, the main air force ships have the comprehensive command and control capability of the whole fleet and even the entire theater of operations related to sea, land, air and space.
The fleet headquarters can only be set up on the Tican or Burke, or the special development of the Blue Ridge-class command ship, which is not a non-combat ship that does not conform to the modern mode of naval warfare. Moreover, after all the four big shields are turned on, the real-time dynamics of all carrier-based aircraft taking off for attack and defense can be seen at a glance, and the command and control will be improved by a hundredfold. For the first time, it can even penetrate the offensive and defensive vision into space to achieve leapfrog development that keeps up with the times. It is precisely because of the many benefits of installing an active shield on the main aviation ship that the style of the Nimitz-class ship island has been changed on the Ford-class, which can be regarded as a hero's vision!