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Preface
In modern naval warfare, aircraft carriers are known as "sea hegemons", and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are the strongest among them.
Today, there are only two countries in the world that use nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and even the two military powers, China and Russia, have struggled to make a breakthrough in this area despite years of efforts.
How difficult is nuclear-powered aircraft carrier technology, and why have China and Russia not been able to build it until now?
Technical barriers and global pattern of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers
Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, like mobile cities on the sea, can gallop across the vast sea and show super combat effectiveness.
But you may not know that at present, only two countries in the world, the United States and France, have really mastered the construction technology of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
In fact, the technical barriers of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are far higher than many people imagine, and it is not just a big ship, but also a complex system engineering behind it.
First of all, the design and integration of nuclear power systems requires extremely professional knowledge and rich experience, which is not a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it, and requires long-term technical accumulation and practice.
How to ensure the safety of nuclear reactors and how to protect against the radiation generated is also a huge technical problem.
Not only that, but a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier requires special maintenance and operating procedures, which means that you not only have to build the ship, but you also have to develop a team of professionals who can operate and maintain it.
If this is so difficult, why are China and Russia willing to invest heavily in the development of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, because the United States has shown us with a living example that nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are worth it.
As early as 1958, the United States began to build the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, and the development of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the United States can be said to be a modern naval history.
Since 1968, the United States has successively built 10 "Nimitz-class" nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, each of which can be called a fortress at sea, and now the United States has also built more advanced "Ford-class" nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
The total number of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers owned by the US Navy may reach 11, which is behind more than half a century of continuous investment and technological accumulation, allowing the United States to dominate the field of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
In addition to the United States, the other country in the world that has nuclear-powered aircraft carriers is not China and Russia, which are known for their military strength, but France, which is also a member of the P5.
Information sources:
Guangming Network "Can the PANG aircraft carrier revive France's "Gallic ambitions"? 》2021-07-13
France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in addition to the U.S. Navy, and it is also the only aircraft carrier in the French Navy, but in order to save money, this aircraft carrier has a full load displacement of only 42,000 tons.
At the same time, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which has been in service for more than 20 years, may be decommissioned by the French Navy around 2040 due to frequent accidents.
So, where do other countries stand in this technological race compared to these two countries with nuclear-powered aircraft carriers?
Russia's thwarted dream of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
When we talk about nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, we have to mention the efforts of Russia, a former superpower, in this field, which can be described as "the dream is very full, and the reality is very skinny".
Let's turn the clock back to the mid-80s of the last century, when the Soviet Union had not yet collapsed and they had ambitious plans to build a nuclear-powered supercarrier called "Ulyanovsk".
If this aircraft carrier is really built, it will definitely be a behemoth, with a length of more than 300 meters, a displacement of up to 85,000 tons, and more than 70 aircraft of various types at the same time.
However, the plans could not keep up with the changes, and in 1988, the keel of the "Ulyanovsk" had just begun to be laid, but it did not take long for the Soviet Union to collapse, and this ambitious plan was also lost, and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier became a finished project.
To this day, Russia's situation in terms of aircraft carriers can be said to be quite embarrassing, not to mention nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, they can't even get a decent conventionally powered aircraft carrier now.
Russia's only existing aircraft carrier, "Kuznetsov", has been in service for many years, and it has been in disrepair for a long time, and it needs to enter the factory for maintenance at two ends in three days.
One might wonder, hasn't Putin been modernizing his army? How is it that in the field of aircraft carriers, Russia's military strength seems to be so collapsed? In fact, behind this situation is Russia's unspeakable bitterness.
For Russia, the biggest trouble is the economic problem, the research and development, construction and maintenance of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers is not a small amount, and it is often tens of billions of dollars of investment, and Russia is not as shy as the Soviet Union in the past, and it really cannot afford this money.
Information sources:
CCTV4 "Russia's only aircraft carrier was smashed and there is no place to repair it?" 》2018-11-16
Moreover, Russia lacks shipyards and supporting facilities for the construction of large aircraft carriers, and all the large shipyards left over from the Soviet Union are in Ukraine, and now the relationship between the two countries can be said to be completely broken, even if they want to borrow it, they can't do it.
Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are not only a military issue, but also a manifestation of a country's comprehensive national strength, which not only requires strong economic strength, but also an advanced industrial base and a mature scientific and technological level.
Faced with such a high threshold for nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, as well as Russia's difficulties in this field, has China, whose navy has started far behind Western countries, has given up on the dream of having a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier?
China is steadily advancing the development path of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers
As the world's second largest economy, China's development in this field can be described as steady and steady.
At present, China has built three conventionally powered aircraft carriers, from the earliest Liaoning, to the domestically produced Shandong, and then to the latest Fujian, which can be said to be one step at a time.
But why doesn't China seize the time to start building a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier?
Although China's nuclear submarines have proven that China is quite mature in nuclear power reactor technology, developing miniaturized nuclear reactors suitable for aircraft carriers is not as simple as moving the reactors on submarines to aircraft carriers.
Some experts predict that China may build six aircraft carrier battle groups with comprehensive military capabilities around 2030, and will have one or two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
For China, the current strategic focus is to ensure basic defense needs, conventionally powered aircraft carriers have been able to meet the needs of coastal defense and regional projection well, and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are more used for ocean-based operations, which is not the current top priority.
Moreover, the difficulty factor of nuclear power system in terms of safety and security is also quite high, and if there is a problem, the consequences can be very serious, and it will be self-defeating to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier rashly until the technology is fully mature.
Information sources:
CCTV "Chinese Navy "Dumplings", 2030 or the formation of 6 aircraft carrier battle groups" 2018-06-25
On the major issue of aircraft carrier development, China has chosen a step-by-step path, first doing a good job of conventionally powered aircraft carriers, accumulating experience, cultivating qualified personnel, and preparing for future nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
Sufficient time should be used to build conventionally powered aircraft carriers, build and improve relevant supporting facilities and personnel training systems, and seek progress and innovation while maintaining stability, which precisely reflects the development path with Chinese characteristics.
Since both China and Russia have invested so heavily in the research of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, is it really the ultimate form of aircraft carrier development, and which is better or worse than conventionally powered aircraft carriers?
The strategic superiority and disadvantage of nuclear power versus conventional power
The Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the United States can be said to be the most advanced aircraft carrier in the world today, with a maximum endurance of nearly two months, a speed of more than 30 knots, and 75 carrier-based aircraft of all kinds.
On the other hand, France, which also has a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, although it is also nuclear-powered, compared with the United States, the French aircraft carrier that directly uses the reactor on the nuclear submarine is a bit too "small".
Based on the performance of the aircraft carriers of these two countries, it may be easy for the average person to think that nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are better than conventionally powered aircraft carriers in all aspects, but is this really the case?
In fact, compared with conventionally powered aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers do have advantages in long-distance crossings and endurance, and this advantage may be discounted in actual use.
In fact, in terms of actual combat capability, the difference between a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and a conventional-powered aircraft carrier of the same class is not particularly large, and the key is to look at the weapon systems and aircraft on board.
Don't look at the power system is different, as long as you can successfully send the plane into the sky and successfully complete the combat mission, then it is a good aircraft carrier.
Moreover, aircraft carriers in modern warfare do not fight alone, and there are a large number of conventional ships in the entire aircraft carrier battle group that need to be regularly replenished for endurance, and from the perspective of the combat capability of the entire aircraft carrier formation, the difference between the two power carriers is even smaller.
Compared with the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, which are expensive and difficult to maintain, the conventional-powered aircraft carriers powered by gas turbines have more advantages in many aspects due to the characteristics of small size, light weight, high efficiency, and relatively simple maintenance.
Information sources:
Global Network "Modern aircraft carriers face many "two choices": big or small? Nuclear power or conventional power? 》2022-06-18
Therefore, whether to choose nuclear or conventional power, the key depends on the specific needs and technical level of a country.
For the United States, which needs to project its power around the world, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are a necessity, but for most other countries, the more affordable conventionally powered aircraft carriers may be more suitable.
epilogue
Looking at the development process of global nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, we can see that this is not only a competition of technology, but also a contest of comprehensive national strength.
The steadily developing Chinese Navy, now that it has three aircraft carriers, has begun to intensively carry out the construction of follow-up aircraft carriers, and it is still unknown whether it can directly build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
But we can already look forward to what kind of grand occasion the Chinese Navy will be in the near future, with a huge naval fleet of nearly 10 aircraft carriers and multiple aircraft carrier battle groups.
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