Considering the current surrounding situation facing China, many people believe that the three aircraft carriers of the People's Liberation Army may still not be enough, so how many should be built?
In recent years, wherever the US Navy's carrier strike groups appear, they have been thrown into a mess. However, with the increasing number of overseas hotspot incidents, the US Navy's aircraft carrier strike group has become ineffective.
According to analysis, with only 11 existing aircraft carriers, the Pentagon is already having difficulty maintaining its global military presence. This real challenge is not only a cause for concern in the United States, but also a cautionary tale for China, which is actively expanding its naval capabilities, especially its aircraft carrier capabilities.
For example, the USS Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group of the US Navy quickly headed north to Busan, South Korea, to participate in the first multi-domain joint exercise of the United States, Japan, and South Korea after completing a two-month mission in the South China Sea. This reflects that the United States not only attaches importance to the security layout of the Asia-Pacific region, but is also committed to strengthening military cooperation with its allies.
However, it is worth noting that the Roosevelt has been deployed for nearly six months, and its follow-up plans also show that the aircraft carrier will go to the Red Sea to carry out a mission to replace the Eisenhower returning to its homeland.
The reason why the United States was able to play the role of "world policeman" in the early 21st century is that it relies on the global deployment capability of its navy.
Over time, however, the Pentagon has found that mechanisms that rely on existing carriers to maintain global deployments are facing challenges. The operation of US aircraft carriers theoretically assumes that one-third of the aircraft carriers are deployed, one-third are undergoing short-term maintenance and training, and the other one-third are undergoing long-term maintenance.
But the reality is that the U.S. shipbuilding industry is affected by deindustrialization, and the lack of skilled workers and advanced technology has led to the overdeployment of aircraft carriers as the norm, which in turn has triggered a chain reaction that has weakened the U.S. military's global response capability.
The emergency transfer of the USS Roosevelt to the Red Sea is a concrete manifestation of the tension faced by the US Navy. In the future, similar challenges will continue to plague the Pentagon and may even force the United States to reassess its global military strategy and the way it deploys its forces.
Although according to the current situation, the Chinese Navy has not yet reached the global deployment capability and does not show such a need, this does not mean that one day in the future, we will not see China's aircraft carrier battle group stationed overseas to fulfill the mission of safeguarding the country's overseas interests.
As we can see today, China has dispatched escort formations in the Gulf of Aden to carry out anti-piracy missions, which is a vivid practice of the Chinese Navy in maintaining the security of sea lanes.
The U.S. Navy, as the world's strongest maritime power, undoubtedly faces challenges worthy of profound learning and reference by the Chinese Navy. Many of the issues facing the U.S. Navy, such as the operating costs of aircraft carriers, technical support, and policy orientation, may be challenges that China will need to face in the construction and development of its navy.
In particular, the various difficulties encountered by the US Navy in the process of maintaining global hegemony have provided a lesson for China's maritime strategy.
However, it is interesting that the American media once published an article arguing that China does not need too many aircraft carriers.
The reason given by the US media is that the high cost of construction and maintenance, as well as the challenge of aircraft carrier survivability in the face of new anti-ship weapons, are important factors that need to be considered in the future development of the Chinese Navy.
However, using these views as a reason to oppose China's development of aircraft carriers ignores the basic fact that each country's defense needs and strategic goals are formulated according to its own national conditions and geopolitical environment, and American standards cannot simply be applied to China.
Indeed, with the advancement of modern warfare technology, especially the emergence of anti-ship ballistic missiles such as the Dongfeng-21D and Dongfeng-26, the tactical value and strategic position of traditional aircraft carriers have been challenged.
However, this does not mean that aircraft carriers have lost their raison d'être. As a mobile maritime air base, aircraft carriers remain indispensable in certain strategic needs as they can provide countries with the ability to project forces at sea, control of the oceans, and rapid response at sea.
Chinese military experts have put forward a strong rebuttal to the views of the American media, emphasizing the need for China to develop aircraft carriers. As a maritime power, China faces a complex and volatile international security environment, especially in sensitive waters such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, where the United States continues to use aircraft carriers as a means of military deterrence.
To sum up, although the Chinese Navy currently does not have the ability to deploy globally, its development direction is clear, and it is prudently developing its aircraft carrier force according to national security needs, neither blindly pursuing scale, nor being questioned and interfered with by the outside world, and insisting on its own path to maritime power.