The US Nimitz-class aircraft carrier was hit by two hits from Dongfeng 21 ballistic missiles. The warheads of missiles at a speed of five times the speed of sound pierced the flight armored deck and six lower decks of the aircraft carrier, destroying all posts, cockpits and storage facilities in their path. With a terrible blow, the main tube-toothed units tore out of their places - the once formidable warship now powerlessly froze in the middle of the ocean, swallowing radioactive steam from the torn circuits of a nuclear steam generating installation. Elastic jets of kerosene are whipping through the burst fuel lines, instantly igniting from the sparks of damaged electrical wiring. The roar of the flame of burning aviation fuel echoes in the steel belly of the doomed ship, and cold water is already rolling over the lower decks of the aircraft carrier, gurgling and bubbling - having reached the bottom, the warheads of Chinese missiles tore apart the armored flooring of unsinkability.
The sinking of the American aircraft carrier took place last year in the Gobi Desert, on the border with Mongolia. Chinese rockets fired at a concrete platform mimicking the outline of an American super-ship.
According to Chinese sources, the Dongfeng-21 mod. D is an integral part of the anti-ship missile and space system, from orbiting reconnaissance satellites and directly the ground-based missile complex itself, capable of destroying sea targets at a distance of up to 2700 kilometers from the coast of the People's Republic of China. The space constellation includes three types of satellites:
- satellite optical-electronic reconnaissance Yaogan VII, - satellite with active radar Yaogan VIII, - six radio intelligence satellites Yaogan IX and Yaogan XVI.
The onboard equipment of the RTR satellites intercepts the communications of American sailors and, taking into account the time delay, determines the approximate location of the US Navy squadron. To clarify the coordinates of the aircraft carrier, data from optical or radar data collection facilities are used. According to the Chinese, their orbital constellation is now in its infancy and will continue to evolve over time.
Most of the questions are caused by the behavior of the warheads of missiles in the final section of the trajectory - to defeat a moving aircraft carrier requires phenomenal accuracy and continuous correction using external means. The Dongfeng warhead enters the dense atmosphere at a speed ten times the speed of sound! How the Chinese managed to solve the problem of communication with the apparatus flying in a continuous cloud of hot plasma is still a mystery.
The "Chinese service" was highly appreciated abroad. Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates openly stated that “among all Chinese developments, the project of the fifth generation aircraft and the Dongfeng-21 anti-ship complex are the most worrisome. The Washington Times, in turn, quoted analysts as saying that the Chinese ballistic missile is "the first threat to the global dominance of the US Navy since the end of the Cold War."
Chinese aircraft carriers
Before building their own aircraft carrier, the Chinese acquired four copies of foreign aircraft carriers for study:
- Former Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne. An old British ship launched in 1945 and serving a surprisingly long time in the navies of the two countries. It was sold for cutting to China in 1985. The Chinese dismantled the Melbourne to the cog and got acquainted in detail with the design of the aircraft carrier.
- former Soviet aircraft-carrying cruisers of projects 1143 and 1143.2 - "Kiev" and "Minsk". Strange hybrids with missile weapons and a short flight deck designed for basing vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Chinese experts carefully studied the design of the Soviet aircraft-carrying cruisers and made the appropriate conclusions. The construction of the Chinese counterparts "Kiev" and "Minsk" was abandoned.
- an unfinished Soviet aircraft-carrying cruiser "Varyag" with a continuous flight deck and a bow springboard. The ship's hull, when 67% ready, was sold to the Chinese entertainment corporation Chong Lot Travel Agency Ltd for only $ 20 million (1/700 of the price of a modern American Ford-class aircraft carrier!) With a promise to turn the ship into a floating casino.
The Americans were the first to sound the alarm - for a year and a half Turkey, under pressure from the United States, was breaking a comedy, refusing to let the Varyag skeleton pass through the Bosphorus. However, the Chinese showed exceptional perseverance - in March 2002 the Varyag arrived in Dalian (former name - Dalniy, the legendary place of the Russian-Japanese war, 40 km from Port Arthur). Ten years later, on September 25, 2012, the former Soviet aircraft carrier was admitted to the People's Liberation Army of China under the name "Liaoning", becoming the largest warship in the PLA Navy.
But, despite the undoubted success, the Chinese sailors and naval pilots still have a lot to learn - now they have everything: an aircraft carrier, a J-15 carrier-based aircraft (an unlicensed copy of the Su-33 multi-role fighter), a detachment of carrier-based aircraft pilots, funds to build a second ship and all the necessary technologies. They even learned how to land on a ship! But the Chinese do not have the main thing - the experience of using this system in combat conditions. In general, the experience of operating an aircraft carrier and carrier-based aircraft leaves much to be desired. However, the Chinese have repeatedly shown themselves to be capable students, and many foreign experts agree that the Liaoning is not so much a combat unit as a training ground for the necessary skills and technologies.
The second question related to the Chinese aircraft carrier is still open - where are the brave Chinese sailors going to go on it and with whom are they going to fight? The main geopolitical enemy, Japan, is in the area of operation of land-based aircraft. Is the enemy really Russia? But China has a border with Russia, and, therefore, has a common 3,000-kilometer border; it clearly requires a completely different technique than aircraft carriers. Fielding one Liaoning against 10 US Navy aircraft carriers is insane. Using an aircraft carrier against Vietnam, with which China has a number of minor insoluble problems? In this case, the power of the aircraft carrier looks clearly excessive. It turns out that the Liaoning is nothing more than a symbol of the growing power of the Chinese fleet, a status ship for the proud display of the flag of a superpower.
Destroyers and frigates
The PLA Navy consists of twenty-six destroyers, divided by designation into three large groups: multipurpose destroyers, anti-submarine destroyers and air defense destroyers. Obviously, the Chinese shipbuilders have not yet managed to build a universal destroyer that fully meets the basic requirements of the concept of using the PLA Navy. A significant part of the ships - nine units - are obsolete destroyers (frigates) Type 051, with a small displacement (3600 tons) and the same outdated weapons.
Four more ships, the so-called. "Anti-ship destroyers" - Project 956 destroyers from the Russian Navy, equipped with the deadly complex "Mosquito". Serious ships for serious missions.
Very interesting is the modern project of the Chinese destroyer Type 51C (2 ships were built) - a small 7000-ton destroyer with predominantly Soviet / Russian weapons: the Chinese managed to place 48 S-300FM anti-aircraft missiles on board the Type 51C, as well as 8 anti-ship missiles and a whole line additional weapons - from a helicopter hangar to a 100 mm artillery system. It turned out to be a cheap, without any frills, but quite modern and effective ship, capable of providing high-quality air defense of the squadron on the high seas.
Recently, the Chinese have been building several new destroyers almost every year. And all for different projects! On the one hand, this is a very dubious decision that complicates the operation of such a "motley" fleet. However, the quality of Chinese ships is rapidly increasing over and over again, which cannot but cause some concerns.
The Chinese also have a whole armada of cool frigates - 48 units. From small and old Type 53 (built in the 70s) to the most modern stealth frigates Type 54A: a wide range of anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons, supported by a block of vertical launchers for 32 anti-aircraft missiles HQ-16 (analogue of the domestic air defense system "Buk" medium range). The most surprising thing is that over the past six years, the Chinese have “riveted” 16 such ships with a displacement of 4,000 tons each, six more are in varying degrees of readiness. At the same time, the construction time for ships does not exceed two or three years!
The Chinese also have their own "Mistrals" - three universal amphibious helicopter docks, reminiscent of the outlines of the Dutch UDC of the "Rotterdam" type. They do not have a continuous flight deck; instead, in the middle part of the hull there is a developed superstructure and a hangar for 4 helicopters. In the aft part, under the flight deck, there is a large docking chamber for air-cushion landing craft. And for fire support of the landing on board the UDC there are four 50-barrel packages of multiple launch rocket systems.
Finally, the "most delicious" - the underwater component of the PLA Navy
China has a large fleet of 60 submarines, different in type, age, purpose and type of power plant. Among the Chinese submarines, there are even such "monsters" as Soviet diesel submarines of project 633 (hello from the fifties!), Built, in turn, on the basis of a German captured type XXI submarine. Seventeen diesel-electric submarines of this type are still used for training purposes as part of the PLA Navy.
If the memory of Project 633 (or "Ming" in Chinese) can only bring a smile, then the next paragraph will certainly unpleasantly surprise the reader: the warm waters of the South China Sea are plowed by four strategic nuclear submarines. Each - with twelve Juilan-2 ballistic missiles. In other words, the People's Republic of China can independently organize a world nuclear war - it has quite enough boats, missiles and charges.
Also in the fleet there is another old diesel submarine equipped with three ballistic missiles (built according to drawings received in 1959 from the USSR) - currently it is used as a test platform for testing SLBMs.
And that is not all! Since 1970, the Chinese have managed to build 7 multipurpose nuclear submarines, two more are now in a high degree of readiness. And if the old Type 091 "Han" boats were nevertheless, objectively, a miserable resemblance of Soviet and American nuclear submarines (two of them have already been withdrawn from the fleet), then the declared characteristics of modern Type 093 "Sheng" submarines are already at the level of the best world analogs.
It is difficult to judge what is hidden in the depths of the ocean and draw any conclusions based on the statements of the Chinese side, however, given the rapid qualitative progress of the "visible" surface component of the PLA Navy, the Chinese have a fairly strong nuclear submarine fleet.
China is continuously improving the quantitative and qualitative components of its navy. And the most alarming thing is that the increase in the number of PLA naval ships is determined in time by no direct dependence, in recent years this process has taken on an obvious avalanche-like character.
