On June 21, 1958, the Military Commission held an enlarged meeting in Beijing and delivered a speech at the meeting.
It is worth mentioning that at this meeting, it was not only mentioned that it would be necessary to build atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs, but also proposed to build aircraft carriers in a far-sighted manner, and put forward a plan for the Navy to build 600,000 tons of various ships in the future.
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state's finances were very tight, and by the mid-50s, the budget for national defense was only 5 billion yuan a year, and the navy was able to receive less than 200 million yuan, which was equivalent to only $80 million at the exchange rate for the same period.
At that time, the international situation faced by New China was: the United States, the world's number one power, blockaded us from the sea, China's international affairs were very small, and it was mainly carried out between the Soviet Union by land, and there were no overseas interests that needed to be protected.
Under such a national defense situation, the navy and air force in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China mainly focused on the development of submarines, speedboats, and land-based air forces, and their operational purpose was mainly to prevent the United States and Chiang Kai-shek's regime from conducting reconnaissance and harassment on the mainland from the air and sea.
According to the technical capabilities of New China in the 50s, the military ships that could be built independently included small gunboats and torpedo boats with a displacement of several tens or hundreds of tons, and even offshore submarines with a displacement of 1,000 tons could only be built with the help of the Soviet Union.
**'s opinion is several steps farther than the vast majority of people, because in his plan, China will have a huge ocean-going fleet in the future to develop the international **, although he does not know what kind of scene this is, but still vividly called it "sea railway".
Since there are huge overseas interests, it is necessary to have a strong navy, and in particular, aircraft carriers, which symbolize sea power, are even more indispensable.
In accordance with the spirit of this meeting, the Navy proposed to start building aircraft carriers in the 60s when the time was ripe, but people are not as good as heaven, and after 1958, China suffered an unprecedented natural disaster, and the national economy fell into a very difficult situation.
In order to give priority to the development of atomic bombs and missiles at that time, as well as the nuclear submarine project that had just been launched, China's aircraft carrier project had to be temporarily shelved.
At that time, we were not without ideas, but aircraft carriers had to be built on money, and the cost of a medium-sized aircraft carrier of the US Navy cost $200 million, equivalent to 10 percent of China's annual defense expenditure, not counting the cost of carrier-based aircraft, supporting ships, and annual training, maintenance, and maintenance.
In the mid-70s, the main ships of the Navy were only some corvettes in addition to submarines, and the Type 051 domestic missile destroyers, which began to be launched at the end of 1971, were not even equipped with radars, and in fact did not have combat capability.
In the Battle of Xisha in January 1974, the Chinese Navy defeated the South Vietnamese ship in small boats, and it was completely based on the sacrifice spirit and tenacious fighting spirit of the officers and men.
The battle also exposed the embarrassing situation of the Chinese navy's lack of air cover and the disrepair of its main combat ships.
Before the Battle of Xisha Naval Battle, ** specifically said to Admiral Su Zhenhua, then political commissar of the Navy: "The Navy must do a good job so that the enemy is afraid." ”
With the entrustment of the Navy, Su Zhenhua and the team of the Navy Headquarters formulated a "Ten-Year Development Plan for the Navy" in 1975, proposing that the Navy build 700,000 tons of ships within 10 years.
***, who was already seriously ill, rarely quickly approved the report and encouraged everyone: "Work hard and achieve the goal in ten years".
In fact, in July 1970, the Navy had already organized a demonstration meeting on the construction of aircraft carriers, and the person who presided over the demonstration meeting was the deputy director of the Office of the Shipbuilding Industry Scientific Research Leading Group, which had been separated from the Navy for eight years
In May 1952, Xiao Jinguang, then commander of the Navy, dragged ***, who was the deputy political commissar of the 10th Army of the Army, to the Navy, when he was only 37 years old, but he had been working for 22 years of revolution.
Almost inevitably, shake your head like a rattle at first.
Xiao Jinguang enlightened him: In the past, imperialist aggression came from the sea, and in the future, imperialist aggression will still come from the sea
Okay, in order for us not to be bullied by imperialism in the future, and in order to build a strong people's navy, I will do this work!
Although the Long March, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the War of Liberation have not fallen, and he has been on the verge of life and death for 19 years, the first task given by Xiao Jinguang made him have a big head: serving as the deputy political commissar of the Dalian Naval Academy and the secretary of the party committee of the school.
To be honest, the *** at that time didn't know anything about the navy. What if you don't understand the Navy?Then learn, what's wrong with landlubbers, Xiao Jinguang used to be seasick!
So from August 1954, he went to the Voroshilov Naval Academy in the Soviet Union for further study, and gnawed on foreign bread for more than 3 years.
When I was a child, I only studied in private school for a few years, and I was a coarse writer, first I studied Russian hard, and then the school curriculum: navy, arms and tactics, contract tactics, maritime communications, naval warfare, naval geography, international naval law, and naval command regulations.
The Naval Academy had a total of 13 examination courses, ** with 10 excellent grades and 3 good grades, and by the time he graduated in February 1958, he was already a competent naval commander.
During my studies in the Soviet Union, there was also a small but special event that deserves to be mentioned.
In the winter of 1956, the British Navy aircraft carrier "Ark Royal" visited the Soviet Union and anchored at the Neva military port near Leningrad.
** and his classmates have sneaked out of the academy many times after class, and watched this dream behemoth from a distance of dozens of meters.
Seeing the aircraft carrier so mighty and majestic, everyone was envious and excited, and some people said: "It would be nice if our navy had such a big ship!"”
** Firmly said, "There will be!".”
This is his answer to his classmates, and it is also his answer to himself.
After returning to China, he first worked in the Lushun base and the North Sea Fleet for 3 years, and then transferred to the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense to be in charge of research and development.
At this time, although it had been separated from the Navy for 8 years, after learning the opinions of the Military Commission on the construction of aircraft carriers, the excited *** still carefully wrote a "Preliminary Opinions on the Construction of Aircraft Carriers".
In the "Opinions", it is proposed that China can build a conventionally powered light aircraft carrier with a displacement of about 30,000 tons and mainly carrying fighters and anti-submarine aircraft in about 3 years.
Apparently, this was conceived as a prototype based on the aircraft carrier of the "Moscow" class, which had just been launched by the Soviet Navy a few years earlier.
However, the industrial capacity and technological level of New China at that time were not enough to achieve this goal, so the "Opinions" were put on hold after being submitted to the Navy Party Committee.
In 1975, taking the opportunity of the Navy to formulate a ten-year plan, ** submitted a "Report on the Naval Equipment Issue" to the responsible comrades of the Navy.
In the "Report", ** believes that despite the existence of many huge difficulties, our army must start building aircraft carriers and form a new naval force system as soon as possible.
However, the ideal is plump, the reality is skinny, and the biggest problem that limits the Chinese Navy is still the old one: there is no money.
At that time, the Navy's focus was to build 8,000-ton destroyers, but he told his superiors that the large destroyer project could be delayed, because the future war on the ocean will be three-dimensional, and aircraft carriers must fight three-dimensional wars.
In future naval battles, air supremacy will determine sea supremacy.
However, controversy is controversy, and the "Report" has been typed, but there is still no movement.
This year, *** is 60 years old, but he has not been discouraged, he has always firmly believed: China will definitely have its own aircraft carrier!
In January 1979, China and the United States established diplomatic relations, and under the coordination of the Minister of National Defense, the high-level military of China and the United States exchanged visits.
In May 1980, the then Deputy Chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in charge of armament, military affairs and mobilization, together with other members of the Chinese Technical Delegation, visited the United States and inspected the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier of the US Navy.
Although Sino-US relations were relatively close at that time, the US Navy still kept the Chinese delegation secretive, and although the reception was grand and the courtesies were several thoughtful, the technology was not very exposed.
The "Kitty Hawk" aircraft carrier is dozens of stories high, and the 64-year-old *** insisted on climbing the stairs layer by layer to investigate, he thought: Although it is just a matter of sightseeing, what I can see is always true, better than not seeing.
At that time, the US military forbade the delegation to touch the facilities on the aircraft carrier on the grounds of technical secrecy, and he had no choice but to stand on tiptoe and watch while stretching his neck to listen to the US briefing.
This visit has touched us a lot, because when our Navy is still discussing the use of missiles to annihilate the enemy, the US Navy is already practicing the brand-new concept of "over-the-horizon operations."
This visit to the United States has given China a new understanding of the technical difficulty of building aircraft carriers: the current aircraft carriers are no longer the paper-shelled crispy aircraft carriers with wooden decks in World War II, and the temperature of the tail flame emitted by fighter jets alone is thousands of degrees, so that high-temperature resistant special steel China could not make at that time.
Someone said with emotion: "The gap in technology (for building aircraft carriers) is too big, and it is unrealistic to covet this now." ”
But there is no talk, because the scale, momentum and modern combat capability of the aircraft carrier are too shocking, China will never be able to become a maritime power if it does not have an aircraft carrier, and the future world power must be a maritime power.
For the old revolutionaries of their generation who came out of the 25,000-mile Long March, the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the rain of bullets and bullets in the War of Liberation, and the sea of swords and fires, there is nothing in the world that cannot be done.
On the contrary, the more difficult it is, the more it can arouse their high fighting spirit, which is the iron warrior under the leadership of ***.
In August 1982, he became the commander of the Navy, when he was 66 years old, which was considered "overage service", but Comrade *** encouraged him: "There are many problems in the Navy, and we must rectify them well!"”
At the beginning of his tenure, ** set himself a task: to inspect the motherland's thousands of miles of sea frontiers.
In March 1985, ** came to Yongxing Island in Xisha Island, which he had visited 11 years ago, which was the sacred territory of the motherland that the heroic sons and daughters of the southern Xinjiang of the motherland had saved with their blood and lives from the bayonets of the invaders.
Open the nautical chart, it is not difficult to find that the location of Woody Island is too crucial: it is more than 200 kilometers away from Hainan Island in the north, 800 kilometers away from Fiery Cross Reef in the south, and more than 400 kilometers away from Vietnam in the west.
If Woody Island is in our hands, it will be able to effectively consolidate our de facto control over the surrounding waters and islands, and warships will be able to reach the waters near Fiery Cross Reef in just one day from Woody Island.
On the contrary, if Woody Island is controlled by foreigners, not to mention the islands and reefs south of it, even Hainan Island will be threatened.
But Woody Island was not enough for us: at that time, the maximum combat radius of the J-7, the most advanced main fighter of the Chinese Air Force, was less than 750 kilometers, and the effective time in the air was limited, and it had to return before it could fly to Fiery Cross Reef.
This is the embarrassment of not having an aircraft carrier!
At the end of March 1987, ** again proposed to the Ministry of National Defense and the General Staff that we must plan to launch aircraft carriers around 2000 according to the situation.
The Ministry of National Defense, the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, and the General Staff Department all expressed support for this, but the army was really shy at that time.
Throughout the 1980s, and even the 1990s, it was humiliating for the Chinese navy. This is because national defense construction has to temporarily make way for economic construction, which is undoubtedly a huge blow to the "century-old navy."
In 1990, China's fiscal revenue was only 380 billion yuan, and its defense expenditure was only 29 billion yuan (only $5 billion at the exchange rate), and the navy could get even more disproportionately, and even second-rate countries could not catch up, let alone catch up with the world powers.
Due to the lack of money, not to mention aircraft carriers, the navy's own shipbuilding plan is not guaranteed, and not a single large ship of the navy has been launched for a long time, and many people still question whether it is useful to invest money in developing the navy.
In the mid-80s, I found a young man in his 30s from the Naval Equipment Demonstration Center to go to several major military academies and various ministries and commissions to preach about aircraft carriers.
When I arrived at a certain department, people said unceremoniously: We don't have the money to build aircraft carriers, so don't mention aircraft carriers in the future.
The young man was aggrieved, and after returning to the headquarters, he vomited bitterness to ***, and said lightly: "Then we won't talk about it from now on." ”
Many years later, young people who have become old people still can't help but cry when they talk about this past: "How much did we suffer in those years!".”
In spite of this, he still paid close attention to the daily training and combat readiness of the navy, and at his request, all fleets began to vigorously prepare for war in 1986.
On March 14, 1988, a small-scale maritime conflict broke out in the waters of Chigua Reef in the South China Sea.
In the face of the Vietnamese Navy's brazen provocation of violating our sovereignty, insulting our flag, and taking the lead in firing, our navy's officers and men, who were well-trained on weekdays, bravely fought back and inflicted heavy losses on the invading enemy in just a few minutes, almost annihilating the enemy.
After the outbreak of the conflict, the situation in the South China Sea suddenly became tense, and the South China Sea Fleet urgently dispatched some of its capital ships to the place where the incident occurred; considering that foreign fighters stationed at the Cam Ranh Bay base might retaliate, and that our fleet could not receive strong support from the air force, it could only evacuate in a hurry despite a great victory in the naval battle.
Upon hearing the news of the naval battle, ***, who had been transferred to the post of deputy secretary general of the Military Commission, resolutely said to the responsible comrades of the navy at that time: "We must go up to the islands, reefs, sands, and beaches that can be climbed, and we must also go to the reefs where there are no people." The more we win, the more chips we can add to the settlement of the Nansha issue in the future!”
Since then, China has changed the situation in which it has no place in Nansha.
After the end of the naval battle on March 14, the plan to build aircraft carriers was once again put on the agenda, ** said to the leading comrades of the Military Commission and the General Staff
Now all countries are paying attention to the development of aircraft carriers, whether offensive or vertical short take-off and landing types, in order to solve the problems of air defense and sea attack ......”
It is true that we do have some difficulties in building aircraft carriers now, but even if we put them in 10 years' time, these difficulties will still exist, and in the long run, aircraft carriers are really needed.
If the navy has aircraft carriers, the navy's combat capability will be greatly enhanced, which will help enhance the national and military prestige, and this is not for the purpose of competing with the United States and the Soviet Union, but for the purpose of realizing the reunification of the motherland.
1. From the perspective of safeguarding rights and interests in the South China Sea.
Since everyone knows that the aircraft carrier is a money-burning machine, we can only calculate the economic accounts for the leaders: the aircraft carrier costs money, but without the aircraft carrier, we may have to spend more money to rely on destroyers, frigates, and land-based aviation to guard the vast sea frontier.
For example, the combat radius of our current fighter planes is too short, and the cost of building a large aircraft at such a long distance will cost tens of billions of yuan, not to mention that it will take more than 10 years from research and development to the formation of an army.
If there is an aircraft carrier with 50 aircraft, the combat effectiveness is equivalent to 300 land-based aircraft, which is equivalent to three air force divisions, how much does it cost to have aircraft, facilities, personnel, and maintenance for these three divisions?
In the future, when we go east out of the Pacific Ocean, we will have to rely on land-based aviation to cover aircraft carriers, and aircraft carriers to cover submarines.
Moreover, the aircraft carrier formation does not have to be rebuilt. First of all, those destroyers and frigates have to be built even if they don't have aircraft carriers, but they can be mixed with aircraft carriersSecond, the combat radius of the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier is not high, and the fighters in service can be modified and a lot of money can be saved.
In order for the aircraft carrier to be launched as soon as possible, ** tried his tongue and tried his best, and he also said frankly:
According to the general law that it takes 20-30 years for an aircraft carrier to form combat effectiveness, even if the construction of an aircraft carrier starts immediately, it will not really go to sea until 2010-2015. Even if there is a change of naval commander every five years, it will depend on whether the fifth naval commander after me can be used.
This is what the ancients said, "success does not have to be in me", he was 72 years old that year, and he had thought that he might not see the day when the Chinese aircraft carrier was launched, but his heart was full of scenery and light.
The reason why he is so painstakingly waving the flag for China's aircraft carrier is just that he wants to plant a few more trees for future generations, so that future generations can shade them.
In January 1989, China's aircraft carrier research and development project was approved and named "Project 891". The principle of the project is to rely on China's own strength and develop a medium-sized aircraft carrier with a displacement of about 50,000 tons on its own.
Under the care of ***, the Naval Research Institute in Shanghai has even built a model of an aircraft carrier, and secretly conducted experiments in the institute's 600-meter-long pool and Taihu Lake.
At the same time, the "Pilot Captain Class" for training aircraft carrier captains has also been opened in full swing.
However, while China is working hard to promote the demonstration of the aircraft carrier project, China is also carrying out another costly project: manned spaceflight.
In the trade-off between "going to the sky" or "going to sea", the aircraft carrier once again gave way, and in 1995, the "891 Project" was declared dead.
In order to make up for the shortcomings of the Chinese Navy that does not have aircraft carriers for the time being, since the second half of 1988, it has done two major things, one is to build the Xisha Yongxing Island Airport, and the other is to develop air tankers.
The international situation is turbulent, and he already has a faint feeling that the peaceful situation in the world will not be too long.
In May 1991, the Xisha Yongxing Island Airport was completed and delivered, and half a year later, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended.
In May 1993, one of China's most advanced scientific research ships at that time, the Xiangyanghong 16, was hit and sunk by a foreign cargo ship while carrying out a survey mission of polymetallic nodule mineral resources at our doorstepIn July, the "Milky" incident occurred;
In October 1994, the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, which had been inspected, cruised along the boundary of China's territorial waters and tracked China's nuclear submarines, triggering a confrontation between the two warplanes
In 1996, the United States brazenly sent aircraft carriers to interfere in China's internal affairsIn April 2001, another plane collision incident occurred in the South China Sea
The United States has created a series of frictions and tensions in order to disrupt China's development rhythm and distract China's attention, but it has also reminded the Chinese again and again: We do not have aircraft carriers, and people can drive aircraft carriers to our doorstep to spread wild!
In 2003, China's "Shenzhou" spacecraft manned space flight was successful, and the construction of aircraft carriers began to become a unanimous consensus.
But at this time, *** had already retired from the leadership position in 1997, and only his deeds in promoting the development of China's aircraft carriers encouraged the Chinese Navy to make unremitting efforts to have their own aircraft carriers.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2005, people told that the aircraft carrier construction project had been officially approved. He raised his eyebrows and said three times in a row: "Wow!."Wow!Wow!”
Thousands of emotions, all contained in these two words.
At the end of 2010, the seriously ill *** got the news: the first captain of China's first aircraft carrier that was about to be tested had been officially appointed by the ** Military Commission.
Even though he was no longer able to walk or speak, he still raised his trembling right hand and gave a thumbs up.
On January 14, 2011, ** passed away, 41 years after 1970, when he personally ignited China's aircraft carrier dream.
More than seven months later, on August 10, the "Varyag", which was rebuilt with an empty hull, sailed out of the dock of the Dalian Shipyard and began its first sea trials.
After another more than a year, the ship was officially delivered to the Navy and renamed "Liaoning".
On April 26, 2017, the launching ceremony of China's first domestically produced aircraft carrier "Shandong" was held
On June 17, 2022, China's second domestically built aircraft carrier "Fujian" was launched, and the Chinese Navy now has three aircraft carriers.
** He gave his life's work to the national defense cause of New China, and in order to realize the maritime dream of the Chinese nation, he and thousands of Chinese Navy people have endured humiliation and struggled for decades.
The bitter lesson of the imperialist powers' flaunting of their might at our doorstep in modern times is a wake-up call that spurs them not to stop advancing for a moment.
Now we also have an aircraft carrier, and there is more than one, but the classic ** that the general tiptoed up to check on the American aircraft carrier is an eternal encouragement to all the Chinese people.
The reason why we are able to enjoy a peaceful and peaceful happy life today is because someone has silently helped us carry everything.
Salute to Admiral *** and all the officers and men of the Navy!