It's really better not to know, and I'm more frightened. Ford-class aircraft carriers currently have an air defense range of 4000 km, and who will be able to break this?
If you suspect that the level of shipbuilding industry in the United States has declined, then you can be told that as of 2021, the 110,000-ton Ford-class aircraft carrier has begun to silently build the fourth.
Think about what it means to build 4 aircraft carriers in 17 years.
Moreover, they plan to build a total of up to 10 ships to dominate the entire 21st century.
Many people often compare the 003 aircraft carrier, which also uses electromagnetic catapults, with the Ford-class, but to be honest, they are really not on the same level.
Even 003 is far from the level of the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers built by the United States in the 60s of the last century.
At most, it can only be comparable to the 80,000-ton Kitty Hawk-class conventionally powered aircraft carrier designed in the 50s of the last century.
In fact, the gap between us and them in the field of aircraft carrier construction may have existed for a whole 70 years.
We must face up to this reality.
First of all, the development of our small nuclear reactors is not yet mature.
Despite the fact that our nuclear submarines have successfully adopted nuclear power, a head like the 094 with a displacement of only 9000 tons is too far behind an aircraft carrier of seventy or eighty thousand tons.
In other words, our current small nuclear reactors produce far less power than to propel aircraft carriers to taxi.
Does this make you think that it is not a joke that the French Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is slow?
At least it will have no problem carrying dozens of Rafale fighters around the globe, and we will not even have enough propulsion to provide it.
The American Ford-class aircraft carrier can operate continuously at sea at a high speed of 35 knots for 50 years, and the electrical energy generated by its new nuclear reactor must not only provide energy for the power system, but also for electromagnetic catapults, as well as three large elevators and various power equipment throughout the ship.
Think about how powerful this small nuclear reactor technology must be.
Therefore, the only thing that the 003 aircraft carrier can match at the moment is the integrated power supply system.
Because whether it is a gas engine or a nuclear reactor, the electricity they need to be managed and distributed through a very complex power supply system, otherwise uneven distribution can lead to all kinds of short circuits and even damage to equipment.
For an electromagnetic catapult aircraft carrier, this is equivalent to losing combat effectiveness.
But apparently, both China and the United States have now solved the problem of power distribution, and the Ford-class aircraft carrier's air defense range has been expanded to 4,000 kilometers, as it has already conducted test flights of the X47B drone with a range of 4,000 kilometers.
Such a UAV is equivalent to a small B2, which can participate in both strikes and conduct reconnaissance, and with a single refueling in the air, its radius of activity can be doubled.
So, do we have a way to combat this new Ford-class aircraft carrier? List of high-quality authors