[Music] this is the fujin China's answer to the newest US aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R Ford however you might notice these two aircraft carriers look eerily similar since China has a history of copying us equipment from aircraft like the mv2 2 Osprey and the F35 fighter to Stinger missiles and everything else in between China has tried to rip off the US in every way possible and though CH tried its best to copy the Ford in every way it could there is one major difference that's a GameChanger if a war were to ever break out
between the two countries while China may have tried to rip off the USS Gerald R Ford it simply cannot do so because the US has perfected the art of making aircraft carriers for over 100 years for the US Navy the USS Langley was the first aircraft carrier that entered service in 1922 initially comprised of a short wooden deck for bip planes to take off in land the US Navy soon realized the Strategic significance of such a weapon system due to the inherent limitations in naval combat based on ship speed number Fuel and other variables mobile
air bases at Sea have numerous tactical advantages that solved issues the US encountered during World War I for example sending aircraft ahead of a surface Force force can warn ships far beyond the line of sight of approaching enemy forces later the US Navy experimented and helped Perfect The Art of using Naval Aviation to attack enemy ships and submarines due to the seemingly Limitless possibilities of Naval Aviation the US stopped converting ships into aircraft carriers and began building them purposefully before World War II in addition to this the US solved the problems of getting heavily loaded
aircraft off Deck with Fuel and ordinance by creating the steam catapult system the main purpose of the steam catapult is to launch aircraft off deck by helping generate some of the lift necessary to get them Airborne while a British invention the US perfected its use on carriers by adjusting the pressures needed to get the steam just right playing with wind speeds and directions to help generate lift and getting the timing of air operations down all in all these efforts allowed the US Navy to get more heavily armed aircraft off deck faster and safer than using
a plane's own propulsion to get off deck during World War II the us became the premier world superpower for Naval Aviation and has retained that title to this day but in recent years China has sought to usurp this title China did not even think about aircraft carriers until the 1990s when it purchased a defunct ex Soviet carrier from Ukraine after after more than a decade of retrofitting and testing the Chinese Navy commissioned its first carrier in 2012 while essentially just finishing the construction of a Soviet carrier this was an important first step for China as
they had never owned or operated an aircraft carrier before this after this historic First Step China produced its own aircraft carrier a few years later however this carrier with only two dozen outdated planes 40-year-old engineering system systems and 60-year-old weapons cannot match the more than 70 modern aircraft and 21st century equipment and weapons and aircraft carrier like the Ford can carry it was not until the Chinese publicly announced the existence of the fuan in 2018 that the US began to worry about Chinese Naval power but luckily for you you don't have to invest billions of
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for the US and China respectively however it is hard to tell them apart at first glance the Ford's deck is 333 M long long and 78 M wide just slightly larger than the fujian which is 316 M long and 76 M wide while these numbers are almost identical several technological innovations will greatly increase the cyclic flight operations on one versus the other but more on that later as far as weight the Ford really outclasses the fujian to the tune of almost 20,000 more tons since the Ford comes in at 100,00 000 tons and the fujian
at roughly 880,000 tons with a full combat load of planes supplies Fuel and bombs why the weight matters so much is because with the Ford being heavier she will sit lower in the Water by sitting lower in the water she will naturally have a lower center of gravity than the fujian enabling the Ford to maneuver more aggressively and heal over more so than her counterpart but there are a few more slight differences with bigger consequences on the Ford she comes equipped with a wide array of weapons meant to defend herself from all types of attacks
from forward to aft the Ford has a self-defense system comprised of two elevated se- Sparrow launchers and two rolling airframe missile launchers both for Point defense against incoming missile threats the Ford also has three closin weapon system 20 mm chain guns that can shred incoming missiles with thousands of rounds per minute for surface targets like small inore attack craft or fast attack craft the Ford has four 25mm Bush Master chain guns and four 50 caliber machine gun mounts however the Ford can also put the close-in weapon systems into surface mode and engage small boats and
that's not all she's armed with in addition to these kinetic systems the Ford comes prepared with the Navy's most advanced electronic warfare Suite the Slick 32 Victor 6 this electronic warfare array combines both active and passive measures to collect interpret Target and Destroy incoming missiles surface and air threats via the radar and other electromagnetic Transmissions the Ford also has chaff and nula launchers that deploy various types of dummy rounds meant to fool incoming missiles and even a toad array called a Nixie is meant to confuse incoming Torpedoes as for the fuen its survivability if it
got into a fight is much less while the exact weapon load out of the fujian is unknown we can make an estimated guess based on China's other two carriers because of this we can assume that fujian has around 3 18 cell guided missile launchers filled with hq10 surfac to- a missiles these missiles sered the same purpose as essm and rolling airframe missiles on the Ford but they're less powerful have less range and and have not been proven in combat unlike American systems in addition to these the fujian will probably have two rbu 6000 smch launchers
these launchers intended to take out submarines fire a series of contact fused mors similar to the British Hedgehog in World War II and are an Antiquated system rounding out the fujian defense system are three seawise type weapons that the Chinese tried to copy from the American version as you can see the US Ford class carrier has many more self-defense systems than the fujian and can adequately defend itself should the need arise but how do their offensive capabilities compare on board the USS Gerald R Ford she can store a miniature Air Force called a carrier airwing
each carrier airwing is its own self-sustaining unit that can carry out a variety of combat missions on the Ford she can carry either four F-18 fighter squadrons or three F-18 squadrons and one F35 Squadron in addition to the F-18 squadrons the carrier has one ea8 Growler Squadron whose sole mission is the electronic attack and suppression of enemy air defenses rounding out the combat power of the Ford are one helicopter C combat Squadron comprised of mh6 Sierra helicopters and one Squadron of mh6 Romeo helicopters who can attack both submarines and surface ships in addition to these
the Ford can carry an Airborne early Warning Squadron that allows the carrier to see hundreds of miles away from its position thanks to the advanced radar domes on these planes rounding out the carrier airwing are several C2 Greyhound transport planes all told the Ford can carry about 40 fighter jets seven electronic attack planes eight sieras 12 Romeos 5 2D Hawkeyes and two greyhounds for a grand total of more than 70 aircraft depending on Mission requirements on the other hand the fujian offensive combat power is much lower again the Chinese government is tight lipped about the
fujian airwing components but estimates state that the fujian can probably carry about 40 aircraft some say the fujian can carry 40 j15 Fighters While others state it would be around two dozen j15s with around a utility helicopters making up the difference in addition to these aircraft the Chinese also started experimenting with airborn early warning aircraft called the KJ 6000 however as of this video's making China possesses just a few prototypes of this aircraft all told if the fujian and Ford went toe-to-toe in a straightup carrier Aviation battle today the Ford would mop the floor with
the fujian this is because the Ford can detect the fujian and and its planes much further thanks to its e2d Hawkeyes longer range and more heavily armed F-18 and F35 Fighters but just having better and more planes is not the only difference between the two how fast an aircraft carrier can bring up refuel rearm and launch a plane is just as important as how many planes it can carry for the US Sailors have been carrying out these cyclic flight Ops for generations and have become the disputed masters of this craft on the other hand the
Chinese Navy has never even attempted the rate and quantity of flight Ops the US has demonstrated in combat since World War II but even taking this generational knowledge Gap aside the fujian cannot physically match Ford's ability to launch and recover aircraft Ford has three aircraft elevators to the fujian too in addition to 11 of the world's fastest weapons elevators having numerous fast and reliable elevators is incredibly important for flight operations because weapons and planes are stored below deck having fast elevators is crucial on the Ford the carrier has unique elevators powered by electromagnetic forces that
are several times faster than traditional hydraulic elevators while the type and quantity of the weapon elevators on the fujian are unknown we know that its aircraft elevators are not electromagnetic like the Fords and are not nearly as fast as getting aircraft up on deck rearmed and back into the fight besides having better and more numerous elevators Ford has several other technologies that give it an edge over the fujian first of these is dualband radar traditional Naval Combat Suites require several different Radars to perform their own tasks for example one radar might operate in one frequency
band to track targets another to form a firing solution and another set to search the Horizon for even more distant data traditional combat Suites then aggregate this data like the Aegis combat system into a single source of information that the operator can use to fight for decades the US has been tinkering with the idea of dualband radar where a single radar Suite can operate in numerous frequencies simultaneously doing so has several distinct advantages with the main few being that the ship can respond faster to threats engage more targets cut down on maintenance hours and streamlined
software and Hardware updates on the Ford she is equipped with the world's first fully operational dualband radar which brings all the advantages mentioned on the fujian though some claim the Chinese Navy has been catching up they do not possess this capability and it is on the safe side to say that they do not have this since if they did they would definitely have announced it by now another technological difference is the advanced arresting gear on the Ford in previous generations of aircraft carriers the arresting gear meant to stop planes as they come in for a
landing was a very complicated hydraulic system that was prone to leaks had high maintenance costs due to time and parts spent keeping it up and running the Ford turned this decade old technology on its head by using water arresters instead of hydraulics to dampen the kinetic energy of incoming planes this has the added benefit of reducing stress on the aircraft and making it easier to maintain as for the fujian as far as publicly available information is concerned it relies on a traditional hydraulic arresting gear system but despite all of these differences the Chinese have attempted
to copy one of the Ford's primary systems to make a generational leap in technology in the aviation world two primary ways of launching aircraft from a carrier exist the first of these is called stobar stobar is short for short takeoff but arrested recovery this means that an outgoing jet will get off the carrier under its own power but use a ski jump to help lifted into the air upon return the jet uses a traditional arresting system the Stow Bar Method is simpler and requires much less knowledge and maintenance than using a catapult however the main
drawback is that aircraft using this method must be lighter with less Fuel and ordinance to ensure they have enough lift to get into the air on the other hand the catobar method has been the preferred method of the US Navy for Generations here each plane is launched via a giant catapult powered by steam either from a carrier's nuclear reactor or boilers the benefits of having a catapult are that it allows the aircraft to be heavier since the Catapult does most of the heavy lifting for the aircraft to get off deck while this system was the
predominant system for decades the Ford turned this technology on its head with the electromagnetic aircraft launching system or e-s the main difference between e-s and a steam catapult is that EOS uses a series of magnetics fed by electricity from the ship to create a magnetic field to push the aircraft off deck the primary difference between eols and steam catapults besides the medium is that eols can also be adjusted depending on aircraft weight and type unlike steam catapults which are a one-size fits-all configuration by reducing the amount of stress on airframes Naval planes can last years
longer and require intensive maintenance less often while the Ford has proven the use of this technology among its four eals catapults the fujian three catapults are also suspected to use eals technology now whether China actually has eols on the fujian and whether it's working is Up For Debate but even if the Chinese did the generational knowledge Gap would still take years to overcome while there is some debate about whether the fujian actually have eals or not what is not in dispute is the Fatal flaw in the fujian design arguably the most important factor in an
aircraft carrier is its propulsion system due to the demands of combat an aircraft carrier must be able to travel at high speeds not only to avoid incoming threats but set itself up to create winds for flight operations when needed with such a massive ship incredibly powerful propulsion systems are needed for the Ford class and every other current US carrier the US Navy has installed nuclear reactors inside these behemoths to power them for the Ford she has two beel a1b reactors that can Propel her officially at least 30 knots but unofficially much faster than that not
only is the Ford fast but her endurance is second to none needing only one refueling her entire 40 plus year service life the Ford can stay in the fight indefinitely and is limited by Fuel ordinance and food for its planes and Personnel this is in stark contrast to the fujian again the Chinese remain tight lipped about her exact propulsion plant but we know for a fact that she's not nuclear powerered we can only assume she's using the same four massive boilers that power her sister ships and create huge amounts of steam to create thrust however
there are several drawbacks to this firstly boilers are old technology and less efficient than nuclear power secondly with less power she can only travel about 30 knots Which is assuredly less than the Ford but perhaps the biggest disadvantage is her ability to refuel unlike the US Navy the Chinese Navy does not have a robust underway replenishment program while the Chinese have been experimenting with some success US Sailor generational knowledge is literally a World's difference from their Chinese counterparts because of the fujian inability to replenish underway she must refuel every couple of days to no more
than a week depending on her fuel consumption this evolution in involves physically pulling into a port at one of the artificial Island chains China has created or a Noto friendly Nation like Taiwan or Vietnam in a war this inability to refuel safely at Sea is her biggest disadvantage which will severely limit fujian combat power until China can develop its own surface nuclear program again we'd like to thank War Thunder for sponsoring this video War Thunder is available for free across all platforms including PE PC PlayStation and Xbox make sure you click the link in the
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