PLAN Carrier Strike Group II

This video is an upgrade to the PLAN Carrier Strike Group video I did several months ago.

Things are moving along for the PLAN and I thought it was important to upgrade the video and add those things that have been upgraded.

This group consists of several ships, two of them critical and brand new. These are the two new Type 055 what the Chinese are calling "Large" destroyers, and what we would call AEGIS Cruisers. These large, stealthy vessels displace 12,000 tons or more, and have 112 VLS cells. But although this is less than the 122 VLC cells in the Ticonderoga AEGIS cruisers the US employs, the story doe not end there. Thee Type 055 vessels also have a Close in 24 cell missile launcher very similar to the US RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile Launcher (RAM). But they carry 24 missiles instead of 21. And the Ticonderoga does not carry one. So the Type 055 vessel actually has 136 missiles ready to fire. The US Ticonderoga does carry eight advanced Harpoon missiles, so it has 130 missiles ready to fire, compared to 136 by the Type 055.

The Type 055 also has a large hanger carrying two large ASW helicopters and so they have learned the lesson of the importance of having two helicopters on their escorts to maximize their ASW capability.

A couple of deficiencies however. The AEGIS Ticonderoga carries two 127.5 mm main, dual purpose guns while the Type 055 carrier one 130mm gun The Ticonderoga also carries two 20mm Phalanx CIWS gatling guns, while the Type 055 has a single 30mm CIWS.

So, the Type 055 is a significant improvement for the PLAN and having two in each Carrier Strike Group (as it would for the US with two Ticonderogas) will make the PLAN CSG that much harder and egg to crack.

The PLAN also carries two Type 052D destroyers. Their equivalent of the Burke Flight IIA destroyer. The Chinese carry 64 VKS cells while the US carrier 96. However the Type 052 alo carrier that 24 cell sino-RM launcher making the total missile count 88 against the US 96. Not so great a difference.

Then there is the frigate. The PLAN has a very good class of Type 054A frigates that they have built 30 or more of. These have a good DP gun, a 30mm CIWS, and a 32 missile VLS system. They also have a single ASW helo and hanger for it. The US, with their up armed Littoral Class vessels, and especially with the new FFG(X) will at first be a little less capable, and then be more capable with the FFG(X) starting in 2020. The LCS has eight long range ASMs, a 21 missile RAM, a 24 cell VLS for swarming small corvettes attacking, and carries two 30mm auto cannon, a hanger that can carry two ASW helos. The FFG(X) will have all of that and add a 32 missile AEGIS VLS system, so that their VLS will exceed the PLAN frigate because it will shoot the entire gambit of AEGIS missiles from quad packed ESSMS, to mos of the SM family, to ll of the Tomahawk family, the the LRASM (The Long Range Anti-shipping missile with a range of over 200 miles.

The we come to the submarine escort. China is well behind with there nuclear attack subs in any numbers being the Type 93, while the US has ample of their latest lass Virginas, which are two generation ahead of the Type 093 in terms of quietness, stealth, weapons carried, and in term of the next Flight, Flight V, being true SSG/N vessels with an extra 100 foot section carrying for modules, each carrying seven VLS tubes.

The US already has enough of all the vessels (when you consider the less well armed LCS) to form large carrier groups with twos cruisers two-three Burk DDGS, two FGs, and on or two strong SSNs.

China has enough for its current two carrier to do the same.

I would say the PLAN has probably the 2nd strongest CSG in the world now. The Russians carrier is being refitted and my not come out of it because they are broke. The French and the UK are weakened by having their major escorts having only 48 missiles each and only enough for two of each for their carrier, and the UK only having the same type of AEW as the Chinese...meaning a helo based AEW which as already mentioned is a strong weakness when compared to something like the E-2D.

Finally there is the carrier.

China now has two carriers that are both based on the 1980s technology from Russia's second Kuznetsov carrier that they could not afford to finish. The Chinese promptly go to Dalien for full refit. In fact they did is so well, that they completely documented it and built a second one. Now they are building a 3rd, but this on with catapults.

What they need now though is a 5th generation capable stealth fight for their carriers to counter the US F-35B that is being used by Japan, Korea, potentially Australia, and Italy, span and Britain on their new carriers. This is proving an effective counter to the growth in China.

Until they can counter it with their own 5th gen aircraft.

Interesting times in the Western Pacific,

Видео PLAN Carrier Strike Group II канала Jeff Head