China will have 7 aircraft carriers by 2025 and the USA has and will have 20 aircraft carriers. 9 of the US carriers are amphibious assault ships and three of the Chinese ships will also be amphibious assault ships.
Only the Type 003+ aircraft carriers will be close to matching the US super-aircraft carriers in size and in the number of jets that can be carried.
The Type 001 Liaoning only has 26 J-15 jets and 14 helicopters. (40 fixed wing and helicopters)
The Type 001A carrier also can only handle 40 jets and copters but the mix will have 32 jets.
The Type 001 and 001A do not have catapults for launching which mean very short range operation for the jets they launch.
In terms of aircraft effectiveness China’s four larger aircraft carriers in 2025 will be equal to about two US supercarriers.
The US Nimitz class can have 90 fixed wing and helicopters.
The US Gerald Ford class can handle over 75 fixed wing and it is intended to launch more sorties than the Nimitz.
Type 001 (67000 ton displacement, 999 feet long, 246 feet beam) Type 001A (70000 ton displacment, 1033 feet long, 246 feet beam) Type 002 (85000 ton displacement, with catapult launch) Type 003 (100,000 ton displacement, with catapult launch) There will be 3 Type 075 active in 2025 Type 075 helicopter carriers (40,000 ton displacement, 820 feet long, 98 feet beam)
The US has 11 large super-aircraft carriers, every 3 years a new Ford supercarrier will be replacing a Nimitz
US supercarriers (110,000 ton displacement, 1100 feet long, 252 feet beam)
The US has 8 Wasp and 1 America
Wasp (40500 ton displacement, 844 feet long, 104 feet beam), Eight of these
America Assault (44971 ton displacement, 844 feet long, 104 feet beam)
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.