MA WEIMING AND THE END OF THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER

In the 1950s there was an American naval engineer named Hyman G Rickover (he was born in Poland in 1900, died 1986) who was called the Father of Nuclear Propulsion. Admiral Rickover was responsible for designing and commissioning the first nuclear powered submarine the USS Nautilus in 1954. The first nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise followed in 1961. Since they were pioneers in the field Admiral Rickover and his colleagues wrote the book on nuclear propulsion which is relevant until today. So far two US Navy nuclear submarines have been named after Admiral Rickover.

In China today there is another naval engineer who is rewriting all the books on naval engineering and naval strategy at the same time. His name is Ma Weiming and he is also a Rear Admiral in the PLAN (the Chinese Navy). Since 2019 Ma was promoted to be a full member at the Fourth Plenum of the 19th Central Committee - China's ruling body. Ma Weiming is not only a clever guy but he is a very important man in China.

First some bio on Ma Weiming and then what he is saying and doing and how it will completely change the whole idea of naval warfare.

 

 

Ma Weiming (simplified Chinese: 马伟明; traditional Chinese: 馬偉明; was born in April 1960 in Yangzhong, Jiangsu, China. He graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering of PLA Naval University of Engineering in Wuhan with a BS degree in 1982 and an MS degree in 1987. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University in 1996.

He is a professor of the PLA Naval University of Engineering. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and holds the military rank of rear admiral. He led the development of the electromagnetic catapult system for the Type 003 aircraft carrier and the development of electromagnetic railguns. In 2017, he was awarded the Order of August First, the highest honour of the People's Liberation Army.

In 2001, he was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) at the age of 41, making him one of the youngest academicians of the CAE. He also serves as Vice President of the China Association for Science and Technology. Considered a top naval engineer in China, he holds the military rank of rear admiral.

Ma was elected an alternate member of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2012 and the 19th Central Committee in 2017. In November 2019, he was promoted to full member at the Fourth Plenum of the 19th Central Committee.

Contributions.

Ma has led the development of China's electromagnetic catapult system for launching aircraft from carriers (similar to the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System of the United States), which is more efficient than the older steam catapult system. It is expected to be deployed on the Type 003, the PLA Navy's third aircraft carrier, which would make China the only country to have an operational model of the EMALS.

In January 2019, Chinese media reported that Ma's team had developed electromagnetic railguns capable of firing projectiles at very high velocity, with longer range and higher accuracy than traditional artillery. Military observers expect a modified version of the Type 055 destroyer to be equipped with the railgun, which would make China the first country to deploy the weapon on an actual warship.

Ma is also credited for silencing noise of the PLA Navy's submarine's propulsion system thus making them less detectable on sonar.

Since the late 1980s, Ma has advised more than 400 masters and doctoral students. Two of them were awarded rare peacetime First-Class Merit Awards by the PLA for their research.

My Comments : Ok the following details are very long (even in bullet points) and also highly technical. You have to appreciate basic engineering, physics and weapons design to see what is being said. I have some interest in this stuff. I will try summarise it in simple English. After that you can still read all the bullet points if you wish. But it is very important to understand all this especially for the US, Japan, Europe and the imaginary wannabe world power India. Things are about to change around the world.

A naval task force is a group of ships sailing together. Throw in an aircraft carrier and it becomes an aircraft carrier battle group or strike group. Here is a picture. 

 

                

The aircraft carrier in the middle is being protected by all the other ships around it. There will be at least two submarine escorts, most likely nuclear (for the high speed required). If you ask me this whole battle group thing is untested and fake (since 1945). In a real war today between superpowers every single ship in the battle group (except the subs) can be sunk by missiles, fired from 2,000 km away or more. Or sunk by unmanned torpedo firing submarine drones.

In modern day super-power navies you need so many ships because the ships carry different weapons systems. You cannot put all the weapons on one ship. ALL ships are constrained by space, there is not enough space to squeeze so many weapons on one ship. So for air defense there will be separate frigates and fast destroyers armed with surface to air missiles. There may be destroyers or cruisers armed with heavier cruise missiles which require plenty of launching space. There will be frigates and fast destroyers dedicated for anti submarine warfare to defend the task force. Other ships may carry surface to surface missiles. Aircraft carriers are usually sitting ducks because they just carry aircraft and have little self defense weapons or other offensive weapons.  

Now imagine this entire battle group above replaced by just one super ship. A super aircraft carrier, gunship, missile cruiser, anti-submarine hunter, surface combatant all rolled into one. Here is a graphic.

 

 Note : There is no smokestack meaning nuclear powered. The "island" is in the middle of the ship implying VTOL / STOL aircraft and EMALS. There are multiple flight decks including a dedicated drone launcher in the front.

The game changer here are the railguns, or coilguns, the laser weapon, the electromagnetic (EMG) missile launcher, the electromagnetic underwater torpedo launcher, the EMALS aircraft launcher and the microwave weapon all of which will require huge quantities of electric power which will be generated by nuclear reactors. For the first time ever China has perfected the technologies for all these weapons and has made them small enough in size to be placed aboard one supership.  All at the same time.

All the EMG weapons, EMALS launchers, laser weapons, microwave weapons suffered three major bottle necks : huge amount of space required because of the size, a humongous cooling system for the heat generated and they were too complicated with too many moving parts. Todate the Americans could not produce a 'fit onboard a ship' size for any of these new weapons (except the EMALS). But the Chinese have overcome all these obstacles.

So the Chinese are going to put all these new weapons technologies on one supership.

https://nypost.com/2023/06/16/china-making-science-fiction-super-warship-report-claims-big-step-forward/

Chinese “supership” could do job of entire carrier fleet, wrote Ma Weiming 

system brings together electromagnetic weapons, nuclear-powered electrical system
Ma Weiming's blueprint of futuristic warship unlike any world has seen
completely overturn naval combat in place for hundred years he said 

 

Currently naval task forces complicated 
they perform different tasks
harder for them to coordinate actions effectivel
vessels are expensive to build and operate

Ma Weiming's supership could do job of entire carrier fleet
electromagnetic weapons, nuclear-powered electrical system

supership carries large number of aircraft but differs from traditional carrier
armed with railguns, coilguns, rocket launchers, laser weapons, microwaves
transform power into electromagnetic energy for high-powered weapons

single warship can repel air attacks, anti-submarine warfare
intercept missiles, deliver precise strikes on naval, land targets
single all-purpose ship can perform tasks of a whole fleet Ma said

 

electromagnetic rail guns hit targets in near space at 7 times speed of sound
electromagnetic-launched missiles automatically reloaded like automatic rifles 
allow far greater speed and number of missiles fired

• electromagnetic coilguns launch different  underwater weapons
• significantly enhancing ship’s capabilities for underwater attack, defence
• Laser weapons light speed, extremely accurate targeting
• high-powered microwave weapons counter multiple targets simultaneously

Ma said China was ready to take idea from science fiction to real world
Chinese navy developed electromagnetic launch system for vehicles, ships, subs

China solved all key technologies of electromagnetic launch 
for vehicle-mounted, shipborne, underwater systems
electric missile launch system uses electromagnetic energy to launch missiles
main advantage is that it allows for rapid and repeated firing of missiles
traditional missile systems require significant amount of time to reload and fire
supership could use electric missile launch system to launch a barrage of missiles 
China so far only country firing large rail gun at sea
Long-range field tests broke record of current firearms in the world said Ma

electromagnetic coil launch launch projectile at 3,280 feet per second
more than three times the speed of sound
Coilguns use electromagnetic coils to accelerate projectile
coilguns easier to build and maintain

US Navy’s rail gun faced technical challenges
US electromagnetic launch systems cancelled 

Conclusion :

Here is another video if you are interested. The Chinese have built three aircraft carriers. They are now building No. 4 and 5. Super sized carriers weighing 110,000 to 120,000 tons, over 1,100 feet long and nuclear powered. I think these will be the last of the Chinese aircraft carriers. After carriers No 4 and 5 the Chinese will likely build Ma Weiming's new super-ship. No one will send one single ship into battle. The Chinese may have two or three of these super-ships in each battle group. Now that should be scary.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.