The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 953: Construction Ceremony of Type 002 Aircraft Carrier

On the morning of August 8, the sun was shining, the sky was clear, and the sea breeze was blowing.

Yangcheng Shipyard.

After careful preparation, the domestically-produced Type 002 6-ton medium-sized conventional-powered aircraft carrier is finally going to start construction at the Yangcheng Shipyard.

The entire aircraft carrier construction dock is directly covered and built indoors, so it will not be affected by rainy weather at all.

Here, construction can even be done in three shifts 24 hours a day.

As a domestically-made medium-sized aircraft carrier, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Type 002 aircraft carrier was very grand and solemn.

The senior leaders came in person.

昨天领导便来到羊城造船厂，当天视察了羊城造船厂，视察着在建的054型护卫舰、052型驱逐舰、039型新型潜艇、094型战略核潜艇以及两艘001型轻型航母。

As the largest shipyard in China today, Yangcheng Shipyard holds a very important position in the hearts of leaders.

Yangcheng Shipyard has now become the largest shipyard in the world, building large warships and large ships.

像022型导弹艇、022A型鱼雷艇、817型电子侦查船、083型扫雷艇、084型扫雷艇等的生产，羊城造船厂已经转给北部湾造船厂和马尾造船厂。

Even large warships such as the Type 054 frigate, the Type 039 new submarine, and the Type 052 destroyer have had more than half of their orders transferred to the Beibu Gulf Shipyard and the Mawei Shipyard.

Yangcheng Shipyard focuses its main efforts on the construction of large warships and large ships.

Except for some special ships, the large civilian ships currently being built at the Yangcheng Shipyard are all no less than 5 tons.

Beibu Gulf Shipyard and Mawei Shipyard have taken over part of the production capacity of Yangcheng Shipyard.

With Yangcheng Shipyard as the center and Beibu Gulf Shipyard and Mawei Shipyard as the east and west wings, it drives the development of the entire southern Chinese shipbuilding industry and greatly enhances the development of the entire Chinese shipbuilding industry.

Today, China has become the world's largest shipbuilding industrial country, with more orders than Japan and more orders delivered, accounting for more than 50% of the world market share.

Yangcheng Shipyard, Beibu Gulf Shipyard and Mawei Shipyard all build warships and civilian ships. The military and civilian sectors develop simultaneously, and they are capable of building ships as small as a few hundred tons all the way up to super-large tankers of 50 tons.

Even high value-added industrial pearls such as super cruise ships, LNG ships, and large luxury yachts were taken down.

Over the past decade, the three major shipyards belonging to Panshan Group have won the title of industrial jewel of the world's shipbuilding industry.

All the pearls of the world's shipbuilding industry that public intellectuals have boasted about have been picked off one by one, so that now, public intellectuals no longer mention the pearls of the world's shipbuilding industry. Instead, they say that the shipbuilding industry is a backward industry, something left over from Europe and the United States, and they disdain to build ships. China's shipbuilding industry only does things that Europe and the United States don't want to do, and there is nothing to brag about.

Or let’s just say, strategic nuclear submarines and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers!

In the eyes of public intellectuals, the technologies that China has mastered are all backward and are not wanted by Europe and the United States; and any technology that China does not master is an industrial pearl.

However, there are not many industrial pearls left for public intellectuals.

The leader finished inspecting the Yangcheng Shipyard yesterday, had lunch with the workers in the cafeteria, and chatted with them cordially about family matters.

This morning, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Type 002 medium aircraft carrier was held.

The leadership attaches great importance to the Type 002 medium-sized aircraft carrier. The construction of aircraft carriers is to build a great blue-water navy. Now, with the continuous expansion of China's overseas interests, in the future, aircraft carrier formations must be able to reach the waters of the world to protect overseas interests.

The 21st century is also the ocean century!
The strategy of the Chinese Navy is a defensive navy. The Chinese Navy will never bully small countries like the Eagle Sauce, nor will it drive aircraft carrier formations around to show off its power. However, China needs aircraft carrier formations to strike and deter pirates, ensure the safety of ocean routes, and deter some villains.

At the same time, the stronger the Chinese navy is, the stronger the force for world peace will be, and some forces that want to destroy world peace will have to think twice.

The entire dock was filled with colorful flags flying and loud gongs and drums.

Liu Tao accompanied the leaders to the dock.

Soon, it was 9 o'clock in the morning and the groundbreaking ceremony for the first Type 002 aircraft carrier finally began.

The leader delivered a speech, highly affirmed everyone's efforts, and emphasized the importance of the Type 002 aircraft carrier to the Chinese Navy, and highly praised the importance of the Type 002 aircraft carrier to China's national defense construction.

The leaders of the navy also delivered speeches one after another. Even though it was just a groundbreaking ceremony, the leaders of the navy had been smiling from ear to ear since they arrived at the Yangcheng Shipyard yesterday.

In recent years, the navy has been celebrating every year like the New Year.

Except for nuclear submarines, the ships built by the Navy before 1983 were either exported overseas or, in the case of a few that were not suitable for export, were handed over to the Coast Guard to serve as Coast Guard ships.

The Chinese Navy is now more than ten times stronger than it was in 1980!
Not only has the navy's equipment been upgraded, the value of the navy's academic qualifications has increased significantly. A group of highly educated talents have poured into the navy, which can better exert the combat effectiveness of the new warships.

When the leader officially announced the start of construction, several skilled workers were seen using CNC cutting machines to cut several steel plates, weld them together, and complete the small group assembly, which marked the beginning of the construction of the aircraft carrier.

This is just a small module on an aircraft carrier, but a tall building starts from the ground, and an aircraft carrier is made up of countless such small modules.

Digital shipbuilding technology is very advanced and can greatly improve construction efficiency. Therefore, with the skilled workers of the Type 002 aircraft carrier and mature shipbuilding technology and industrial chain, the Type 001 aircraft carrier can be launched in just two years.

The scene was very lively, and reporters accompanying the team kept taking pictures to record these scenes.

Afterwards, we took a group photo as a souvenir.

Today's news will not be reported. Perhaps it will have to wait until the Type 002 aircraft carrier is launched or even put into service before it will be officially reported, or appear in a documentary about the Type 002 aircraft carrier.

Of course, it is also possible that at some time next year or the year after, when the higher-ups deem it necessary, they will report today’s groundbreaking ceremony for the Type 002 aircraft carrier to the outside world.

This is also the characteristic and practice of China, always keeping some cards in reserve.

Just like the first Zhuhai Air Show last year, the outside world was speculating that the J-10 fighter jets and J-11 fighter jets would appear at the first Zhuhai Air Show, but in fact, even the basic models of these two fighter jets did not appear. The biggest attraction was the Y-13 regional aircraft.

The same is true for other military fields.

Up to now, Europe and the United States have reported on China's aircraft carrier countless times, but China itself has not reported anything at all, so much so that public intellectuals are still saying that it will take China at least 100 years to build a modern aircraft carrier.

As usual, Liu Tao was in the first row, together with the leaders, and stood out particularly.

At 12 o'clock, the entire groundbreaking ceremony was over.

The leader had a meal in the canteen of Yangcheng Shipyard and then left Yangcheng Shipyard on a special helicopter.

(End of this chapter)