China catchin up to what the US Armed Forces are like today with 40 years of hard work means they will still be 40 years behind the curve.
Not really. Russia just handed them a working blueprint of a carrier. You can bet they are also giving them personnel to instruct them in carrier ops.
Take for example how the Chinese have caught up with the west in fighter aircraft. The latest Chinese designed and built fighter stands between the F22 and F16 generations. For them to do that in just 10 years is not something to be shy of.
I think China will use the Russian carrier for 5 years then build their first copy+improved carrier and operate it for 5 years then build their 2nd carrier being mostly self-designed but based on the russian model and use that one for 5 years. After that they will design their own from scratch using all the tech they've acquired from the west up to then (legally or otherwise) in it, build it and use it for 5 years to work out the bugs and once that is done they will have a working carrier class design they can begin to produce in numbers. [/quote]
-Frank aka GE (just sayin ..and the US is already workin on revolutionary design improvements in far more than just one area)
True. The addition of railguns and plasma based weaponry to replace cannon/bullets in the fleet is a big step. Carrier wise though I think the best and biggest step the US can do is to start deploying Drone carriers.
Should it come to trading blows, a Drone carrier would negate China's natural advantages: manpower and manufacturing. If they use manned fighter jets while the US uses remote controlled or AI controlled drones then the US would remain in an advantageous position. A drone is much cheaper to build than a fighter jet and no american pilots would be lost vs. the loss of many chinese pilots...not to mention every US drone pilot would become steadily better while the chinese would become steadily worse.
