At the invitation of the US Navy, the Chinese Expeditionary Fleet, which set sail from the Constanta base in Romania and returned to China, dispatched an aircraft carrier detachment to visit the Norfolk Naval Base in the United States to conduct military diplomacy. China's history of military diplomacy is actually very short, with warships visiting other countries only in 1985. However, under Qi Yiming's fat and strengthening, the navy has a lot of money to show off, so every year the navy visits the ports of several countries. On the one hand, it is engaged in diplomatic activities, and on the other hand, it is also to show strength to the whole world.

For example, on the way home, the Navy organized an aircraft carrier fleet headed by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Shandong to visit Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, Algeria, Portugal, and other countries, and the last stop was the Norfolk Naval Base in the United States.

The Americans invited the Chinese aircraft carrier fleet to visit, which was absolutely ill-intentioned. In particular, the aircraft carrier Shandong belongs to the category of something that suddenly appeared. Previously, people had been paying attention to the Hebei built by the Dalian shipyard, thinking that it was China's first aircraft carrier, but when the Shandong was put into battle, people exclaimed that China had left a hand.

With such thoughts, people will not only extend again, but will they still have a few hands after keeping one hand? In purely naval terms, the threat to the Chinese Navy is now much greater than that of the Soviet Red Navy. The Soviet Union made a mistake in the course of naval development, but China is no longer just a matter of following in the footsteps of the United States, they are even at the forefront of the world in many fields.

For example, in the application of Aegis ships, China has the largest number of Aegis ships in the world, and when the United States can only rely on the Ticonderoga-class cruiser and an Aegis ship to provide air defense umbrella for the fleet, China already has a lineup of 055 belts-2-3 052D to provide more impeccable air defense capabilities. Another example is the stealth design of the hull, low detectability, etc., so that the world is following the trend to build similar warships.

Taking advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the crisis of the Russian civil war, China has brought in three aircraft carriers from Russia in a row, and the number of China's aircraft carriers is rapidly approaching that of the United States. In particular, all of China's ships are particularly new, with the exception of two amphibious assault ships that have been purchased and converted, and the main active warships of the Chinese Navy may be less than a decade old. Since 1985, China's navy has exploded, building a huge fleet of nearly a million tons in six or seven years, a capacity that could only be found in the United States during World War II.

And the United States has been saving up for many years to save up the money it has been accumulating, so it can't help but worry about these things, if China continues to grow at this rate, then it may take ten years for the United States to accept that the Chinese Navy is on an equal footing with them in terms of strength.

At Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia, the U.S. Navy is in full shape and warships are in groups to welcome "allies" from afar. Since the Chinese aircraft carrier fleet is invited to visit, the Americans will not let the Chinese specialize in beauty. There are now four aircraft carriers in the Norfolk base, namely the Kitty Hawk-class USS America and USS Kennedy, and the Nimitz-class USS Nimitz and USS Eisenhower. At this naval base, there are more than a dozen large amphibious ships, more than two dozen cruisers and destroyers, several frigates, as well as several attack nuclear submarines.

Zhang Lingzhong, the fleet commander standing on the Shandong aircraft carrier, smiled and said to his colleagues in the navy on the left and right: "The Americans are trying to give us a damn power, because the huge US Navy has 14 aircraft carriers in active service, and four of them are specially used to meet us. ”

A naval staff officer snorted coldly with some emotion: "The Americans must have deliberately let us visit Norfolk, our navy has performed well over the years, and the Americans feel threatened, so they want us to see that they are still majestic!" ”

Zhang Lingzhong was not so angry, but smiled and said, "What if we watch it?" Having said that, even if this is a battlefield and we are at a disadvantage in scale, we will not make a mistake in fighting it, and the fearless spirit that our revolutionary navy had since when the older generation was poorly equipped and under-trained should not be forgotten now. No matter how good a fleet is, it cannot win a battle without brave sailors and competent commanders. While the Americans are still immersed in their huge size and scale, our navy is already studying new tactics and tactics, and it has the will to fight that 'it can fight and win battles'. ”

When the Chinese naval fleet, the aircraft carrier Shandong, which was obviously lighter in paint, entered Norfolk with a cruiser, two destroyers, a frigate, and an attack nuclear submarine, the officers and men of the navy carried out the ceremony of standing on the slope, and their full mental state was like a fluttering naval flag, which impressed the US Navy standing in the harbor.

Chief of Naval Operations Frank? Kelso's heart sank, and he said: "Sure enough, it is a fleet that has just fought a battle, even if it is so far away, you can feel a bad aura without even seeing people's faces." ”

Rear Admiral Grini was quite disdainful and said: "Our young men are constantly teaching their enemies all year round, and if we want to talk about anger, I am afraid that we can scare the Chinese to death!" ”

Kelso shook his head and said, "But we have never competed with the Russians, or our decision-makers did not have the courage to compete with Russia's enemies from the beginning, but the Chinese did, and they won." ”

Still, Griney argued: "Russia now? A navy that even growls with hunger, the Chinese are picking up soft persimmons and pinching. ”

Kelso no longer spoke, as the chief of naval operations, he naturally did not look down on his enemies, but magnified the merits of the enemy. It is true that the Chinese Navy is relatively young compared to the U.S. Navy, but the U.S. Navy at that time was also relatively young compared to the British Empire's Navy. At that time, the level of ship design, armed firepower, and personnel quality of the US military was far inferior to that of the British Royal Navy, but it first built up a powerful naval fleet with its own industrial capacity, and then increased its experience through continuous bloody battles, and the US Navy today is unique in the world.

Kelso is not sure whether China will replicate the same path, they are also building ships on a large scale, and they are constantly appearing in various sea areas with naval conflicts, judging from the situation in the past few years, the Chinese Navy has fought more battles than the US Navy, especially in terms of the number of ships sunk, the Chinese Navy has completely destroyed the US Navy over the years.

The United States is now trying its best to learn more about China's military power, and in addition to the traditional way of obtaining intelligence by spy agents, the US military has also stepped up its reconnaissance of China's military assets. Last week, a US EP-3 took off from the Philippines to conduct reconnaissance activities in the "international waters" of the South China Sea (according to the US side), and naturally it did not take long for a fighter jet from an "ally" to come and accompany it.

An F-14CN Tomcat fighter stationed in Hainan made the US Navy pilots open their eyes wide and clearly identify the August 1 Red Star logo on the fuselage before they reacted that this was a Chinese fighter. The pilot of the Tomcat also chatted with the crew of the EP-3 in English on the public channel for a while, discussing which tropical fruit is more delicious, and inviting American friends to come to China for dinner. The F-14CN, which did not have bombs, was about 100 meters away from the US plane during the whole process, and it was not until the EP-3 could not hold on to this pressure that it returned home.

This kind of activity is tacitly understood by everyone, and it is not announced in the media. However, the Americans have generally passed flight tests out of the air defense warning zone that the Chinese have not declared, and have entered a certain range, and the Chinese's planes will definitely take off and follow, and will not warn or expel them, that is, they will fly with you. Although these Chinese fighters will not have bombs if they intercept large patrol planes and anti-submarine planes, the Americans do not believe that there are no shells in their cannons.

In order to obtain more information, the Americans used the excuse of strengthening military and diplomatic exchanges, hoping to visit and learn more about China's warships through such occasions. For example, this time, the Americans boarded China's strongest aircraft carrier, Type 002, for the first time.

Although photographs were not allowed, the vast majority of the unclassified cabins were allowed to be visited by the American side, from chiefs of operations like Kelso to some selected ordinary sailors, who had the privilege of spending an hour on the Chinese aircraft carrier.

After the visit, there was an internal meeting of the US Navy, and Rear Admiral Grini pouted: "This aircraft carrier doesn't look very good, it's not as good as the enterprise class." ”

In terms of tonnage, the Type 002 is indeed inferior to the enterprise class, but it is comparable to the size of the Kitty Hawk class. Kelso said aside: "In all fairness, the design of this aircraft carrier is not bad, it has everything it should have, and there are no obvious flaws." From the point of view of the command and control system, the degree of electronic information technology is not even comparable to that of the Washington that we have just put into service, and the Chinese really have a very good set of electronic warfare and information command. ”

Kelso analyzed to his subordinates: "And we thought in advance that the Chinese would only let us see some living cabins, but the Chinese actually had the courage to let us see such important departments as hangars and war intelligence centers, which shows that the Chinese are very confident in their weapons, and the most important characteristic of a navy is self-confidence, if one day the Chinese become an opponent of the United States, I am afraid it will be a difficult and respectable enemy." ”

Another U.S. admiral said: "The Chinese are very bold in the application of new technologies, and I wonder where they got so much money." This aircraft carrier has short-range terminal defense missiles for use with close defense guns, and our RIM-116 has just entered service this year. Their bridge is affixed to the four sides of the Aegis ship-like active phased array radar, which indicates that the aircraft carrier will have a considerable detection range and will never be slow to react. The tonnage of this aircraft carrier is 20,000 tons smaller than that of the Nimitz class, but when it comes to real combat, I am afraid that the effectiveness is no worse than that of the Nimitz. ”