
str wrote:geforcerfx wrote:It's only designed to operate 24 J-15's, pretty amazing when you think about just how much more capability the Nimitz class has over the Russian (China) design. It can operate 3 times there fixed wing capacity, and we have 10 of the freakin things
Nimitz may only sail with 3x the aircraft, but they're built to handle 4x in contingencies. They did studies and found you could pack about 130 F-18 sized aircraft on a Nimitz, if you needed to use one as an aircraft ferry (jets loaded/unloaded by crane). Operationally, you can only use 80% of that max "density" and still have enough room to launch and recover, which nets a payload of a bit more than 100 combat aircraft. Having said that, it would still be crowded above and below the deck. The more space the easier things get. It's a tradeoff between capacity and individual efficiency. The more aircraft your have, the longer it takes to move them around and get them ready. So that, combined with the fact that no current mission requires that kind of air wing, is why we typically fly 4 dozen combat jets and another dozen support aircraft. That, and budgets...
But it should also be noted that J-15/Su-33 is a lot bigger than anything the USN flies today. It's only a couple feet shorter than the A-3 Skywarrior or A-5 Vigilante. They could probably fit 3 dozen MiG-29K in the space of those 2 dozen Flankers.
Also, let's not forget it's not just the number of aircraft that each type can carry. Yet, the number of sorties that they can generate and the weight of Fuel and Weapons. That each aircraft can launch and recover with. This is where the USN Nimitz and Ford Classes with four catapults vastly out strip Chinese, Indian, and Russian STOBAR Type Aircraft Carriers. (besides total numbers)