Love this question and I’ll throw my hat into the ring here. The question, for the benefit of the uninformed, is the following:

Why is this ship that was commissioned in 1975

better than this ship, commissioned in 2019?

Sometimes, when you are knowledgeable about a subject, some things just become true that for the layman might not be apparent. I get that this is a legitimate question — in an age where technology advances like crazy, why do we think that a ship almost 50 years old be able to not only hang with, but outperform a ship that was built just yesterday?

The Chinese carrier Shandong is indeed a very new and young ship, whereas the USS Nimitz is a very old one. What gives?

So for the benefit of you friendly folks, I say hi, and welcome, I hope you find this read enticing.

Let’s start with the most obvious difference between the two:

1.SIZE

Sorry guys, but size matters. And the Nimitz is an absolute monster.

As we can see from the above, the Nimitz is the longer and the wider than any other nation’s carrier. When we add the dimension of weight though, the Nimitz dwarfs everything else not named Gerald R Ford-class. At a hundred thousand tons, the Nimitz is much heavier than the 60–70 thousand ton Shandong. Ah, you might be asking, but why does size matter so much?

In addition to making the ship harder to sink, the real answer to that, is the following:

1a. More Planes

According to its Wikipedia page, the Shandong can carry 44 aircraft. The Nimitz, however, can carry up to 90 aircraft — an advantage of more than two-to-one. It must be said that in peacetime, the Nimitz will probably carry less, but even then, with a compliment of 70–75 aircraft, the Nimitz still has the ability to put more planes into the sky.

This in itself is a massive advantage, but there is so much more to go through.

2. EXPERIENCE

China’s surge up the global power rankings is fairly recent and only a few decades ago, their navy, the PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) was a low-level threat and not capable of any power projection. They were, in essence, a brown-water navy (which means that they could patrol and do operations in their rivers and basically their coast) that was founded in 1949 and saw zero to little improvement over the next 30–40 years.

Since the fall of the USSR however, we have seen the PLAN order three carrier ships, a formidable submarine pack and a massive fleet of frigates.

Though not fully a blue-water navy yet (which means full and continuous power projection all over the globe), the PLAN is certainly one of the most powerful naval forces in the world. Engagements though, are few and far between, with some civilian uprisings being the worst they’ve had to deal with.

The US Navy though, goes back a long way and has a much more storied and esteemed history. Founded in in 1775 as the Continental Navy, the US purchased their first warships (six heavy frigates) in 1794, to combat the threat of Barbary pirates. In just a few years, the US Navy came up against the French Republic Navy in the Quasi-wars, the Barbary states in the Barbary wars and most notably, Great Britain in the War of 1812.

In 1837, the US commissioned the USS Pennsylvania, a 136 gun ship of the line, and as good as anything that Great Britain had at the time. This — and the order that led to the construction of several more of these — marked the start of the US Navy’s ascension to becoming the strongest navy on earth. Still a long way to go to being #1 (or even #2 or #3 for that matter), the US Navy showed that it was not to be taken lightly.

By the time the Civil War rolled around, the US and Confederate navies were using Ironclads, which were again, some of the best warships in the world

When the First Word War came about, the US was without question one of the most powerful naval forces on earth and by the end of the war, had surpassed the Royal Navy in terms of men and women in uniform.

The snot-nosed brat of a century ago was gone and in its place stood an absolute beast that was supported by a frightening industrial complex. It is debatable whether they were actually the strongest, but they were definitely top 2 or 3.

It was during and after World War 2 that the US Navy became without question the most powerful navy on earth. The sheer size of their carrier fleet ensured dominance over all the oceans and the the industrial complex that I described as “frightening” now became “all-conquering”. Since 1945, no naval power on earth rivalled the US and the Cold War arms race only wide ed the gap.

This was a lengthy piece, but it serves a purpose: the US Navy has had hundreds of engagements against terrifying foes — from the mighty Royal Navy to the U-boats wolfpacks of the Third Reich. Their drills, their protocols and their tactical playbook were all forged in the heat of battle.

Where the Chinese Navy is made up of men and women with little to no experience, the US Navy has been forged in fire. All other things being equal, the average US mariner is much more capable than the average PLAN mariner.

The gap widens when it comes to command; the average commanding officer in the PLAN has never been in any kind of war and the only engagements they had been in, had been skirmishes. In the US, there will not be high ranking staff that did not see combat.

Coming back to the question, we have the Nimitz not only much bigger than the Shandong, but with a crew and command much more experienced and capable. Think the above three advantages aren’t enough? Here, let’s get to the BIG ONE.

3. PROPULSION

The Shandong is powered by conventional steam turbines, whereas the Nimitz is powered by a nuclear reactor. The difference is so enormous, that each one is an advantage in and of itself:

3a. Operational Range

Yes, at some point after a few months, the Shandong will run dry and need fuel. The Nimitz however, can keep on cruising for twenty years without a refuel. Imagine fighting an enemy that never needs to go refuel! But it goes further:

3b. Faster, more of the time

Both the Nimitz and the Shandong have a listed top speed of 31 knots. However, the Shandong’s engines cannot keep this up forever — it is like redlining your car. The Nimitz however, can cruise at its top speed for much longer periods of time. It will thus be much quicker to the action and much quicker out, if need be.

3c. Less logistical support

The Nimitz requires no ships to carry additional fuel, since it can go so long without refueling. The Shandong though, will run through its fuel supply in a matter of months. So what if the deployment lasts longer than a few months?

In that case, the Shandong (and every other non-nuclear carrier) needs a way to be resupplied. These supply ships are massive targets and you can theoretically cripple the Shandong without ever engaging it in combat.

EDIT: As correctly pointed out by Eric Bigelow in the comments, jet fuel, food and ammunition has to be restocked on nuclear carriers too. This, of course, is true for any and all carriers. The Nimitz though, does not operate in a vacuum and does require a degree of logistical support.

Still not impressed? Here you go:

4. CATOBAR > STOBAR

Notice the little ramp in the font of the Shandong:

This is called a STOBAR system: Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery

What this means, is that the aircraft on the flight deck are launched under their own power and use the ramp to get airborne. The Nimitz though, has another trick up its sleeve.

The Nimitz has the ramp absent, because it employes a CATOBAR system, which stands for Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery. That word in there, yes, is catapult. And yes, it launches the aircraft. Does this make a difference? Yes, a massive one.

Planes that are launched from carriers have a severe weight limitation: should their speed be too low, they will plunge into the ocean. Should the planes carry too much ordinance, it might be too heavy to get to the appropriate speed. The faster you go, though, the heavier your plane can be. 

Being launched by steam-powered catapult drastically improves acceleration and speed and allows the aircraft to lift off carrying higher payload. This is where the US has a massive advantage, because each and every plane that the Nimitz launches, will be heavier than the plane off any other non-nuclear carrier.

This ties in with #3 in that these CATOBAR systems, although very efficient, requires a massive amount of power to operate; power that a conventional turbine engine just doesn’t give you, not enough of the time. The nuclear reactor in the Nimitz is what you need to operate a CATOBAR system reliably.

Important note: There have been conventionally powered carriers that employed CATOBAR systems. This, however, is a huge drain on the ship’s engines and limits the range of the carrier. There is a reason why almost all non-nuclear carriers employ STOBAR systems.

In summary, the above means that the planes the US launches from their carriers can carry both more ordinance and fuel, enabling them a greater operational range, as well as the ability to engage more targets.

Combine this with the fact that this goes in conjunction with the roughly 2:1 numbers advantage that the Nimitz has when it comes to planes. Added to this, the Shandong will need to be refueled at some point, making it extremely vulnerable to supply chain attacks.

By now, hopefully, you can see how the Nimitz will fairly easily outclass the Shandong. However, we haven’t reached the end quite yet.

5. THE PLANES

I know what you are thinking. You think I’m going to show you a pic of something like this…

…and tell you what a great multirole fighter the F18 Hornet is and then follow it up with something like this…

…and go further by saying that the F-35 is a ghost plane and the deadliest fighter in history. I can maybe say that it would shoot any other fighter out of the sky before the enemy even know they’re being targeted.

I can say that it will be able to talk to drones and do remote targeting. Or I can break the enemy down and call the Chengdu J-15 an underpowered and cheap knock-off version of a 1970’s Soviet era plane and that a dozen of these will go down before anyone even knows that an F-35 is on the prowl.

Instead though, I am going to show you a plane that in my opinion is the true difference maker and the reason why a battle between a Nimitz class and the Shandong will end in the Chinese ship being rendered inoperable within the hour:

Fun fact: when I was little, I thought this was an ice cream plane

The E-2 Hawkeye is by far the best carrier capable AWACS aircraft in the world. AWACS, of course, stands for airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system, and is what the carrier uses to “see”. Other carriers have AWACS aircraft as well, but a lot smaller, lighter and hence, less capable than the mighty E-2.

Due to the payload limitations of STOBAR carriers, they are physically incapable of launching an aircraft of this size and weight, meaning that the Nimitz (and the new Ford-class) enjoys an advantage that simply cannot be overcome; this plane makes the Nimitz virtually invulnerable to another carrier.

If pitted against each other, the E-2 Hawkeye would scout the Shandong long before it even knows that the Nimitz is out there. This gives the Nimitz with her massive compliment of heavily armed (and invisible) aircraft the advantage of getting all her birds in the air, in order to lay siege to the comparatively blind Shandong. Before the Shandong will be able to launch a single aircraft, the mighty Nimitz would render her completely incapable of continuing the fight.

This is how and why the 4 decade USN ship is much better than the new Chinese one.