This is John Batchel, conversation with Rebecca Grant of the Lexington Institute

about the new carrier going through C-Charles right now, the second name John F. Kennedy,

a supercarrier, Ford Class. However, CBN-79.

I learned from Rebecca that the Chinese are matching our building rate and soon to exceed it.

They want lots of carriers in the Pacific.

How many?

What do you got?

Here's Rebecca to explain.

More of this than I.

The Navy says China is aiming for at least six.

Why would they stop there?

We do have 11 written into law. Now, the key difference

between U.S. and Chinese carriers has been the nuclear propulsion and the size of the deck.

But China is beginning to fix this. Each of their three active carriers, and they've got a fourth

under construction, is different one from the other. The fourth one is quite large. It's the size of the Ford class. And we think that they may be experimenting with the idea of nuclear propulsion. So right now, their carriers aren't as good, but to have them positioned around the first island chain gives them an enormous advantage in air power and creates a lot of trouble

for the U.S. and allies. It means we need more ships and more aircraft in the area to cope with

and find and keep those Chinese carriers bottled up. It's a bad sign to see China racing to build aircraft carriers.