China Wants Its New Aircraft Carriers to Rival America’s
Beijing is developing a fourth carrier and is determined to meet or exceed the U.S. Navy’s abilities in the near future.
When it comes to aircraft carriers, the U.S. Navy easily dominates with eleven in active rotation. These nuclear-powered warships are the largest across the globe and provide the U.S. military with the ability to project power on every continent. China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) possesses the second-largest contingent of aircraft carriers with three in tow. Beijing is allegedly constructing a fourth carrier, hoping to shift the balance of naval force prowess in the seas.
Last year, Chinese state-run media outlets first claimed that a new flat top would be commissioned, potentially becoming the nation’s first nuclear-powered surface ship. China’s third carrier, Fujian, was launched in 2022 and is more advanced than its successors. The hefty warship conducted its first sea trials last year, testing and verifying the reliability and stability of the carrier’s power and electrical systems. According to Beijing, Fujian uses EMALS (Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System) to launch its aircraft. The U.S. Navy’s newest Ford-class carriers are the only other carriers that feature this cutting-edge capability.
Fujian is the first Type 003-class carrier, designed by the Jiangnan Shipyard for the PLAN. While exact details surrounding the warship remain a mystery, the U.S. Office for Naval Intelligence (ONI) estimates that the ship’s length is much larger than the two former Russian Kuznetsov-class aircraft carriers procured by Beijing over a decade ago: the Liaoning and Shandong (designated as the Type 001/Type 002 respectively). The Type 001 carrier was launched in 2012 and became the first carrier commissioned into the PLAN’s Surface Force. Shandong joined the fleet in 2017, becoming the nation’s first “homegrown” aircraft carrier. According to reports, Fujian features a load displacement of more than 80,000 tons, greatly surpassing the Liaoning and Shandong in terms of size and sophistication. In fact, only the U.S. Navy’s fleet of carriers is bigger than the Fujian.
While the Fujian boasts a variety of enhanced attributes compared to its predecessors, perhaps its most recognizable new technology is its incorporation of EMALS. As detailed previously, only the U.S. Navy’s newest Ford-class carriers similarly possess this cutting-edge technology. This system represents a departure from the steam-operated Nimitz carriers and guarantees higher sortie generation rates. Naval Technology detailed other notable improvements featured on the Fujian, including a reduced radar cross-section, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, and an integrated funnel that powers the carrier’s electromagnetic catapults for aircraft launch.
While the Fujian is on par with its American counterparts in terms of EMALS, the U.S. Navy’s fleet is still reportedly superior. Due to their larger size, the Nimitz and Ford-class ships can carry more aircraft than the Fujian. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that the larger American carriers can carry seventy-five aircraft while the Fujian can likely only carry sixty. With a fleet of eleven nuclear-powered carriers, the United States clearly takes the cake in terms of sea power. However, Beijing is already developing a fourth carrier and is determined to meet or exceed the U.S. Navy’s abilities in the near future.
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. Carlin has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues.
Image: By Baycrest, CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons