Li Yun/Xinhua
On May 1, 2024, China’s third aircraft carrier Fujian departed from the Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, eastern China, for its first sea trials.
Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—
China’s newest, largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, departed Shanghai for its first sea trials on Wednesday, taking a major step towards joining the world’s largest naval fleet.
The naval assessment will take place in the East China Sea, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the Jiangnan Shipyard, where the carrier has been under construction for more than six years, the Shanghai Maritime Safety Bureau said.
“The sea trials will mainly test the reliability and stability of the aircraft carrier’s propulsion system and electrical system,” state news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday.
The warship will be launched in 2022 and has “completed mooring tests, outfitting work and equipment adjustment” before the latest sea trials, Xinhua News Agency said.
Displacing 80,000 tons, Fujian dwarfs the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)’s two active carriers, the 66,000-ton Shandong and the 60,000-ton Liaoning. Only the U.S. Navy operates a larger aircraft carrier than Fujian.
Li Tang/Xinhua News Agency
On May 1, 2024, a tugboat tows China’s third aircraft carrier Fujian from a pier in Shanghai, eastern China.
“The Fujian sea trials are an important milestone for the People’s Liberation Army and mark our joining in the small club of navies with top-class carrier aviation capabilities,” said John Blood, International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Ford said.
The main feature of the Fujian aircraft is its electromagnetic catapult system, which allows it to launch larger and heavier aircraft than the Shandong and Liaoning aircraft, which use a ski-jump-style launch method.
Analysts say the Fujian aircraft carrier’s ability to launch larger fighter jets with more ammunition and farther ranges gives it a wider combat range than its predecessors in the Chinese fleet, and the People’s Liberation Army Navy It said it would provide so-called “open ocean” capabilities to the United States.
Karl Schuster, a former U.S. Navy captain and former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Information Center, said, “These sea trials are the first major step in China’s development of the ability to project maritime air power into deep waters.” It shows that.”
The electromagnetic catapult system puts Fujian on par with the U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, which is the world’s only active carrier with an electromagnetic catapult system. The U.S. Navy’s 10 legacy aircraft carriers, the Nimitz class, rely on steam-powered catapults to launch their aircraft.
However, all U.S. airlines maintain two key advantages over Fujian Airlines: power and scale.
While U.S. aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered and can remain at sea as long as their crews have food, Fujian is fueled by conventional fuel and must be refueled by calling at port or by tanker at sea. I need to be greeted. .
As for the size advantage of the US Navy over Fujian ships, the Ford has a displacement of 100,000 tons, and the ten Nimitz-class ships have a displacement of 87,000 tons. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates that large U.S. ships will be able to carry more aircraft, about 75 compared to Fujian’s expected 60.
Analysts also note that U.S. carriers have more catapults, wider airways and more elevators, allowing for faster deployment of aircraft from lower hangar decks. .
U.S. airlines “remain in a tier of their own,” Bradford said.
Andrei Tarfila/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
The American aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford is seen from above, anchored in Trieste Bay, Italy, on September 18, 2023.
Schuster said the current round of sea trials in Fujian province is expected to last three to six days and will not include air operations.
“The radar and communications equipment will undergo some level of testing, but the initial sea trials always focus on hull integrity, propulsion and engineering, because if there is a problem, everything else will fall into place. Because they won’t,” Schuster said.
Analysts expect Fujian sea trials to take at least a year, with commissioning likely next year or 2026. An article published on the Chinese Ministry of Defense website in January said that the Liaoning had undergone 10 sea trials and the Shandong had undergone 10 sea trials. 9 before entering the service.
Joining China’s People’s Liberation Army fleet, Fujian now represents the world’s largest navy with more than 340 warships, and Chinese shipyards are building new warships at a breakneck pace.
“This will be the most visible symbol of China’s growing naval power,” said Brian Hart, CSIS China Power Project researcher.
Meanwhile, the People’s Liberation Army’s political commissar Yuan Huazhi said in March that the announcement of a fourth aircraft carrier for the Chinese fleet could be made soon, according to a report in the state-run Global Times newspaper.
When that announcement is made, the report says, we will have an answer as to whether China will have a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
The US Navy is already building three new Ford-class aircraft carriers, the future USS John F. Kennedy, USS Enterprise, and USS Doris Miller.
