- China’s latest aircraft carrier will represent a major leap in capabilities and technology for the country’s navy.
- But experts say China still has a lot to learn before it can operate aircraft carriers like the United States.
- China can learn a lot from the U.S. experience, but success will depend on talent and strategy.
China’s latest aircraft carrier has just completed its maiden sea trials and appears to be a significant improvement over its two predecessors, making it a modern, much more capable vessel than China’s previous repurposed Soviet designs.
Fujian clearly represents China’s desire to build a blue-water navy capable of projecting power throughout the Indo-Pacific region, but there is still much work to be done before it can field aircraft carriers in the same way the U.S. Navy can on the high seas.
“China has demonstrated the ability to field aircraft and carrier platforms,” said Guy Snodgrass, a former defense official and U.S. Naval aviator, but added, “What they have yet to demonstrate is all of the connective tissue needed to employ these platforms together for extended operations at sea, out of regional support centers, and in the event of a conflict.”
However, China will not start this process from scratch, but will instead learn from the long history of U.S. aircraft carrier operations and accelerate the timeline. It facilitates the development of “connective tissue.” Still, there is much to learn, some of which can only come from experience.
A technological leap
The Fujian is China’s third aircraft carrier and the only warship of this new class. It is larger than its Soviet-style predecessors, the Shandong and Liaoning, and is the first to do away with ski-jump-style ramps for launching aircraft, instead featuring an advanced catapult launch system similar to the one used on the U.S. Navy’s new Ford-class carriers.
Brian Clark, a former naval officer and now a defense expert at the Hudson Institute, told BI that the difference is big because China can field larger, heavier and more capable aircraft, including fully loaded fighter jets and early warning planes.
For example, ski jumps have imposed restrictions on China’s J-15 fighter jets in Shandong and Liaoning provinces, reducing the amount of weapons and fuel the carrier-based fighters can fly.
“Catapults allow China to pursue heavier, more modern aircraft,” Clark said. These aircraft include catapult-launched versions of the J-15, carrier-based early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft like the KJ-600, and a carrier-based version of the J-35 stealth fighter, the latter of which is still in the experimental stage.
Clark added that the Fujian’s air force, estimated at around 60 aircraft, would be significantly larger than the Liaoning and Shandong’s air fleets, which have 24-32 fighter jets and 12-17 helicopters respectively.
How China moved from ski jumps to catapults: China likely prioritized adopting proven technologies first before moving to advanced Western-style technologies, an approach that likely accelerated China’s ability to adopt new technologies and bought it time to resolve its problems.
“The Fujian is not using steam-powered catapults,” Snodgrass said, “but is taking a leap forward in that technology and pursuing an electromagnetic launch system like the U.S. Navy’s Gerald R. Ford.” The Fujian has three catapults on deck, presumably giving it a higher sortie rate than the Liaoning and Shandong carriers, which can only launch one aircraft at a time.
“This reinforces the view that China continues to demonstrate its ability to field, test, improve and develop aircraft carriers faster than other countries,” he added. China plans to build six aircraft carriers by 2035, but few details have been released about the Fujian’s successor.
People are the key
But just because China is fully committed to developing aircraft carriers doesn’t mean it’s catching up with the United States.
Unlike the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered Nimitz- and Ford-class carriers, the Fujian is conventionally powered and therefore requires refueling. Like the Liaoning- and Shandong-class carriers, this could affect how far the ship can travel from port and make logistical operations more difficult.
And because China only has three aircraft carriers, and its most advanced ones are still undergoing sea trials, for the time being its fleet will likely operate on a different mission than the 11-carrier U.S. force, which is more regional and flag-carrying.
“There are clearly big differences between how we operate our ships and how they can operate them today,” said retired Adm. Raymond Spicer, CEO and publisher of the U.S. Naval Institute. “I’m not saying they’re not building more ships or expanding to become more global, but they’re not anywhere near that point yet.”
The Fujian’s larger air wing and catapult system allow it to launch larger aircraft and fly more frequent sorties, but it still falls short of U.S. capabilities. This is largely due to the ship’s size and payload, but it also has a lot to do with a core problem the Chinese navy faces in operating carriers: experience.
China’s carrier force is young, only about 12 years old, and has made significant progress in that time, but knowledge about operating a carrier can only come with experience, Spicer said.
“They have a lot to learn,” he said. “If you compare what they’re doing with what we’ve been doing, we’ve been operating carriers for decades, so we have a lot of people who are trained and have experience operating carriers.”
“I think talent is key,” Spicer said.
Even China’s senior naval officers have limited experience in this area, making it difficult to acquire expertise and train new recruits.
Clark said that during a visit to San Diego, California in 2013, Adm. Wu Shengli, then commander of the Chinese navy, was most surprised by the number of personnel involved in operating the carrier.
“They didn’t realize that we have a cadre of hundreds of enlisted personnel who do all of the system operation, maintenance and oversight of the actual flight deck operations,” Clark said.
The challenge now for China will be to create a sustainable model for developing a talent pool with carrier knowledge and experience to keep up with the pace of its carrier construction, and that also extends to naval aviation, where China is working to recruit and train pilots.
China also faces challenges defending its aircraft carriers, which play a vital role not only in expanding its maritime capabilities but also in defending the carriers and their aircraft in the event of a conflict.
China has sailed older Type 052D and C destroyers and newer Type 055 destroyers, frigates, and resupply ships aboard aircraft carriers, but the integration and interoperability required to make strike groups effective will take time to master. Meanwhile, the United States regularly sends strike groups around the world, most recently in combat against the Houthis in Middle Eastern waters.
Learn the “ballet” of aircraft carrier operations
As China continues to build and deploy aircraft carriers, its greatest learning opportunity, outside of active engagement in actual carrier operations, will come from watching the U.S. effort.
“Operational intelligence is publicly available,” Spicer said, adding that if China had the opportunity to observe and learn from U.S. aircraft carrier operations, particularly in the Pacific, it would do so.
“They can take advantage of the treasure trove of information that’s out there because we’ve been doing this a lot longer than they have,” he said, but they still need the experience of actually doing the work themselves.
“Operating an aircraft carrier is a bit like ballet,” Snodgrass said. “There are many players, each with a role, but logistics, supplies, food, fuel, ship maintenance, aviation, damage control, navigation — all need to work together seamlessly for the operation to be successful.”
“And they must be able to launch and recover large numbers of aircraft in a 12-hour operation, day or night and in adverse weather conditions,” he added. All of this is difficult and can only be mastered through trial and error.
Yet a source of great concern to U.S. military leaders today is China’s strong and disappointing track record when it comes to adopting and mastering new technologies and capabilities.
