BEIJING (AP) – Beijing launched a new generation aircraft carrier on Friday, the first such ship to be designed and built in China, in a cornerstone as it seeks to expand the range and power of its fleet.
The Type 003 carrier, named Fujian, left its dry dock at a shipyard outside Shanghai this morning and landed on a nearby pier, state media reported.
The state-run CCTV showed assembled naval personnel standing under the massive ship as water jets splashed over its deck, multicolored ribbons flew and colored smoke was emitted.
Equipped with the latest weapons and aircraft launch technology, the Type 003’s capabilities are thought to rival those of Western carriers as Beijing seeks to turn its fleet, now the world’s largest, into force. with multiple carriers.
Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC on Thursday and analyzed by the Associated Press show that the ship is in a completely flooded dry dock at the Jiangnan shipyard near Shanghai, ready to launch. It was draped with red bunting, probably in preparation for the launch ceremony.
“This is an important milestone for China’s military-industrial complex,” said Ridzwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst with defense intelligence firm Janes.
“This shows that Chinese engineers are now able to produce the full range of surface fighters associated with modern naval warfare, including corvettes, frigates, destroyers, assault ships, and now aircraft carriers,” he said. “This ability to build a very complex warship from the beginning will inevitably lead to various separate activities and benefits for the Chinese shipbuilding industry.
China’s first carrier was a rebuilt Soviet ship, and the second was built in China, but in a Soviet design. Both are built to use the so-called “ski-jump” take-off method, with a ramp at the end of the short runway to help planes take off.
Type 003 uses a catapult launch, which experts say appears to be an electromagnetic type system, such as the one originally developed by the US Navy. China’s official Xinhua news agency confirmed that Fujian used the electromagnetic system in a report on Friday’s launch.
Such a system puts less strain on the aircraft than older steam-powered catapult launchers, and the use of a catapult means that the ship will be able to launch a greater variety of aircraft than is necessary to be able to China to project naval power on a larger scale, Rahmat said.
“These catapults allow deployed aircraft to carry more cargo than weapons in addition to external fuel tanks,” Rahmat said.
Once fully operational, the third PLAN carrier will also be able to deploy a more complete range of aircraft related to the carrier’s strike group operations, including transport on board the carrier and early warning and control aircraft, such as KJ- 600.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN, has been modernizing for more than a decade to become a “blue water” force – one that can operate globally instead of being limited to staying closer to the mainland. of China.
At the same time, the United States is stepping up its focus on the region, including the South China Sea. The vast maritime region is strained because six governments claim all or part of the strategically vital waterway, which carries about $ 5 trillion in global trade each year and has rich but rapidly dwindling fish stocks and significant underwater oil and gas reserves.
China is by far the most aggressive in asserting its claims to virtually the entire waterway, its island characteristics and resources.
The U.S. Navy has sailed warships past artificial islands built by China at sea, equipped with summer runways and other military facilities. China insists its territory extends to these islands, while the US Navy says it is conducting missions there to ensure the free flow of international trade.
In its report to the US Congress last year on China’s military capabilities, the Department of Defense said the shipbuilding development program is crucial to China’s continued global fleet development, “gradually expanding its operations beyond East Asia to sustainable ability to work longer and longer distances. “
“China’s aircraft carriers and planned follow-up carriers, once operational, will expand air defense coverage beyond the range of coastal and ship missile systems and allow the target group to operate at ever-increasing distances,” the defense ministry said.
In recent years, China has expanded its presence in the Indian Ocean, western Pacific and beyond, establishing its first overseas base in a decade in the nation’s Horn of Africa in Djibouti, where the United States, Japan and others also maintain a military presence. He also recently signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, which many fear could provide him with an outpost in the South Pacific, and is working with Cambodia to expand a port facility there that could provide it with a presence in the Gulf of Thailand. .
Xinhua reported that Fujian, which carries body number 18, had a displacement of 80,000 tons at full load. However, in a March report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service, analysts said satellite imagery showed a Type 003 displacement of about 100,000 tons, similar to that of U.S. Navy carriers.
Currently, the PLAN has about 355 ships, including submarines, and the United States estimates that the force will increase to 420 ships by 2025 and 460 ships by 2030. Although it has the largest navy in the world, however, the PLAN it is not yet close to the capabilities of the US Navy and remains far behind in terms of carriers.
The US Navy is the world leader in aircraft carriers with 11 nuclear-powered ships. It also has nine assault ships that can carry helicopters and vertical take-off fighters.
American allies such as Britain and France also have their own carriers, and Japan has four “helicopter destroyers” that are not technically aircraft carriers, but carry aircraft. Two are converted to support fighters with short takeoffs and vertical landings.
The new Chinese carrier is named after Fujian province on the country’s southeast coast, following a tradition after naming its first two carriers in Liaoning and Shandong provinces.
The shipyard launch ceremony was chaired by Sue Killiang, a member of the ruling Communist Party’s Politburo and deputy chairman of the Central Military Commission, chaired by President and party leader Xi Jinping.
A bottle of champagne was smashed through Fujian’s nose after Sue cut the launch strip, Xinhua reported. Then the doors of the dry dock opened and the ship came out into the water and docked at its pier.
China’s development of the Type 003 carrier is part of a broader modernization of the Chinese military. As with its space program, China has continued to be extremely cautious in the development of aircraft carriers, striving to apply only proven and advanced technologies.
At present, it is not believed that China has developed the aircraft to fully realize the potential of the new carrier, Rahmat said.
It is not known how close China is in developing its KJ-600 AWACS, which it began testing in 2020 to be ready for carrier operations, and there is “little evidence” that it has begun work on boarding of the aircraft carrier, he said.
Now that it has been released, the carrier will need to be equipped, which can take two to six months. There will then be port acceptance tests and sea tests, which will probably take another six months before engineers start launching test loads using the catapult system.
“The first aircraft will be launched by this carrier probably at the end of 2023 to 2024, and full operational capability is likely to be announced closer to 2025,” he said.
___
John Gambrell of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and Marie Yamaguchi of Tokyo contributed to this report. Bangkok announced a rise.
Add Comment