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Close-Up Photo Shows China’s New Aircraft Carrier Rapidly Taking Shape
China's first truly indigenous carrier, which will be the third flattop for the People’s Liberation Army Navy, boasts massive capability enhancements.
By THOMAS NEWDICK | THE WAR ZONE, 04 JUNE 2021
Using this earlier imagery, some observers have extrapolated that the warship will likely have a displacement greater than the figure of 80,000-85,000 tons originally projected. This would bring it closer to the U.S. Navy’s own supercarriers, which have a displacement of around 100,000 tons.
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What’s more, the Type 003 design is expected to be equipped with an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), rather than relying on the “ski jump” ramps used on the PLAN’s two in-service carriers, the Liaoning (Type 001) and Shandong (Type 002). The use of EMALS could potentially boost sortie-generation rate on the new carrier, despite it apparently not featuring additional aircraft elevators.
Introducing an EMALS is a significant technological challenge, one that has faced its fair share of problems in the United States [on the latest Gerald Ford class carrier, problematic until present day], but if perfected will allow the PLAN to operate larger and heavier carrier aircraft, such as fixed-wing airborne early warning (AEW) platforms, and to launch and recover existing J-15 multirole carrier fighters at heavier weights, with a significant increase in the number of sorties the carrier can generate. EMALS would also permit the carrier to launch lighter drones, a prospect that we have examined in detail in the past.
What’s clear, above all else, is the speed with which Beijing is developing its aircraft carrier capabilities. Progress on the Type 003 build has been impressive, despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some reports predict the Type 003 could be launched next year, which would tally more or less with an unclassified February 2020 report from the Office of Naval Intelligence [ONI] anticipating that that the carrier could enter service in 2024.
While the Type 002 project was less ambitious, it’s still noteworthy that it was only around five years between laying the keel for the future Shandong and that vessel’s commissioning into service. Just as important as the speed at which this was achieved is the experience that will have been gained by the China’s shipbuilding industries that are now working on the Type 003 and which will surely build more carriers in the future, too.
Unconfirmed reports last year suggest that work on PLAN’s next carrier — the Type 004 — was due to start soon, possibly at Dalian Shipyard in Liaoning. There are persistent rumors that this vessel will be both larger than its predecessors and will be nuclear powered, but other assessments suggest it will utilize the Type 003 design. Ultimately, however, it seems likely that nuclear power will be the PLAN’s goal.
Western reports have frequently speculated that the PLAN may eventually build a force of six aircraft carriers. On the other hand, other observers claim that Beijing ultimately plans for “10 or more” carriers, which would clearly be a much longer-term ambition.
The introduction of catapults on the Type 003 also opens the door to embarking a fixed-wing AEW aircraft, a prototype of which is already under test, a fact initially confirmed by photos that appeared last summer. The twin-turboprop KJ-600 is analogous to the U.S. Navy’s E-2 Hawkeye and appears superficially similar. Once fielded aboard the Type 003, the KJ-600 promises to revolutionize the way the PLAN carrier air wing operates, providing long range surveillance against air, sea, and land targets as well as battle management and networking capabilities. The PLAN already has some experience with carrier-based AEW assets, in the form of the Z-18J, a derivative of the Z-18 heavy-lift helicopter with a retractable radar antenna attached to the rear ramp.
In its 2020 report to Congress on the Chinese military, the U.S. Department of Defense pointed to the Type 003 in particular as a major development within its planned multi-carrier force:
“China’s next generation of carriers will have greater endurance and a catapult system,” the report reads. “In particular, China’s aircraft carriers and planned follow-on carriers, once operational, will extend air defense coverage beyond the range of coastal and shipboard missile systems and will enable task group operations at increasingly longer ranges.”
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Close-Up Photo Shows China’s New Aircraft Carrier Rapidly Taking Shape
China's first truly indigenous carrier, which will be the third flattop for the People’s Liberation Army Navy, boasts massive capability enhancements.www.thedrive.com
Once China has enough carriers for the home waters, deploying this ship and the two ski-jump carriers to Djibouti would allow China to always have at least one Carrier on patrol in the Indian Ocean at all times, to protect the SLOCs, and be more then a match for the Indian carrier battle groups.
A development to watch calmly, unless the observer is the Indian Navy.
