China's new supercarrier will outgun the entire UK armed forces. It may visit us soon
Satellite imagery reveals construction activity at China's Dalian shipyard that is unmistakably the building of a supercarrier. Add that to analysis from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies that China has built a new prototype naval nuclear reactor and it is clear where this is going. Early images suggest that the new carrier could displace as much as 120,000 tons, which would make it noticeably larger than the USS Gerald R Ford, at 100,000 tons the world's current largest.
The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) already has its own version of America's Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) on the third Chinese carrier, the Fujian, launched in 2022 and expected to become operational shortly. It appears that the new Type 004 – as it's being called for now – will have four catapults, one more than the Fujian and equivalent to the USS Ford. I'll come back to the importance of size and catapult numbers in a bit. It will likely operate up to 100 aircraft including the J-15 multirole fighter, J-35 stealth fighter, KJ-600 airborne early warning plane, helicopters and GJ-11 Sharp Sword jet drones. Like the Ford and the US Nimitz class before that, it's essentially an entire air force at sea.
Before I look at how China might use this ship, let me quickly tackle the two most common carrier myths in circulation right now – just in case the fact that ten or so navies are building them right now, including China, doesn't convince you they're worth having.
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