Fujian Ship officially joins the fleet, marking a historic moment for the People's Liberation Army.
CCTV Military News, on November 5, China's third aircraft carrier, "Fujian" (hull number 18), was formally commissioned in Sanya, Hainan. This not only marks that the Chinese Navy has entered the "three-carrier era," but also means that China has become the first country in the world to successfully deploy and operate an electromagnetic catapult aircraft carrier stably.
The commissioning of Fujian Ship is not only a historical leap for the Chinese Navy, but also writes a significant chapter in the history of global aircraft carrier development - it ended the United States' century-long dominance in aircraft carrier technology, and with systematic engineering thinking and full industry chain support, it has mastered the world-leading "electromagnetic catapult" technology.
【Technical Breakthrough: The World's First Stable Electromagnetic Catapult Aircraft Carrier】
The most core breakthrough of Fujian Ship lies in its medium-voltage direct current integrated power system and fully autonomous electromagnetic catapult and arresting devices. In contrast to the U.S. Ford-class carriers, Fujian Ship, although conventional powered, successfully achieved high reliability and stability operation of the electromagnetic catapult system.
The U.S. "Ford" (CVN-78) has been plagued by criticism since its commissioning in 2017. The root cause lies in its early project initiation.
When the technical plan was determined in the early 21st century, it still used the medium-voltage AC power architecture from the 1990s, with weak hardware foundation and outdated control systems.
It was like "running a 2025 AI large model on a 1990s computer" to forcefully implement an immature technology. Initially, the failure rate of the electromagnetic catapult and arresting systems was extremely high, making it incapable of combat capabilities.
More critically, the electromagnetic catapult system on the Ford-class did not have an independent power supply loop. Once a catapult or arresting device needed maintenance, the entire ship had to be powered down for inspection, causing the entire ship's aviation operations to completely shut down. In actual combat, this design was tantamount to "suicide."
In June 2022, during the first joint exercise between the "Ford" and the "Truman" carrier, due to a failed manual reset of the power distribution system, the ship could not launch any aircraft for five days. A super carrier worth 13 billion dollars became a "nuclear-powered tourist boat."
Although reliability has improved in recent years, the electromagnetic catapult system has an unbroken interval of 600 launches, which is seven times less than the design target of 4,000; the arresting system has 450 cycles, which is 36 times less than the design target. Overall, it is still far worse than the steam catapult and hydraulic arresting systems it aims to replace, being three to four times worse.
No wonder, on October 28, Trump, on the "Washington" carrier in Japan, angrily declared: "All U.S. carriers will revert to steam catapult!"
By contrast, Fujian Ship uses China's independently developed medium-voltage direct current integrated power system, based on 21st-century electrical and electronic technology, with modular, redundant, and intelligent features. Its reliability far exceeds that of the Ford class and significantly surpasses the U.S. carrier's steam catapult.
The electromagnetic catapult is electrically decoupled from other systems on board, allowing independent operation and maintenance. Even if one catapult fails, others can still operate normally, greatly enhancing wartime sustained combat capability.
Fujian Ship completed the full-process electromagnetic catapult takeoff and landing training for the J-15T, J-35 stealth fighter, and KJ-600 early warning aircraft in March 2025, and repeatedly verified within six months until its official commissioning in November.
This "training while testing, using warfare to test" model enables it to possess preliminary combat capability upon commissioning, far exceeding the "limited combat state" of the U.S. Ford after eight years of service.
【Operational Efficiency: Deck Area Determines Real Combat Power】
People often belittle Fujian Ship by comparing "3 catapults vs. 4 on the U.S." and "2 elevators vs. 3-4 on the U.S.", but this is a misunderstanding. The core combat power of an aircraft carrier does not lie in the number of catapults, but in the deck operating efficiency and the daily sortie capacity of carrier-based aircraft. The deck area essentially determines real combat power.
When an aircraft carrier is equipped with 3 catapults, the deck space required for the preparation work of carrier-based aircraft (such as refueling, arming, inspection, and testing) becomes the main bottleneck limiting the sortie efficiency.
Therefore, adding a fourth catapult cannot significantly improve the overall sortie rate - under ideal conditions, 3 and 4 catapults have basically the same sortie capacity, both capable of launching 24 sorties within 15 minutes. Using 2 catapults results in a sortie efficiency of about 80%, and using 1 catapult further drops to 40%.
Of course, in actual combat, "full deck sortie" requires mobilizing a large number of ready aircraft. At the start of the catapult, the front deck parking area occupies the position of one catapult. Therefore, installing 4 catapults ensures maximum sortie rate throughout the process.
When the Fujian Ship (Type 003) parks on one side of the front deck, the actual available catapults are reduced to 2, slightly worse in the short-term maximum sortie rate, but with much higher reliability than U.S. carriers.
The core combat power of an aircraft carrier ultimately depends on the aircraft operation capability on the deck, not on the hangar capacity or the number of elevators. This is particularly evident in the typical high-intensity combat mode of "full deck sortie":
All attacking carrier-based aircraft are pre-deployed on the flight deck, fully prepared for action; elevators are almost not used to raise aircraft, but only responsible for vertical transport of ammunition or equipment.
Aircraft retained in the hangar are usually just for fault backup or battle replacement. It is almost impossible to raise a second wave after the first wave attack, because the slow speed of the elevators cannot quickly bring enough aircraft from the hangar to the deck for re-preparation and launch. When a large wave of aircraft completes their mission and returns, the deck must remain clear to recover the landing aircraft.
Similarly, during the recovery phase, the operation speed of the elevators is extremely limited, unable to quickly move a large number of returning aircraft into the hangar. Therefore, sufficient space must be left on the deck to park collectively recovered aircraft.
Thus, the maximum sortie capacity of an aircraft carrier ultimately depends on the "available deck parking area" - the net parking space after subtracting the landing runway, traffic channels, and other fixed functional areas from the total deck area.
U.S. combat data also show that the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, when deployed, have a daily sortie capacity of only about 40 fixed-wing carrier-based aircraft, similar to the performance of the Liaoning and Shandong carriers in exercises.
This is why expanding the deck area is so significant. Fujian Ship (Type 003) has optimized the hull layout, significantly increasing the main flight deck area, especially the front deck and right-side parking area, with a width comparable to the Ford class.
This allows it to accommodate significantly more carrier-based aircraft than the Shandong (Type 002) carrier, with the maximum strike wave potentially reaching twice that of the Liaoning and Shandong carriers.
Plus the "full fuel and full armament" takeoff capability brought by electromagnetic catapult, higher takeoff speed, and the system empowerment from the KJ-600 fixed-wing early warning aircraft, the overall combat effectiveness has achieved a qualitative leap.
Of course, once the deck area reaches a certain extent, a single angled landing runway has become a new bottleneck - no matter how wide or large the deck is, only one aircraft can be recovered at a time. This means that, under the current carrier aircraft size and operational procedures, the marginal benefit of deck area has approached saturation.
The future expansion of the deck primarily aims not to increase sortie capacity, but to provide space for larger, heavier sixth-generation carrier-based aircraft, ensuring the long-term technological adaptability of the carrier platform.
【Design Philosophy: Choosing and Sacrificing】
The most prominent design feature of Fujian Ship is the significantly increased proportion of the flight deck main area - the central area on the deck used for carrier-based aircraft scheduling, preparation, and parking occupies a larger proportion in the overall layout. Especially the optimization of the front deck layout, with a wider parking area.
Compared to the U.S. Nimitz-class carriers, Fujian Ship, with a length about 11 meters shorter and a displacement of approximately 80,000 tons, through optimizing the hull structure, maximally expands the available area of the flight deck, thereby improving the aviation operation efficiency. This approach not only enhances combat power but also controls the construction cost to some extent.
Of course, expanding the deck area comes at a cost. Under the premise of similar tonnage to the U.S. Kitty Hawk-class conventional power carrier, a larger deck means increased weight of the superstructure. To maintain stability and balance of the total weight above the waterline, the freeboard (the height from the waterline to the main deck, i.e., the height above the water) had to be appropriately reduced.
The freeboard of Fujian Ship is slightly lower than that of the Nimitz-class and Kitty Hawk-class. This trade-off is feasible due to the fundamental difference in mission positioning between the Chinese and U.S. navies: the U.S. carriers need to support global high-intensity deployment for up to six months, with a large crew (usually over 5,000 people), requiring high standards for living quarters, life support, and redundant systems;
While the Chinese Navy currently has a shorter period of oceanic deployment and a more controllable rhythm, with fewer crew members than the U.S. military, thus no need to reserve a large number of living quarters, thereby "freeing up" structural margin for expanding the flight deck.
Overall, the design of Fujian Ship embodies the engineering philosophy of "steady progress, balancing present and future":
On one hand, it keeps the tonnage and hull dimensions within the level of the Kitty Hawk-class, inherits the mature conventional steam propulsion system of the Shandong (Type 002) carrier, and only configures 3 catapults instead of 4, significantly reducing construction costs and accelerating the construction schedule - this is "considering the immediate needs";
On the other hand, within the limited space, it still ensures the length of the landing runway and the layout of the catapults, ensuring compatibility with current J-15 and even larger, heavier carrier-based aircraft models in the future - this is "planning for the long term". This balanced philosophy is the key step for China's aircraft carrier development to rapidly transition from "following" to "parallel" and even "leading".
【System Reconfiguration: Stealth Fighters + Fixed-Wing Early Warning Aircraft】
The progress of Fujian Ship also lies in the systemic leap of its carrier air wing. The expected configuration is:
1 squadron of 12 J-35 stealth carrier fighters, responsible for air superiority/penetration attacks;
2 squadrons of 24 J-15T heavy catapult-type fighters, for complex long-range anti-ship/precision ground attacks;
5 J-15DT electronic warfare aircraft, for complex electromagnetic suppression;
4-5 KJ-600 fixed-wing early warning aircraft, responsible for long-range early warning and command.
A few carrier-based drones and Zhi-20 helicopters
Among them, the deployment of the KJ-600 has strategic significance. Compared to helicopter early warning platforms, it can continuously cruise for more than 5 hours at a distance of 400 kilometers from the mother ship, providing 360-degree long-range early warning, target indication, and battlefield management capabilities. This means that the Chinese aircraft carrier group has, for the first time, independent, continuous, and deep-sea situational awareness capabilities, effectively responding to high-end threats such as stealth fighters and hypersonic anti-ship missiles.
The "two swords" combination of the J-35 and J-15T builds an "stealth penetration + heavy load strike" flexible combat system. The electromagnetic catapult allows the J-35 to take off without external tanks, in a fully stealth configuration, increasing its combat radius by more than 40%; the J-15T can carry over 6 tons of ordnance to perform long-range strike missions. With guidance from the KJ-600, they can achieve a "detect and destroy" closed-loop strike chain.
【Comparative Analysis: Efficiency Behind the System and Industrial System】
Fujian Ship went from being launched in June 2022 to being commissioned in November 2025, taking only 3 years and 5 months; while the U.S. "Ford" took 12 years from its launch in 2013 to now, still not having formed a complete combat capability. More shockingly, the second ship of the Ford class, "Kennedy," launched in 2019, is still undergoing outfitting in the dry dock; the third ship, "Enterprise," has been under construction for 8 years, with only 40% of the hull completed.
This gap is not just a technical issue, but also reflects the national industrial system and governance capability. Through state-led, concentrated R&D, and military-civilian integration, China has achieved highly coordinated design, construction, testing, and training. While the U.S. is trapped in contractor monopolies, cost overruns, labor shortages, and inefficient management.
When Trump announced in October 2025 that "returning to the steam era" was unavoidable, Fujian Ship, with the high efficiency of electromagnetic catapult (shorter catapult intervals, less preparation time), full fuel and full armament takeoff capability, and the system empowerment from the KJ-600, is expected to achieve a stable daily sortie of 50-60 sorties by 2027, far exceeding the current average of U.S. aircraft carriers.
【Conclusion: Maritime Supremacy is Quietly Ending】
The commissioning of Fujian Ship is not an end, but a new starting point for the rise of China's blue-water navy. It represents not just an 80,000-ton steel giant, but also a comprehensive victory of a nation in high-end manufacturing, system integration, strategic patience, and engineering execution capability.
When the J-35 takes off silently on the electromagnetic track, there is no "spectacular" steam exhaust, yet there is the silent and efficient future war. Meanwhile, the superpower that once defined modern aircraft carriers, the United States, is being dragged into decline by its own arrogance, rigidity, and industrial hollowing-out.
The era of absolute maritime supremacy of the United States is ending; while the deep blue era of China has already begun.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7569848050252923435/
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