China’s New High-Tech Aircraft Carrier Fujian:
China unveiled its first indigenous aircraft carrier, the new-generation Fujian (Type 003).
- China now has the most number of aircraft carriers after the U.S.
- The Fujian has been named after China’s eastern coastal province which lies across from Taiwan.
- The Fujian joins two other carriers currently operated by China — Shandong (Type 001), commissioned in 2019, and the Liaoning (Type 002), bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998.
- The Type 003 carrier more technologically advanced than its predecessors Shandong and Liaoning.
- Features:
- The Fujian’s displacement is 80,000 tonnes, much more than the existing Chinese carriers, and comparable to U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.
- The Fujian has been fitted with the latest launch technology — the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), first developed by the U.S. Navy.
- It also has a straight flat-top flight deck for take-offs and landings,
- The two existing vessels use a ski jump-style ramp.
- A ski-jump is an upward-curved ramp that allows aircraft to take off from a runway that is shorter than the aircraft’s required takeoff roll.
