The Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian is pictured on April 30, 2024, in this image by the state-run Xinhua News Agency. (Xinhua News Agency)
China’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier began sea trials this week, but it is still likely years away from regular, routine deployments, according to two experts.
The Fujian, Beijing’s third carrier, departed Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard around 8 a.m. Wednesday to test the reliability and stability of its propulsion and electrical systems, according to the official China Military Online website that day.
The carrier — China’s second built domestically and the first in its class — was launched in June 2022 and has since undergone “mooring trials, outfitting work and equipment adjustments,” according to the report.
The Fujian is named for the Chinese mainland province opposite of Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing considers a breakaway province.
While sea trials typically mark one of the final milestones before a warship begins patrols, the Fujian is likely several years away from regular deployment, according to an analysis published online Tuesday by Mike Sweeney, a nonresident fellow at Defense Priorities, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
He estimated the carrier will not achieve initial operating capability for approximately another year and routine deployments are likely several years away due to the ship’s new technology.
“This assumes China encounters no major technical challenges with the new carrier’s design, which would not be unexpected with a first-of-class ship of the Fujian’s complexity,” Sweeney wrote.
The carrier may not reach the Chinese navy for another two years, and even more time may be needed to make it a fully effective fighting ship, according to Sam Roggeveen, director of the international security program at the Australian think tank Lowy Institute.
The Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian is pictured on April 30, 2024, in this image by the state-run Xinhua News Agency. (Xinhua News Agency)
The Fujian and its sister ships are powered by steam turbines rather than nuclear energy like the United States’ 11 aircraft carriers.
It does, however, feature significant improvements over its predecessors.
The Shandong, China’s first domestically built carrier, and the Liaoning, a rebuilt Soviet vessel, both use “ski-jump” flight decks. That system requires aircraft to carry fewer weapons and fuel and “limits their combat efficacy and operational reach,” Sweeney wrote.
The Fujian bridges that technological gap with an electromagnetic catapult system like the one aboard the United States’ newest carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, he said.
Roggeveen agreed.
“On the first aircraft carrier with that technology, the U.S. Navy had all sorts of problems with it,” he told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday. “China is basically introducing the same technology, but from a standing start, if you like, without the decades of experience that the U.S. has with aircraft carrier technology.”
