April 23 is the founding day of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, and the Navy released its first aircraft carrier propaganda film “Deep Blue! Deep Blue!”
The six-minute-long propaganda film promotes the achievements of the Chinese Navy through the pilots of J-15 fighter planes and the officers and men of China’s first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, and the first domestic aircraft carrier, Shandong, in their daily lives and training. The end of the film contains an “Easter egg”: a naval officer receives a phone call from his mother, who responds with “the third child”. At the same time, the camera skims the flight deck of the Liaoning and Shandong ships, marked with the numbers “16” and “17”, as well as white space on the screen, after which the naval officer replies, “Will be arranged soon.”
The propaganda film is jointly presented by the PLA’s Maritime Propaganda Bureau and the “China Military” channel, and the arrangement at the end of the film is believed to be a hint that China’s third aircraft carrier will be unveiled soon. According to military experts, China’s Type 003 aircraft carrier is expected to be launched in the second half of this year, probably before the “August 1 Military Day” or “November National Day”. At that time, China will start to form a third carrier formation. This, together with the later outfitting, installation of island radar and sensors, and mooring tests, will take two years. As a result, the Type 003 carrier is likely to be delivered to the Navy in 2023-2024.
Chinese official media first confirmed that China is building a third aircraft carrier in 2018. The official WeChat account of Xinhua News Agency published the article “6 years ago, this ‘style’ was popular throughout the country and still makes people’s hearts pound! The article pointed out that six years ago (2012) China’s first aircraft carrier Liaoning successfully landed J-15 carrier aircraft, and six years later, the Shandong ship has been tested and is expected to be commissioned, and the new aircraft carrier has been built on the shipping platform in an orderly manner.”
Chinese aircraft carriers generally take 3 to 4 years from construction to launch, but the third aircraft carrier is built using many new technologies, such as the use of electromagnetic catapult technology, so the development cycle may be longer. According to some sources, the third aircraft carrier is likely to continue to be named “Jiangsu” as another coastal province. As for the power system of the Type 003 aircraft carrier, Chinese military scholars have different opinions. Some believe it will be nuclear-powered, but more people prefer that it will still use traditional mechanical power.
From public information, the Type 003 aircraft carrier will be significantly different from China’s first two carriers. Type 003 is about 326 meters long, with a maximum width of about 79 meters and a full load displacement of nearly 90,000 tons, far exceeding the 75,000 tons of the Shandong ship. In terms of carrier aircraft, Type 003 aircraft carrier can not only carry the J-15 fighter aircraft common to Liaoning and Shandong ships, but can also carry the KJ-600 naval early warning aircraft with the help of electromagnetic catapult, significantly improving the combat effectiveness of carrier aircraft and the protection of the carrier itself. In addition, the J-35 stealth fighter developed by China is also expected to make an appearance on the Type 003 aircraft carrier in the future.
The Type 003 aircraft carrier will be “the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier ever built outside the U.S.” when it is completed.
Type 003 aircraft carrier eliminates the forward deck elevation angle for the carrier’s sliding takeoff and adopts the same catapulted straight-through deck as the U.S. aircraft carriers in service. The aircraft carrier catapult takeoff method allows the carrier aircraft to take off with full ammunition and fuel, which significantly improves the efficiency of the carrier aircraft takeoff per unit time and eliminates the need to consider the impact of wind direction, so it is significantly stronger than the glide takeoff. The carrier catapult is divided into two types: traditional steam catapult and more advanced electromagnetic catapult. Type 003 aircraft carrier will probably bypass the steam catapult method of the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and directly adopt the electromagnetic catapult system similar to the Ford-class carriers. At present, only the United States and France use the “catapult takeoff/barrier recovery” system, so the Type 003 aircraft carrier will allow China to enter the ranks of maritime powers.
In recent years, China has been under increased international pressure due to the intense competition with the United States, and China has a sense of urgency due to the weaknesses and problems exposed by the Russian military in the recent Russia-Ukraine war.
Although the introduction of China’s Type 003 aircraft carrier is expected to significantly enhance China’s naval strength. At the same time, however, China still has a huge gap with the United States in terms of aircraft carrier design, construction and use. For example, the 11 U.S. aircraft carriers in service, as well as the three under construction, are all nuclear-powered carriers of 100,000 tons or more, while Chinese carriers are still conventionally powered, and there is still a long way to go to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
In addition, unlike the global deployment of U.S. carriers, the area of activity of Chinese carriers in the coming period is still mainly in the offshore or western Pacific Ocean, according to military analyst Xu Hui. Therefore, it is too early to say that Chinese carriers are challenging U.S. carriers.
