China on Friday launched its third aircraft carrier in Shanghai, state media reports said, the first designed and built entirely in the country.
The launch of the new carrier called Fujian — named after the coastal province — comes against the backdrop of China’s push for maritime influence in the far seas and as its warships attempt to leave their mark in Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.
The launch ceremony was held at the Jiangnan Shipyard of China State Shipbuilding Corporation on Friday morning.
Xu Qiliang, member of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) central committee political bureau and the vice chairperson of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), attended the ceremony.
Fujian, with the hull number “18”, is China’s first catapult-type aircraft carrier to launch fighter aircraft from its deck.
In late April, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy released a promotional video on China’s aircraft programme, in which it implied that the country’s third aircraft carrier will be officially revealed soon.
“Although it will be years before the Type 003 (the new carrier) enters military service and achieves initial operating capability, its launch will be a seminal moment in China’s ongoing modernisation efforts and a symbol of the country’s growing military might,” the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), had reported about Fujian – then unnamed – earlier this month.
China for the first time officially acknowledged it was building a third aircraft carrier, expected to be “bigger and mightier” than the first domestically-built one in November 2018.
The “Fujian” is part of China’s heavily guarded “new generation carrier” programme, which aims at building the ships indigenously.
“In addition to being the largest of its three carriers, the new Type 003 class is fitted with a catapult launch system that will “enable it to support additional fighter aircraft, fixed-wing early-warning aircraft, and more rapid flight operations and thus extend the reach and effectiveness of its carrier-based strike aircraft,” the US defence department said in its annual report to Congress on China’s military in November.
China has the largest navy in the world in terms of numbers of ships but does not yet have the capabilities of the US Navy.
Among other assets, the US Navy remains the world’s leader in aircraft carriers, with its forces able to muster 11 nuclear-powered vessels. The Navy also has nine amphibious assault ships, which can carry helicopters and vertical take-off fighter jets as well, an Associated Press report said.
