China Navy’s Largest Warship Fujian Features 3 Electromagnetic Aircraft Catapults

The People’s Liberation Army Navy has achieved a milestone with the deployment of its largest warship, the Type 003 aircraft carrier, Fujian. With a length of 316 metres and a displacement between 80,000 and 85,000 tonnes, the carrier features three electromagnetic catapults on its flight deck.

For decades, China did not have any aircraft carriers, and when its navy began to modernise in the 1990s, it bought a half-completed Soviet Ship from Ukraine and rebuilt it into its first carrier, the Liaoning.

China then went on to build a second carrier, the Shandong, which was also based on the Soviet design. However, while these ships helped the Chinese sailors to learn how to operate a carrier and launch aircraft from its decks, both had a limitation, i.e a ski-jump ramp at the bow which helped launch the jets.

Since planes launch using their engines, they have to take off very light, reducing the number of weapons and fuel they could carry, which restricted the time they could spend in the air, as they had to come back to refuel and equip themselves with ammunition when needed.

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