Prasun K. Sengupta

China on June 17, launched its third and most advanced aircraft carrier from Shanghai’s Jiangnan Shipyard (located on Changxing Island). Named ‘Fujian’, the 80,000-ton vessel is China’s first domestically designed and built catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) aircraft carrier that also hosts an electromagnetic catapult-assisted launch system that comprises three separate launch-rails.

Fujian CATOBAR aircraft carrier

China’s first aircraft carrier, the 60,900-ton Liaoning CV-16, was an unfinished Soviet-era vessel that Beijing bought from Ukraine in 1998, updated by the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC) and finally commissioned on 25 September 2012. The second aircraft carrier, a replica of the Liaoning, was the Shandong CV-17, which was laid down in March 2015 and launched on 26 April 2017. The fitting out was completed on 25 April 2018. It was commissioned on 17 December 2019. Both the Liaoning and Shandong have a top-deck designed for short take-off but arrested recovery (STOBAR) flight operations.

The Fujian’s keel was laid in March 2015. The various block modules were moved from the manufacturing facility to the staging area in May 2020, and into the dry-dock in July 2020. Almost all of the keel and base hull-blocks were in the dry-dock by early September 2020; with the foremost part of the bow missing at that time. Superstructure measurem