Chinese Military Progress: Fujian & The Joneses

The Real Questions.

China’s newest carrier is now undergoing sea trials and the whole world is watching. Can China overtake the US as the leading military power? Chinese military progress is always a hot topic so let’s talk about it.

The Fujian

The Fujian, first of the Type 003 carrier class in the PLA Navy is a step forward for the Chinese. It allegedly has 3 electromagnetic catapults and not a ski jump like their last one. 3 catapults makes it so that you’re able to launch 3 aircraft very fast instead of slowly one at time with a ski jump. A ski jump also limits the amount of bombs and missiles each aircraft can carry, because if they’re too heavy then they can’t jump. The new Type 3 Fujian is bigger and can also carry more aircraft than it’s predecessors. But like almost everything the Chinese government does, there’s a catch. The Fujian is allegedly equipped with electromagnetic catapults, the most advanced catapult system in the game, on part with US’s newest Ford class carrier. This is amazing but when you look deeper you realize the Fujian is not nuclear powered it runs on conventional fuel. Conventional power is not quite the standard of a modern carrier, US carriers have been nuclear powered since the 1960s with the USS Enterprise. This begs a question, why would the Chinese not make a nuclear powered carrier?