China’s aircraft carrier fleet

China has launched its third aircraft carrier, the domestically designed and built Fujian, an advanced Type 003 ship featuring a full-length flight deck with a catapult launch system


Type 003: Will use CATOBAR* electro- magnetic launch system

CATOBAR: Enables launch of bigger fixed-wing aircraft with heavier payloads and more fuel


Catapults (x3)

Length: 320m

*Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery

Island

Elevators (x2): Move aircraft between hangar and flight deck
 
1 2 3

Beam: 78m 

Island: Command centre for flight deck and ship operations


2019: Type 001A Shandong commissioned. China’s first indigenously-built aircraft carrier

Length: 305m

Ski-jump: 12-degree ramp assists take-off, but aircraft cannot launch carrying full fuel and weapon load

Displacement: 70,000 tonnes

Speed: 31 knots (57km/h) 

Crew: 2,250 (est)


2012: Liaoning commissioned. China’s first aircraft carrier built using hull of Soviet-era carrier

Length: 300m 

Flight deck: 14,700 sq m (80 percent size of U.S. Nimitz-class carrier)

Displacement: 66,000 tonnes

Speed: 29 knots (53km/h) 
Crew: 1,960


Sources: Bloomberg, Center for Strategic & International Studies, Reuters 
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