China launched a new aircraft carrier on Friday, the first to be designed and built in the country.
The Type 003 carrier, named Fujian, left its dry dock at a shipyard outside Shanghai in the morning and tied up at a nearby pier, state media said.
Footage aired on state broadcaster CCTV showed a large celebration featuring hundreds of navy personnel and water streamers.
China’s first carrier was a repurposed Soviet ship and its second was built in China but based on a Soviet design. Both were built to employ a so-called ski-jump launch method for aircraft, with a ramp at the end of the short runway to help planes take off.
The Type 003 employs a catapult launch, which experts had said appears to be an electromagnetic-type system like one originally developed by the US Navy.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency confirmed the Fujian employed the electromagnetic system in a report on Friday’s launch.
Such a system puts less stress on the aircraft than older steam-type catapult launch systems and the use of a catapult means that the ship will be able to launch a broader variety of aircraft, which is necessary for China to be able to project naval power at a greater range, Ridzwan Rahmat, an analyst with the defence intelligence company Janes, told Associated Press
“This is an important milestone for China’s military-industrial complex,” Mr Rahmat said.
“This shows that Chinese engineers are now able to indigenously manufacture the full suite of surface combatants associated with modern naval warfare, including corvettes, frigates, destroyers, amphibious assault ships and now an aircraft carrier.
“This ability to construct a very complex warship from the ground up will inevitably result in various spin-offs and benefits for the Chinese shipbuilding industry.”
Fujian’s launch is believed to have been postponed twice. Initially, the launch date was scheduled for April 23, but the Chinese navy delayed the event amid logistical problems arising from the country’s surge in Covid-19 cases and a lockdown in Shanghai.
The second launch date is believed to have originally been set for June 3, to coincide with China’s Dragon Boat Festival, but it is unknown why the launch never happened.
Once the warship sets sail, it will need five years to reach initial operational capabilities to thoroughly test all of its satellite communications, drainage system and other equipment on board, Zhou Chenming, a researcher at the Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank in Beijing, told The South China Morning Post.
The launch comes as the Chinese military has been taking increasingly assertive actions in Asia.
This month, both Australia and Canada reported close encounters with Chinese military jets. China denied these claims, while saying that “no country is allowed to infringe upon China’s sovereignty and security”.
Bloomberg contributed to this report
