In Hainan province, South China, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) commissioned its Fujian aircraft carrier on 5 November, the third vessel in the Type-003 class, but the first to integrate electromagnetic air launch system (EMALS) catapults.
President Xi Jinping, China’s political and military leader, boarded the carrier, now in active service for the first time, to inspect the vessel after the commissioning ceremony.
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Fujian was launched in June 2022 and completed its maiden sea trial in May 2024.
Final “experimental tests” were undertaken in September 2025 with the aim of assessing the performance of new and unspecified system upgrades, at which point the ~800,000 tonne warship passed through the contested Taiwan Strait.
EMALS catapults
In particular, on 22 September, the PLAN announced that the carrier is capable of launching and recovering three navalised aircraft types, namely the fourth and fifth generation J-15T and J-35 fighter jets as well as the KongJing-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft.
China is now the second nation, after the US’s Gerald R. Ford Class carriers, to integrate an EMALS catapult and recovery system. EMALS uses a linear motion motor powered by electricity to accelerate aircraft. This contrasts with steam-powered launch systems, for example, which requires a large steam boiler.
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By GlobalDataHowever, it was widely reported at the end of October that President Donald Trump intends to issue an executive order to replace the EMALS with steam catapults, a 70-year-old technology, reviving an enduring complaint from the leader.
Non-EMALS carriers
Meanwhile, in April, the PLAN particpated in a multi-domain encirclement and blockade of Taiwan, the self-governed democracy 100 miles off its coast. While the Fujian was conducting tests separately at the time, the service deployed the Shandong, a Type-002 aircraft carrier commissioned in 2019 and is China’s first domestically built carrier.
In July 2025, Chinese state media reported that the Shandong can manage nearly 10,000 sorties of various types of aircraft over five years. However; the report suggested that it can handle more than 50 per day. Meanwhile, the US Navy’s Nimitz Class carriers (a steam-powered catapult system) are said to conduct 120 sorties per day in sustained operations.
On the other hand, the Shandong utilises a ski-jump launch system which, it should be noted, limits the fuel and weapons load of the launched aircraft, thus reducing the combat effect and range of Type-002 operations.
