China hints its fourth aircraft carrier will be nuclear-powered

Beijing: A latest video released by the Chinese navy highlighting China’s blue-water naval ambitions has sparked speculation that its fourth aircraft carrier currently being built will be a nuclear-powered one.

The video film ‘Into The Deep’ was released on Wednesday to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army Navy showcased Chinese navy’s transition from maritime ambitions and coastal defences.

The video also highlighted China’s “blue-water” navy capable of deep-sea operations, including footage from real-life drills in the western Pacific far from home and the use of advanced equipment.

It also showed a compass being handed down through generations of naval officers named after the three aircraft carriers Liao Ning, Shan Dong, and Fu Jian currently in operation.

But a fourth character was named He Jian, hinting that it could be a nuclear-powered ship because “He” sounds like the Chinese word for “nuclear” and “Jian” is the word for a “ship”, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

China has not officially confirmed or denied that a new carrier is being built, but satellite images taken over the past couple of years indicate that a large vessel is under construction at a shipyard in Dalian, a city in the northeast of the country.

The images suggest the ship is of a similar size to America’s nuclear-powered Gerald R. Ford-class carriers, heightening speculation about whether a similar propulsion method will be used.

In a further clue, pictures of the ship taken in February also showed structures that looked like nuclear reactor containment vessels, the Post report said.

Last November, China commissioned its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, stated to be the most modern warship equipped with electromagnetic catapults, at a ceremony attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Fujian is equipped with an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) used only by the American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford.

China was the last among the major countries to opt for aircraft carriers for its navy, years after the Indian navy began operating them.

China's first carrier, the Liaoning, a refit of the Soviet-era ship, was commissioned in 2012, followed by Shandong, an indigenously built one in 2019.

Fujian has been commissioned after the military said carrier-based aircraft J-15T, J-35 and KongJing-600 have successfully completed catapult-assisted take-off and arrested landing training on its flat deck.      All three carriers are conventionally powered. Fujian is the largest among them with a displacement of 80,000 tonnes.  Analysts say that with tensions on the rise with the US, China may build more aircraft carriers to operate in various global maritime routes.

With the operationalisation of Fujian, China may also extend the deployment of aircraft carriers in India’s backyard, the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, where its naval fleet is active with bases in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa and Pakistan's Gwadar, besides the commercial port, Hambantota in Sri Lanka, which China acquired as a debt swap.

According to recent reports, the Chinese navy now has the world's largest operating fleet of 234 warships compared to the US Navy's 219.

However, the US Navy retains its dominance with 11 aircraft carriers, all stated to be nuclear powered.   The Indian Navy, which operates two aircraft carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya, is also catching up by commissioning more naval ships to maintain its dominance in the Indian Ocean.