China has now formally commissioned its first catapult-equipped aircraft carrier, the Fujian, into service. The commissioning ceremony put particular emphasis on the ship’s electromagnetically-powered catapults, with President Xi Jinping shown pressing the launch button inside the control ‘bubble’ built into the flight deck. This all notably comes after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged last week to sign an executive order that would compel the U.S. Navy to go back to using steam-powered catapults on future carriers.
Fujian’s commissioning ceremony took place at the naval port in Sanya on the island of Hainan on November 5, according to a press release the Chinese Ministry of Defense put out today. Examples of the key aircraft in the carrier’s air wing – J-35 and J-15 fighters, the KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft, and the Z-20F helicopter – were displayed on the flight deck during the event. The conventionally-powered Fujian was launched in 2022 and has conducted multiple sea trials since 2024, including a major demonstration of its ability to launch and recover aircraft back in September.
There had already been signs earlier this week that Fujian, which has received the hull number 18, had officially entered operational service. China’s newest carrier had been in port in Sanya for more than a month. It had also been sharing a pier with the Shandong, one of the other two aircraft carriers in the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) inventory. The Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier, and Shandong are both short take-off, but arrested recovery (STOBAR) types with ski jump bows instead of catapults.
As has been made clear, Fujian‘s electromagnetic catapults, also referred to as an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), are an especially significant feature of the carrier’s design. There is currently only one other flattop in service globally with an EMALS, the U.S. Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford, which we will come back to later on.
With Fujian, China has skipped over carriers with steam-powered catapults entirely, a decision the country’s Ministry of National Defense has now said was directed by President Xi himself. Steam has been the default for powering catapults on aircraft carriers equipped with them for decades. As noted, Xi was given the opportunity to press the launch button inside the carrier catapult control ‘bubble,’ though no actual aircraft left the ship’s deck during the in-port ceremony.
In principle, an EMALS offers significant advantages over steam when it comes to sortie generation rates. The amount of force electromagnetic catapults exert on the aircraft they launch can also be more finely tuned, increasing the range of types they can accommodate, helping to reduce general wear and tear, and providing additional safety margins. The ability of an EMALS to launch smaller and more fragile designs is seen as particularly critical to opening the door to future carrier-based drone operations, something the PLAN is very actively pursuing. The video clip in the social media post below looks to highlight all of this to a degree by showing how fast and smoothly the catapult shuttles on Fujian can decelerate after being engaged.
At the same time, the U.S. experience with EMALS technology on the USS Gerald R. Ford has shown it to be hard to master. The carrier’s catapults, as well as the companion electronically-controlled Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), have struggled with technical and reliability issues over the years. The ship also has electromagnetically powered elevators for moving munitions and other stores between its magazines and the flight deck, which were plagued with problems in the past. The Navy says it has mitigated the issues with Ford‘s catapults, arresting gear, and elevators, but official details regarding operations as recently as last year highlight continued difficulties. Other elements of the carrier’s design, especially its Dual Band Radar (DBR) system, have faced challenges, as well. Future Ford class carriers will notably feature an entirely new main radar configuration.
During a speech last month, U.S. President Donald Trump assailed the Navy over issues with Ford’s catapult and elevators. He promised to sign an executive order compelling the service to go back to using steam-powered catapults and hydraulic elevators. Though that order has yet to materialize, Trump has been outspoken about the catapult elevator issues with the Ford class on multiple occasions in the past, and has taken a very active role in U.S. naval planning and ship design, as you can read more about here.
This all stands in stark contrast to the developments in China, especially so now, with authorities in the country having said President Xi was personally responsible for the EMALS capabilities on Fujian. The new supersized Type 076 amphibious assault ship for the PLAN also has a single catapult that is understood to be an EMALS type. Other countries are also looking ahead at equipping future carriers and big deck amphibious vessels with electromagnetic catapults.
For China, Fujian, which is now officially in operational service, has long been a very significant development, well beyond the design of its catapults. Its carrier air wing is set to offer a host of new naval aviation capabilities, especially with the introduction of the J-35 naval stealth fighter and the KJ-600. The J-35 and KJ-600 were heavily showcased during the most recent round of sea trials, as seen in the videos below.
All three of the PLAN’s aircraft carriers form a centerpiece of a massive naval modernization push that traces back to the 1990s. In addition to offering new ways to project power regionally, including as part of any future intervention against Taiwan, the flattops enable longer-range blue water operations in the Pacific and beyond. The PLAN capabilities and capacity also continue to grow thanks to a still-expanding array of larger and otherwise modern surface combatants and submarines, all being churned out by a naval shipbuilding sector that notably dwarfs that of the United States.
Fujian is also China’s first carrier that is not based on a Soviet design, which is a point of national pride. Liaoning was originally laid down in the Soviet Union as the planned sister ship to the long-troubled Admiral Kuznetsov. Work on the ship came to a halt with the fall of the Soviet Union. The government of the newly independent country of Ukraine subsequently came into possession of the incomplete Kuznetsov class carrier and ultimately sold it to Chinese buyers. There had been speculation that the ship would be turned into a floating hotel or amusement park, something that did happen in China with other ex-Soviet aircraft carriers, before it became clear that the PLAN intended to put it into operational service. The Shandong, which was entirely built in China, was derived from the Liaoning‘s design.
China is already reportedly working on another even more capable carrier, commonly referred to now as the Type 004, which may be nuclear-powered. Renderings related to that design that have emerged in the past have shown similarities to the Ford class, as well as France’s future New Generation Aircraft Carrier, both of which are nuclear-powered.
Altogether, Fujian‘s commissioning is another important step forward for China’s carrier force and its larger naval modernization plans. The heavy focus on its EMALs catapults could have additional ramifications for global carrier developments, including in the United States.
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