Chinese social media has revealed a series of images of the Type 003 aircraft carrier, which is said to have been taken at the Jiangnan shipyard recently
Accordingly, it is easy to see that China is building the Type 003 aircraft carrier in a modular form, these modules will be assembled together when completing each part. Compared with the previous two aircraft carriers of the Chinese Navy, the third aircraft carrier has a much larger overall length, up to 300 meters, with a maximum displacement of up to 85,000 tons.
The superstructure system of the ship is also being completed rough. It is likely that the Type 003 will only have a single superstructure, similar to the US and French aircraft carriers. The original design of the Type 003 is said to have been planned decades ago. It will be equipped with an electric propulsion and EM catapults, which has been tested by the Chinese navy since 2012.
The fact that China’s Type 003 aircraft carrier is gradually being completed, the shipyard is located in the open air, so one thing is for sure, Russia and the US have collected enough images of this aircraft carrier. Perhaps this is also the reason that many people believe that the public images of this aircraft carrier are intentional by the country’s military, not by accident.
In the past, when starting the construction of the third aircraft carrier, Jiangnan shipyard had a very carefully shielded factory system. However, its size is getting bigger and bigger, making it impossible to hide any more. Currently, the People’s Liberation Army Navy owns two aircraft carriers, all of which are old-fashioned designs with ski jumps structures, and with a displacement of only about 45,000 tons.
Of the two Liaoning and Shandong, only the Shandong has real combat capability. The other, the Liaoning, is mainly used for training missions. Their weakness is the classic take-off system, which does not allow Chinese fighters to take off with maximum payload, greatly affecting the combat ability of these fighters. With the new generation catapult system on the Type 003, the combat capability of China’s aircraft carrier-based fighters will be formidable.
