China Plans on Building Two More Aircraft Carriers

Sept. 13, 2020 (EIRNS)—China is planning on building two new aircraft carriers, says Li Jie, a Beijing-based senior researcher at the Naval Military Studies Research Institute of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), one of which will be the first to have a catapult take-off system. The designer of China’s second aircraft carrier, Zhu Yingfu, is in favor of an electromagnetic catapult system rather than a steam-powered system. All four of these carriers are envisioned to be conventionally powered, although naval chiefs are considering the possibility of a nuclear-powered carrier in the future.

This was the first official confirmation of a project which has already much discussed in the media and was a heated topic in the Pentagon’s “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2020.” Four carriers will give China the possibility of forming two dual carrier groups able to operate in separate places.