China is rapidly expanding its global power-projection capabilities, and perhaps even more concerning to the Pentagon is the very visible extent to which China’s third Fujian aircraft carrier appears to replicate or simply copy elements of the US Navy’s Ford-class carriers. Building upon the success of its third carrier, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is also underway with a fourth carrier, a first-of-its-kind massive “supercarrier” designed to carry more attack aircraft than the world has ever seen on a single ship. With the Fujian, China has abandoned a ski-jump configuration and instead moved toward a large, flat-deck design similar to the US Navy’s Ford-class.
Author: 1945
Published at: 2026-02-16 20:46:46
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