After delays due to the impact of Covid-19 on the workforce and with the intensification of Washington’s geopolitical dispute with Beijing, China has accelerated the construction of its third aircraft carrier and prepares the launch for tests at sea.
The Jiangsu, assumed baptismal name since its brothers were named in honor of the Chinese coastal provinces, may leave the dock in Shanghai as early as next Friday (3), according to signs picked up by the local press.
The Maritime Authority at the Jiangnan shipyard on the island of Chagnxing has blocked maritime traffic at the point where the ship is being built, according to the South China Morning Post. Three tugs and two rescue vessels are deployed to operate in the area, which suggests the launch.
The new ship differs greatly from its two predecessors. The first Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was launched in 2012. It is a Soviet ship that was docked in Ukraine and was completed in China, serving as a test tube for the Chinese adaptation to the use of this type of vessel.
The second, the Shandong, is already a Chinese project, copying the Soviet design famous for its launch pad. He went to sea in 2019, at a time of fierce competition with the US and its allies in the scope of the Cold War 2.0 between Washington and Beijing, which today encompasses the Chinese attempt to build bases in the South Pacific to the Ukraine War.
But the Jiangsu, if the name of the so-called Type 3 is the same, brings technological solutions only seen in western models, such as electromagnetic catapults and a flat deck, without a ramp to help launch the heavy J-15 fighters, copies of the Su- 33 Russian. The country is also developing the FC-31, a lighter advanced fighter, for naval use.
There are no technical specifications available, but the ship should be similar in size to its predecessors, displacing around 60,000 tons and with around 50 aircraft. The giants that dominate the field, the ten ships of the American Nimitz class and the first of the successor Gerald Ford, displace 100 thousand tons and carry more than 90 planes and helicopters.
According to the South China Morning Post, the military says everything is ready for the slide into the sea and the start of tests on Friday. The date is not casual, it is the traditional Dragon Boat Festival, when typical boats with the head of the mythological animal compete in rivers and sea events to, among other things, ward off the bad luck associated with the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar.
Once at sea, the Jiangsu will be tested until so-called commissioning, when it enters initial operational capacity upon delivery to the Navy. To reach full status, its immediate predecessor took about a year and China’s first ship of its type took six.
Beijing plans a fleet of perhaps seven aircraft carriers to protect its strategic backyard, vital for including the sea lanes that secure its position as the world’s second economy. In the future, perhaps, project even more power beyond that closest perimeter, which includes the disputed South China Sea.
The Chinese evolution at sea is one of the engines behind the progressive increase in American assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, establishing a military pact with Australia and the United Kingdom and reinventing the Quad group, with Japanese, Indians and Australians, with an alliance aimed at strategically containing Beijing.
The atmosphere is tense. Ever since China’s biggest ally, Vladimir Putin’s Russia, invaded Ukraine, the US and Quad allies have been warning Beijing not to dare to do the same to Taiwan.
The Chinese response came during Joe Biden’s visit to Japan and South Korea last week: a joint patrol with Russian nuclear bombers, a mobilization exercise near the island that the dictatorship considers a rebel province and a 30-year mega-incursion. planes against their air defenses.
The US has invested heavily in ties with Japan, which now openly supports the US policy of defending Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, and with Australia – with whom it will develop nuclear submarines and hypersonic missiles.
A more traditional ally, the United Kingdom, was already giving clear signals against China. Appealing to its past as a great maritime power, since 2019 it has put two very modern aircraft carriers in operation, for the skepticism about the sustainability of the claim. The rookie, the Queen Elizabeth, sailed through the contested South China Sea last year.
With all this, China is in a hurry. Its three models are conventional, powered by steam turbines. But military analysts say a fourth aircraft carrier is already under construction in secret, and with nuclear propulsion – which would put the country in the club that today only has the US and France.
The advantage of these models is the almost infinite autonomy, being able to stay at sea for 50 years with just one recharge of nuclear fuel for their reactors. Today, only ten countries operate aircraft carriers, not considering the helicopter carriers, which are increasingly seen as platforms for American F-35B vertical take-off fighter jets.
After years struggling to keep its obsolete models on the water, Brazil, which had two aircraft carriers, has given up on the model for the time being and now has a more effective British helicopter carrier, the Atlantic, as its flagship. The Navy’s biggest focus is on the nuclear submarine.
