China’s Fujian Aircraft Carrier Commissioned Becomes U.S. Toughest Naval Adversary in Pacific.

China has officially commissioned its newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, Fujian, at Shanghai’s Jiangnan shipyard. The move marks a turning point in the PLAN’s evolution toward true blue-water capability, narrowing the technological gap with U.S. naval aviation.

China formally entered a new era of carrier aviation on November 6, 2025, as the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) commissioned the aircraft carrier Fujian in a ceremony at Shanghai’s Jiangnan shipyard. State broadcaster CCTV framed the event, marking the transition from experimental carrier operations to sustained sea-based power projection. The 80,000-ton warship, designated Type 003, is China’s first carrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults, a capability previously fielded only by the U.S. Navy. The Fujian aircraft carrier was seen exercising these past few months, but its commission is the official confirmation that the carrier is now operational within the Chinese Navy. The presence of the Chinese President Xi Jinping underlines the importance of the moment for the country, and notably its naval ambitions in the South China Sea.
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China's new aircraft carrier Fujian features electromagnetic catapults, an angled flight deck, and space for about 60 aircraft, including stealth J-35 fighters and KJ-600 early-warning planes, marking its first true blue, water combat carrier (Picture source; Chinese TV channel).

Fujian, known in open sources as Type 003, introduces China’s first CATOBAR deck with three electromagnetic catapults and an angled landing area, a step change from the ski-jump architecture of Liaoning and Shandong. PLAN-released imagery in September showed catapult launches and arrested recoveries by the stealthy J-35 fighter and the KJ-600 airborne early warning aircraft during carrier trials, confirming core aviation systems before today’s commissioning. China now joins the United States as the only navies operating EM catapults at sea, a status that sharply narrows a once-vast qualitative gap.

Fujian is assessed at roughly 80,000 to 85,000 tons full load, larger than the UK’s Queen Elizabeth class and France’s Charles de Gaulle but smaller than the U.S. Ford class, near 100,000 tons. The flight deck integrates three roughly 90-meter catapults, two starboard aircraft elevators, and an enlarged hangar, design choices that enable heavier takeoff weights and faster deck cycles. The ship’s aviation complex has already demonstrated operations with J-35 and J-15T multirole fighters and the KJ-600, an AEW platform comparable in concept to the U.S. E-2D. These components, validated across 2025 sea trials, define the carrier’s combat potential.

The catapults matter because they unlock a true fixed-wing AEW orbit and fighters launching at combat loads. A KJ-600 patrolling at range extends the strike group’s radar horizon and command network, closing a critical gap that forced China’s first two carriers to rely on less capable helicopter AEW. As the air wing matures, analysts expect 60 or more aircraft, mixing J-35s for air dominance and strike, J-15T for multirole missions, KJ-600 for battle management, and helicopters for ASW and SAR. That package positions Fujian to generate sustained combat air patrols and long-range maritime strike against surface threats.

Fujian will anchor carrier strike groups built around Type 055 cruisers for area air defense and long-range fires, Type 052D destroyers for additional air and missile defense, and Type 901 fast combat support ships to sustain high-tempo operations at a distance. Under that umbrella, a Fujian-centered group can secure airspace over key South China Sea approaches, push protective cover into the Philippine Sea, and extend China’s coastal anti-ship missile envelope seaward. Dual-carrier operations rehearsed in 2024 and sustained in mid-2025 show the PLAN learning to coordinate complex formations, a prerequisite for reliable presence beyond the first island chain.

In a Taiwan contingency, Fujian would support layered combat air patrols, maritime interdiction, and precision strike while KJ-600s knit together a crowded battlespace. The effect would be to complicate U.S. and allied air operations across the strait and through key gaps in the first island chain, raising the cost of intervention and creating windows of local sea and air control favorable to amphibious or blockade options. Recent two-carrier deployments into the Philippine Sea underscore how Beijing intends to normalize such a presence in crisis and in peacetime.

The commissioning reflects the evolution from Near Seas Defense to Far Seas Protection, a doctrinal shift that couples home-waters denial with sustained blue-water presence. Fujian gives Beijing the ability to rotate a two-carrier posture while a third unit cycles through maintenance, enabling persistent patrols, deterrence cruises, and rapid surge capacity. The hardware is only part of the story, however, because the decisive variable will be training tempo, deck cycle discipline, and integration with long-range land-based fires and space-cyber enablers.

Against competitors, Fujian sits between Europe’s conventional decks and America’s nuclear supercarriers. The U.S. Ford class fields four EM catapults and an integrated power system that targets 160 sorties per day in sustained flight operations, a level China will be hard-pressed to match initially. Fujian’s conventional propulsion likely constrains endurance and electrical margins compared to nuclear carriers, and the U.S. retains qualitative advantages in the E-2D battle management ecosystem and decades of deck handling culture across 11 carriers. Yet the gap is narrowing, and a competent J-35 and KJ-600 team on Fujian will force regional planners to treat PLAN carrier air wings as credible combat systems, not demonstrations.

The benchmark remains the U.S. fleet of nuclear supercarriers, with the Ford class fielding four EMALS catapults and a design goal of roughly 160 sustained daily sorties, backed by an E-2D ecosystem and a global logistics network across 11 carriers that China cannot yet match in endurance or experience. France sits behind the United States in capability but ahead of Europe’s others, operating the nuclear Charles de Gaulle with steam catapults, Rafale M strike fighters, and E-2C AEW that remain a gold standard for compact CATOBAR operations. The United Kingdom’s two 65,000-ton Queen Elizabeth class project credible air power with F-35B but rely on Merlin Crowsnest helicopters for surveillance, a limitation in range and radar horizon compared with fixed-wing AEW now enabled on Fujian. India’s Vikrant and Vikramaditya and Japan’s modified Izumo-class provide important regional air wings through ski-jump or STOVL concepts, yet neither field catapults or fixed-wing AEW comparable to China’s KJ-600. In effect, Fujian vaults China to second place in carrier aviation depth behind the United States by pairing EM catapults with J-35 and KJ-600 potential, though conventional propulsion and a nascent deck-handling culture temper its ability to sustain Ford-class–level surge operations far from home waters.

The industrial and training ecosystem behind Fujian matters as much as the ship. Jiangnan Shipyard and CSSC have compressed build and fitting-out timelines, while PLAN carrier aviation units have expanded training pipelines and at-sea workups to accelerate air wing readiness. With escorts, logistics ships, and a growing habit of far-sea deployments, the PLAN is assembling the connective tissue of a blue-water fleet that can operate at a distance for sustained periods rather than episodic forays.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.