China’s Navy Brings First Supercarrier Into Active Service: Fujian’s Commissioning a Turning Point in Carrier Program

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy has formally commissioned the country’s first supercarrier, the Fujian, into active service, marking a major milestone in the modernisation of the service’s long range power projection capabilities. The Fujian is China’s third aircraft carrier capable of accommodating fighter aircraft, and is the first warship outside the U.S. Navy with an electromagnetic catapult launch system, which allows it to launch aircraft with significantly greater weights. The warship has a significantly larger and more complex air wing than other non-U.S. carriers, and has three runways allowing it to launch sorties at approximately triple the rates of other ships.

Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the commissioning ceremony for the aircraft at a military port in Sanya on Hainan island, which was attended by over 2,000 navy and aircraft carrier construction personnel. President Xi toured the vessel, inspecting the mess hall and giving a trial press of the ship’s catapult button. The new J-35 and J-15T fighters and KJ-600 airborne early warning and control system, which were all developed specifically for the carrier, were displayed in launch positions.

At 85,000 tons, the Fujian is the first aircraft carrier since the Second World War that can challenge the capabilities of the U.S. Navy’s most capable carriers. Nevertheless, its design appears to be a stopgap before shipyards begin producing an even larger type of ship with nuclear propulsion systems and displacements of well over 100,000 tons, the first of which is already under construction. The Fujian was built at the Jiangnan Shipyard, and was launched in June 2022. Three years later in early June 2025 the ship began testing its electromagnetic catapult system at sea. The new carrier passed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time sailedin September, in what was widely regarded as a significant show of force, before sailing into the South China Sea for training an research trials.

The Fujian is the first aircraft carrier in the world to integrate stealth fighters with electromagnetic catapult launch systems, providing its air wing of J-35 fighters with a distinct edge, largely due to major delays in the U.S. Navy integrating the F-35C with its Gerald Ford class carriers’ own launch systems. While China appears poised to lead the United States by several years in fielding the world’s first sixth generation fighter aircraft, it could be over a decade ahead in fielding a sixth generation carrier based fighter due to the deep cuts being made to the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX program to develop such an aircraft. The Fujian is thus likely to be the first aircraft carrier in the world to integrate sixth generation fighter aircraft into its air wing, which would provide a significant advantage over U.S. carrier strike groups, and moreso over the much less capable carrier groups of other navies.