China Just Beat the U.S. Navy to Integrate Stealth Fighters Onto a Next Generation EMALS Aircraft Carrier

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has been confirmed to have become the first service in the world to integrate fifth generation fighter aircraft onto a next generation aircraft carrier with electromagnetic catapult launch systems. The service recently released footage of its first supercarrier, the Fujian, launching a wide range of aircraft from its deck, including the first filmed carrier takeoffs of the J-35. The Fujian is currently one of just two ships with an electromagnetic catapult launch system (EMALS) alongside the U.S. Navy’s most capable carrier the USS Gerald Ford, with parallel efforts having been made in the United States to integrate the country’s own first carrier based stealth fighter, the F-35C, with the warship’s new launch system. Prior American carriers used simpler steam catapult systems, while China’s two previous carrier the Liaoning and Shandong used no catapult systems, relying solely on the thrust generated by fighters’ own engines for launch.

Efforts by the U.S. Navy and defence sector to integrate the F-35C with EMALS date back to the early 2010s, before China had commissioned its first carrier, the Liaoning, into service for training purposes. Like many aspects of the F-35 program, repeated major delays to progress allowed China to effectively bridge the capability gap with American fighter aviation, resulting in what would have a decade ago been an unthinkable achievement as the country’s rival carrier based stealth fighter is ready for operations from a next generation carrier before the F-35C. This has reflected broader trends in the competition between the two states’ defence sectors, with China having brought its first fifth generation fighter the J-20 into service just six years after its first flight, while American fifth generation fighters required 15 years. This has allowed China’s sixth generation fighter programs to now gain leads of several years over the much delayed rival American F-47 and F/A-XX programs.

Electromagnetic catapult launch systems provide significantly more energy to the aircraft taking off from carrier decks than any alternative launch system, which reduces strain on their engines, and allows for takeoffs with significantly higher fuel and weapons payloads. Compared to steam systems, they also take up significantly less space within the ships. The J-35 is China’s second class of fifth generation fighter to have entered service following, and currently serves in both the PLA Navy and in the Air Force. Two weeks after the release of the first images confirming the ships were operational in the Air Force, the Navy in mid-July released the first images confirming that carrier based variants had also become operational. The fighters are considered to have comparably sophisticated avionics and stealth capabilities to the J-20 and F-35, while being larger, faster, and having longer ranges and larger sensor suites than their American counterparts. It remains uncertain whether J-35s will be procured by the PLA Navy solely for carrier operations, or whether they may also be procured to operate from land bases to replace older aircraft such as the Su-30MK2.