[Jimbuna]

China's nuclear carrier ambitions set to shift global naval power

China is consistently strengthening its navy. The plan to build a large nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is getting closer to realisation. Satellite images reveal that a prototype reactor is already ready.

Only two countries in the world currently operate nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The United States has 11 such carriers (Nimitz-class, gradually being replaced by the Gerald R. Ford class), and France has one, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier.

Construction of the successor to the latter – the aircraft carrier provisionally named PANG (porte-avions de nouvelle génération, French for new-generation aircraft carrier) – has already begun.

The American and French aircraft carriers, apart from being equipped with nuclear power plants, are also CATOBAR class vessels – where planes launch from them using catapults and land with the help of arresting cables. This solution provides aircraft carriers with the largest combat capabilities.

China currently operates three aircraft carriers – Liaoning, Shandong, and Fujian (which is undergoing sea trials). The newest and largest, displacing about 89,000 tonnes, Fujian is also a CATOBAR class vessel, but – unlike the American and French counterparts – has conventional propulsion.

Beijing's plan anticipates that only the fourth, currently under construction, 004 carrier, will have nuclear propulsion.

Information about this vessel began to surface around 2018. The China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, responsible for its construction, revealed at that time that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would join the list of ships built by this company, and one of the industry services reported on the commencement of steel cutting for the hull of the new large vessel.

According to publicly available information, the new aircraft carrier is expected to displace over 123,000 tonnes – slightly more than American supercarriers, which will give the Chinese vessel the first place among the largest warships in the world.

For years, work on the 004 type aircraft carrier – due to the lack of specific, official information – was the basis for numerous guesses and speculations. It seems that the situation has changed due to a recent discovery made by a team from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...1fe4bd68&ei=69