China’s latest and most capable aircraft carrier has used its new electromagnetic catapult to successfully launch three types of aircraft, according to Chinese state media, which released footage of the launches for the first time to mark the technological breakthrough.
In footage released by state broadcaster CCTV on Monday, China’s fifth-generation J-35 stealth fighter, 4.5-generation J-15T fighter and KJ-600 early warning and control aircraft were seen taking off from the Fujian aircraft carrier using its advanced launching system, also known as EMALS.
State media hailed the tests as another “breakthrough” in China’s aircraft carrier development and a “milestone” in advancing its naval transformation. The development comes as a US Congress delegation is in Beijing for talks aimed at bolstering bilateral exchanges including military-to-military communication, in the first such visit to China in six years.
The successful tests on the Fujian, which included both catapult launch and arrested landing, mean the ship’s commissioning – when it officially enters the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleet – could be only a few weeks away, said analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain.The EMALS system allows carrier aircraft to take off with heavier weapon and fuel loads than those operating off China’s two older carriers, the Shandong and Liaoning, which feature ski-jump-type take-off ramps, enabling Fujian’s aircraft to strike enemy targets from greater distances.
Analysts have said that the Fujian’s ability to launch larger warplanes carrying higher munitions loads to farther distances will give the carrier a greater combat range than its predecessors in the Chinese fleet, providing the PLAN with so-called “blue-water” capabilities.
While the EMALS system puts the Fujian on par with the US Navy’s USS Gerald R Ford – the US Navy’s 10 older carriers, the Nimitz class, rely on steam-powered catapults to launch aircraft – the Chinese carrier is not nuclear powered like all the US carriers.
Source: Here