China has offered a new and closer look at the catapults on its newest aircraft carrier, the Fujian. We also now have what appears to be the first look inside the retractable enclosed control station built into the flight deck that catapult officers on the ship will use to launch planes. The kind of integrated control station is found on U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, where they are commonly called the “bubble,” and the specific design of the one on Fujian is very reminiscent of the one on the USS Gerald R. Ford.
The new views of Fujian‘s flight deck are included in a new People’s LIiberation Army (PLA) promotional video, clips of and screen captures from which began circulating on social media today. The full footage showcases other Chinese military developments, including the WZ-7 Soaring Dragon drone and what looks to be a KVD-002 uncrewed aircraft.
Fujian, which began conducting sea trials earlier this year, is China’s first carrier with Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) configuration. The ship has three catapults, two at the bow end and one off to the port side further back amidships, all of which are electromagnetic in design.
When the newly emerged footage was shot is unclear. As of the beginning of this week, Fujian was still undergoing its fourth sea trial. Satellite imagery appears to have captured the carrier in the Bohai Bay in northeastern China as recently as September 9. Last week, additional images also pointed to Fujian sailing together with the PLA Navy’s (PLAN) other two flattops, the Liaoning and the Shandong.
The new video offers up-close looks at the catapult tracks at the carrier’s bow, as well as the interior and exterior of the catapult launching station. The station itself has a large hexagonal plate on top that sits flush with the rest of the flight deck when it is retracted. This is very similar in form and function to the Integrated Catapult Control System (ICCS) found on the Ford class. U.S. Navy Nimitz class carriers have a retractable ICCS built into their flight decks, as well, but it has no top cover, instead featuring a hatch for catapult officers to get in and out. France’s CATOBAR carrier Charles de Gaulle also has a retractable “bubble” that fits flush on the deck, but is rectangular in shape.
On U.S. Navy flattops, the ICCS is the primary point of control for the ship’s catapults and gives their operators a good all-around view of the flight deck. Backup catapult control systems are found elsewhere on Nimitz and Ford class carriers.
One of the new clips of Fujian shows a catapult officer pressing the launch button from within the control station, but nothing is subsequently shown actually flying off the deck. Live tests of Fujian‘s catapults have occurred using weighted ‘trucks,’ which is a common practice. To date, no images have emerged of aircraft launching from the carrier.
As of the beginning of this week, Fujian was still undergoing its fourth sea trial. Satellite imagery appears to have captured the carrier in the Bohai Bay in northeastern China as recently as September 9. Last week, additional images also pointed to Fujian sailing together with the PLA Navy’s (PLAN) other two flattops, the Liaoning and the Shandong.
Launching an aircraft from Fujian‘s deck will be a major milestone toward getting that ship fully into service and for the PLAN overall. To date, only one carrier, the Ford, has ever gotten aircraft into the air using an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), which remains a relatively new and complex technology. France and India, and potentially the United Kingdom, are looking to field EMALS-equipped carriers in the future. With Fujian, China is also notably going right to electromagnetic catapults without ever having operated a carrier using steam-powered ones.
China is also reportedly at some stage of active development, or even possibly construction, of another new CATOBAR carrier, commonly referred to as the Type 004, which could also be nuclear-powered. Artist’s conceptions of next-generation Chinese carriers, an example of which is seen below, have shown broader similarities to the Ford class design, as well as France’s New Generation Aircraft Carrier, as The War Zone has noted in the past.
The PLAN is also set to receive a number of very large big-deck amphibious assault ships, referred to now as the Type 076, with at least one electromagnetic catapult that is expected to be primarily used to launch drones, as you can read more about here. EMALSs, in general, can be more finely tuned to different aircraft types, especially ones at the smaller and lighter end of the spectrum, than steam-powered types, which offers advantages for safely launching uncrewed platforms. EMALS, which are also less complicated mechanically than their predecessors, have lower reset times that can help increase sortie generation rate.
A demonstration of Fujian‘s catapults with real aircraft will also reflect the significant new training requirements, both for the ship’s crew and China’s naval aviators, that come along with the new carrier. The Liaoning and the Shandong are both short take-off, barrier-arrested recovery (STOBAR) types with ski jumps at their bows instead of catapults.
China has already been using land-based test sites for years to help prepare personnel for future catapult-equipped carrier operations.
Training a new cadre of catapult control officers who will work from within Fujian‘s catapult control “bubble” will be a key part of these ancillary efforts to get the carrier ready for true operational use and for laying the groundwork for operating even more advanced flattops in the future.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com
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