China, which boasts of the largest navy in the world, appears to be further strengthening its position as a powerful force by building a huge nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, a report by NBC News revealed.
Analysis of the images from China’s Dalian shipbuilding facility indicates that Beijing is building an aircraft carrier that can rival the US Navy's newest and most advanced aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford.
The report in NBC News suggests that the new ship will have the ability to launch four fighter jets, making it more capable than the current aircraft carriers of China which an launch jets from only three parts.
The US has 11 supercarriers that can launch fighter jets from four places.
Michael Duitsman, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, has been quoted as saying, "We think this is them testing equipment and layouts for the upcoming Type 04 carrier."
This would mean that the carrier will have to be bigger than Fujian, which is China's third aircraft carrier and the first of the Type 003 class.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said the country's national defense policy is “purely defensive in nature” while refusing to acknowledge the development of a new supercarrier.
China already has three aircraft carriers—Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian. While the first two are active, the third one is yet to be commissioned. While Liaoning is a Soviet-era carrier, refitted and commissioned by China in 2012, Shandong is China's first domestically built carrier, commissioned in 2019.
