The Chinese Ministry of Defense expects to complete scheduled testing and put its new aircraft carrier into service in the near future, said the department's spokesman, Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, Ukrinform reports.
This is China's third and largest aircraft carrier, the Fujian. The country's Defense Ministry noted that sea trials of the ship are currently underway.
In addition, scheduled tests of the electromagnetic catapult were recently completed. During them, the J-15T, J-35 carrier-based fighters and the KongJing-600 early warning and control aircraft successfully took off and landed on board the ship.
"The success of the training demonstrates that Fujian has reliable takeoff and landing capabilities using an electromagnetic catapult. This allows it to accommodate several types of carrier-based aircraft on board and is an important step in the development of Chinese aircraft carrier technology," Zhang Xiaogang said.
Fujian is entirely designed and built in China using purely local technology and component base. The ship will carry up to 50 combat aircraft.
The aforementioned electromagnetic catapult for launching and receiving aircraft is a feature of the aircraft. Given this, the Fujian has a flat take-off deck.
The ship was launched in the summer of 2022. Currently, tests of its engine performance, navigation systems and weapons in the open sea are underway. After the completion of this stage, the aircraft carrier is to be introduced into the combat composition of the Navy. Meanwhile, the exact dates for the completion of testing and the transfer of the ship to the fleet have not been disclosed.
By the way, it was previously reported that China is developing new technologies for tanks and armored vehicles that use augmented reality (AR) headsets. This increases crew awareness and combat capabilities of the equipment.