The US Navy has always operated at least 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that can launch fixed wing, Conventional Take-Off and Landing (CTOL) aircraft in its fleet. This is the largest number operated by any nation in the world.
No other nation has ever come close to this number in modern times. France is the only other nations having a carrier operating CTOL aircraft and powered by a nuclear reactor, which is the Charles de Gaulle.
Of the nations with non-nuclear carriers, the UK has two that are powered by electric propulsion, Russia with one carrier that is undergoing a re-fit and may never take to sea again and the Indian Navy with two.
And then there is China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Beijing has expended tremendous resources to join the club of nations that have carriers in their fleet and appears to be determined to be the number two in the world, despite entering into the game later than all the others.
China Wants 6 Aircraft Carriers
The story of the first of the PLAN carrier force, the CV 16 Liaoning, reads like a saga from ancient Chinese folklore. It was left idled and unfinished with the collapse of the USSR, and later sold by Ukraine from the Nikolayev shipyards to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
It then underwent a fitting out for years and was launched only in 2012. This compares with other nations that have operated carriers for decades throughout most of the Cold War.
Since that time, the PLAN have developed a process to produce subsequent carrier models in comparatively short order and on a regular schedule. So, just how many carriers does the PLAN intend to have in the future?
The PLAN Objectives Between Now and the 2030s
In 2018, Wang Yunfei, listed as a naval expert and retired PLA Navy officer, told the Chinese state-run Global Times publication that in the future the PLAN would require six aircraft carriers. This was not the number of carriers, however, that would be required to be at sea at any one time.
This number was derived based on the continuous force level needed to carry out missions and ensure an adequate carrier aviation presence at sea. Simultaneously, some number of these ships would be in port undergoing re-fit or repair so that ships could be taken off-station and relieved by another that had just finished its repair cycle in port.
It is not clear if these six will include both of the non-flattop vessels that initially entered the fleet – the CV 16 Liaoning and the CV 17 Shandong.
There has been some speculation the one or both of these two ships would become training platforms and not be part of the operational fleet. In either instance, the figure of six carriers is to be reached by the early 2030s
Wang also told the daily that the PLAN would be building at least two nuclear-powered carriers as part of these six. As previously reported, the PLAN are in the process of building their largest aircraft carrier yet and it will also be the first nuclear-powered carrier in the fleet.
This larger ship is still only in initial phases of construction, but its size would indicate that it could carry in excess of 100 fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. Development of the nuclear reactors that will be used to power the ship has also been seen and verified.
Airpower
Questions still surround the make-up of the carrier air wings. The initial carrier fighter used by the PLAN is the Shenyang J-15, a reverse-engineered copy of the Russian-designed Sukhoi Su-33. It has proven to be too heavy and too large for carrier operations and it was never designed to be launched from a catapult and has had to be modified in order to do so.
The replacement aircraft being validated for maritime operations is another Shenyang product, the J-35B, which appears to be designed for stealth and outwardly bears a close resemblance to the F-35.
The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) steams alongside the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), background, in the Mediterranean Sea, April 24, 2019. The John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 3 and Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12 are conducting dual carrier operations, providing opportunity for two strike groups to work together alongside key allies and partners in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations. John C. Stennis is underway in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group (JCSCSG) deployment in support of maritime security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Grant G. Grady)
APRA HARBOR, Guam (April 18, 2025) Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) arrived in Guam for a scheduled port visit, April 18. Nimitz is underway in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations on a scheduled deployment, demonstrating the U.S. Navy’s unwavering commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy Photos by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Samantha Jetzer)
Aircraft Carrier. Image Credit: U.S. Navy.
However, it is powered by two, lower-thrust engines in the class of the US GE F414 instead of one, larger powerplant as in the case of the F-35.
The J-35 appears to be only slightly smaller than the Chengdu J-20, with an estimated length of about 16.8 meters and a wingspan of around 12 meters with wings extended. The original J-35A design for land operations was also modified with a wing-fold installed to permit moving the aircraft below decks on the carrier elevator and to reduce the on-deck footprint.
Weight estimates are between 17 and 18 tons, with a maximum take-off weight close to 25 tons assuming both a full fuel and weapons load for carrier operations.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
Jim
May 26, 2025 at 10:11 am
An important prong of China’s arms buildup.
Frankly, it’s more than a buildup, China is in an arms race with the U. S., but the American People don’t know the extent and technological ability put forward by China.
Even those assigned the task of watching China’s military buildup have difficulty appreciating how comprehensive this process has been.
At no time since the Rise of West in the last 500 years has China ever been close to taking on the West… and there are factions within China who want to flex their military might and demonstrate their parity, even superiority to the West in the military arena.
And the object of this military contest with the West?
Taiwan.
As Xi, President of China, states in his formal speeches to their rubberstamp legislature, the purpose of the military buildup (arms race) is for the reunification of Taiwan and China… and it will happen.
Xi states it in his understated, Confucius way, but the intent and intensity is clear:
China will go to war against whomever if that power stands in China’s path to reunification. guaranteed.
Taiwan is militarily in China’s ‘wheelhouse’ and is at the outer limits of the United States military effectiveness.
But it is beginning to dawn on many military analysts, here, in the U. S., that a military confrontation against China over Taiwan is a fool’s errand and a suicide mission.
Will the warmongers in Washington realize this in time?
Or take us over the cliff.