Aircraft Carriers
Fujian 18 Type 003 class fitting out. LOA ca. 1,040′ / 317 m TDISP 85,000 tons. The largest non-US carrier yet. The below view shows this at the Shanghai shipyards (Jiangnan), close to completion and at the earlier stages of mega-block construction. For views of USN supercarriers of similar size being dismantled, see our page. Launched 17 June, 2022. Overall, the deck lines seem most similar to the Kitty Hawk class variant USS John F. Kennedy, CV-67.
Type 002 class (sub-class variant of Soviet/Russian Kusnetsov design) (1 active)
Type 001 class Modified Kuznetsov-Class heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Varyag, left unfinished on the dissolution of the Soviet Union in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. The Ukrainian government sold the derelict “dead” ship to China in 1998 under agreement it would become a floating casino. Instead it was “re-animated” (my term) being rebuilt and converted first to a training carrier, and now an operational carrier.
Liaoning (ex- Varyag) pennant 16 (completed 2012) LOA 1005′ / 306.4 m TDISP 58,000
Carrier deck layout at training facility near Huangjia Lake, SW of Wuhan China. Originally constructed 2009 LOA 1,000′ / 305 m See the Chinese Navy cruisers page for the nearby Type 055 superstructure.
Mock carrier in Shanghai built into a lake LOA 725′ / 221 m reduced layout of what appears to be closer to a US supercarrier.
The Searchers 