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Type 004 aircraft carrier
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Type 004 aircraft carrier
The Type 004 aircraft carrier is an upcoming class of supercarriers for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. The yet-unnamed lead ship of the class has been under construction at the Dalian Shipyard since 2024, and is the fourth aircraft carrier of the Chinese aircraft carrier programme and the third to be built indigenously by China. A second ship of the class is reportedly under construction at Jiangnan Shipyard.
Like the proceeding Type 003 carrier Fujian, the Type 004 carriers will be capable of catapult-assisted takeoff but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) operations via the same DC-supercapacitor electromagnetic catapult system jointly developed by the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Unlike the conventionally-powered Fujian, the Type 004 will be much larger and also likely to be the first Chinese surface warship to feature nuclear marine propulsion.
China hoped to complete the carrier by the late 2020s. The US Defense Department stated in their December 2025 China Military Power Report that the PLAN aimed to build six new carriers by 2035, although it did not specify whether these would be Type 004 carriers.
In 2017, the Chinese Central Government was reportedly ready to spend RMB 22 billion (USD$3.3 billion) on the development of two prototype TMSR-LF1 thorium-based molten-salt reactors to be built at Wuwei, Gansu province in northwestern China, aiming to have the reactors operational by 2020.
In December 2023, Jiangnan Shipyard unveiled plans for KUN-24AP, a 24,000 TEU nuclear-powered container ship designed to use Gen IV molten-salt reactors for propulsion. The PLA Navy is interested in the same technology to power large surface warships as part of China's military-civil fusion strategy.[needs update]
The Type 004 could carry a larger complement of fixed-wing and rotorwing carrier-based aircraft than previous Chinese aircraft carriers, including the catapult-ready J-15T and J-35 fighters, Xian KJ-600 AEW&C aircraft, HZ-20 utility/ASW helicopters and stealth attack drones such as the GJ-21.
It was previously suggested that the aircraft carrier might carry J-20 stealth-fighter aircraft. However, in a programme in 2017 on China Central Television, retired PLAN Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong dismissed the possibility that the J-20 aircraft would be used on aircraft carriers as the aircraft was not structurally designed to cope with carrier operations. In addition, the plane does not have folding wings for compact storage, and its stealth coating would be susceptible to degradation while at sea.
In November 2024, reports were published that China was in the process of building a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship. According to Associated Press, and based on new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents, this was a clear sign that China was starting to produce its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California was reported to have said that a mountain site outside the city of Leshan in the southwest Chinese province of Sichuan was the place where the prototype reactor was being developed.
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Type 004 aircraft carrier
The Type 004 aircraft carrier is an upcoming class of supercarriers for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. The yet-unnamed lead ship of the class has been under construction at the Dalian Shipyard since 2024, and is the fourth aircraft carrier of the Chinese aircraft carrier programme and the third to be built indigenously by China. A second ship of the class is reportedly under construction at Jiangnan Shipyard.
Like the proceeding Type 003 carrier Fujian, the Type 004 carriers will be capable of catapult-assisted takeoff but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) operations via the same DC-supercapacitor electromagnetic catapult system jointly developed by the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Unlike the conventionally-powered Fujian, the Type 004 will be much larger and also likely to be the first Chinese surface warship to feature nuclear marine propulsion.
China hoped to complete the carrier by the late 2020s. The US Defense Department stated in their December 2025 China Military Power Report that the PLAN aimed to build six new carriers by 2035, although it did not specify whether these would be Type 004 carriers.
In 2017, the Chinese Central Government was reportedly ready to spend RMB 22 billion (USD$3.3 billion) on the development of two prototype TMSR-LF1 thorium-based molten-salt reactors to be built at Wuwei, Gansu province in northwestern China, aiming to have the reactors operational by 2020.
In December 2023, Jiangnan Shipyard unveiled plans for KUN-24AP, a 24,000 TEU nuclear-powered container ship designed to use Gen IV molten-salt reactors for propulsion. The PLA Navy is interested in the same technology to power large surface warships as part of China's military-civil fusion strategy.[needs update]
The Type 004 could carry a larger complement of fixed-wing and rotorwing carrier-based aircraft than previous Chinese aircraft carriers, including the catapult-ready J-15T and J-35 fighters, Xian KJ-600 AEW&C aircraft, HZ-20 utility/ASW helicopters and stealth attack drones such as the GJ-21.
It was previously suggested that the aircraft carrier might carry J-20 stealth-fighter aircraft. However, in a programme in 2017 on China Central Television, retired PLAN Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong dismissed the possibility that the J-20 aircraft would be used on aircraft carriers as the aircraft was not structurally designed to cope with carrier operations. In addition, the plane does not have folding wings for compact storage, and its stealth coating would be susceptible to degradation while at sea.
In November 2024, reports were published that China was in the process of building a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship. According to Associated Press, and based on new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents, this was a clear sign that China was starting to produce its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California was reported to have said that a mountain site outside the city of Leshan in the southwest Chinese province of Sichuan was the place where the prototype reactor was being developed.