The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of China has posted video footage showing aircraft launches from the aircraft carrier Fujian using the one of the ship's electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) catapults.
The footage was taken during the carrier's final shakedown cruise in the South China Sea. However, no commissioning date has yet been provided.
The footage shows launches of three different aircraft types using EMALS. These include J-15 and J-35 fighters and a KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft similar to the US Navy's E-2 Hawkeye.
Unlike the PLAN's two earlier carriers Liaoning and Shandong, Fujian has a conventional flat flight deck without a ski jump at the bow to assist aircraft launches. The flight deck is instead fitted with three EMALS catapults similar to those on the US Navy's Gerald R. Ford-class carriers.
"EMALS obviates the requirement for large, heavy, energy-consuming on-board machinery to generate the steam needed to operate conventional launch systems," wrote Baird Maritime columnist Trevor Hollingsbee shortly after Fujian's launch in 2022.
Hollingsbee had said that, in comparison, the obsolete steam power plants on Liaoning and Shandong sometimes made it difficult for the ships to attain the wind speed over their respective decks required to launch J-15 fighters in calm conditions.
"This aircraft, reverse engineered from the design of an Su-33 fighter obtained illicitly from Ukraine, is overweight, underpowered, and accident-prone."
