Hong Kong
CNN
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China appears to have built an unusual new aircraft carrier, tipping experts with a potentially first-of-its-kind vessel that could further boost Beijing’s rapidly expanding sea power.

Satellite images from Planet Labs show a large, open flat-topped ship under construction at Guangzhou Shipyard International on Longxue Island in southern Guangdong province.

This potential new aircraft carrier “has a somewhat unusual shape and size — much smaller than China’s previous naval aircraft carriers,” said Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submarine commander and now a fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

But the ship is even smaller than the Type 075 amphibious assault ships used by Beijing’s navy, suggesting that China may be building the world’s first ostensibly civilian ‘aircraft carrier’ as an oceanographic research vessel of some sort,” Shugart added.

The existence of the new vessel was first reported by War zone.

China has produced increasingly advanced warships at a feverish pace, often matching American carrier technology.

The Fujian aircraft carrier – by far China’s largest, most modern and most powerful carrier to date – facing the sea for its first tests earlier this year, with experts saying it could join the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleet by 2026.

The 80,000-ton carrier surpasses the PLAN’s two active carriers, the 66,000-ton Shandong and the 60,000-ton Liaoning, placing it in the supercarrier league. Only the United States Navy operates aircraft carriers larger than the Fujian.

China has also made rapid progress in construction the largest amphibious assault ship in the worldaccording to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Called the Type 076, its flight deck spans approximately 260 meters (853 feet) by 52 meters (170 feet), which is more than 13,500 square meters—almost the area of ​​three U.S. football fields, a the think tank said in its analysis of satellite imagery.

Built in Shanghai, the Fujian aircraft carrier and the Type 076 are the crown jewels of a military expansion that has seen Beijing develop its navy in the biggest in the world with over 340 warships to his name.

But the construction of a new aircraft carrier in southern China could signal another shift toward Beijing’s “military-civilian fusion strategy,” which uses things like civilian-military dual-use vessels, Shugart, the former submarine commander, said. .

The ship can “provide a low-cost addition to the PLA Navy’s operational capabilities in a low-threat environment and to its logistics capabilities,” said Carl Schuster, former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.

Given its lightweight construction, the ship could serve as a helicopter or drone carrier for China’s Coast Guard, which is increasingly deployed as a quasi-military force, Schuster said.

“Having an aviation platform would expand (the Coast Guard’s) surveillance capability into the distant waters of the southern South China Sea and potentially east of Taiwan,” Schuster added.

China launched large-scale military exercises around Taiwan in early October, flying a record number of fighter jets and other warplanes around the island. The day-long military drills, the latest in a series of recent war games by Beijing against its neighbor, showed an unprecedented involvement of Coast Guard vessels operating in areas around Taiwan and its outlying islands of Matsu and Dongyin , just off southeast China. coast.

“The new flattop would be a significant addition to any Coast Guard quarantine enforcement operation such as the one practiced two weeks ago and the past two years,” Schuster said.

Beijing has become more assertive in its home region, using the military to assert its claims in the South China Sea and intimidate Taiwan – a self-governing democracy that the ruling Chinese Communist Party has vowed to take, by force if necessary.

But the new ship could also be very useful from a humanitarian perspective, providing quick and cost-effective relief and evacuation in non-combat situations, Schuster said.

“It could also serve as a logistical support and repair ship in an amphibious operation once the beach has been secured,” the expert added.

“It’s too fragile to enter a contested beach area, but might consider it in desperate situations.”

In another display of China’s growing naval power, Liaoning and Shandong completed their first dual carrier exercises in late October, according to state news service Xinhua.

An aerial photo of the exercise showed the two carriers steaming side by side with fighter jets overhead and at least 11 support ships from their carrier strike groups.

Held in the South China Sea, the exercise was aimed at “improving the integrated combat capability of aircraft carrier formations” and was “part of the Liaoning aircraft carrier formation’s regular high seas real combat training,” Xinhua said.

Schuster, a former US Navy captain, called the exercise “another indicator of the growing maritime capabilities of the PLA Navy.”

“Twin carrier operations add another level of complexity to a fleet’s operations,” he said, with the exercise allowing the fleet to test logistics requirements and coordinate communications between ships in the flotilla.

The state-run Global Times quoted a Chinese naval expert, Song Zhongping, as saying the exercise allowed the two carriers to “complement their strengths and consolidate their advantages.”

“Liaoning and Shandong may have different numbers of aircraft carried, different escort vessels, and thus distinct capabilities for air defense, anti-submarine warfare and anti-ship operations,” Song said in the Global Times report.