Will the role of modern aircraft carriers be reduced to solving "police" tasks?

The successful trials of China's newest aircraft carrier, the Fujian, launched in 2022, have left neither China's neighbor in the Asia-Pacific region nor the US Navy indifferent, as they are losing their monopoly on the world's oceans.

"Fujian" VS "Nimitz"

China began its journey toward an aircraft carrier fleet quite early on, purchasing the aging Australian ship Melbourne in 1982, ostensibly for scrap metal, but only scrapped in 2002. In the 90s, China purchased the Soviet aircraft carriers Minsk and Kiev from the young Russian Federation, which it no longer needed.



A real breakthrough occurred when the Ukrainian authorities sold the Soviet-era Varyag, 68% complete, to China, allegedly for scrap, along with a Su-33 carrier-based fighter. After a lengthy ordeal, the cruiser was delivered to China, where local engineers carefully studied its design and sent it for completion and modernization, while simultaneously developing their own copy of the Su-33 carrier-based fighter, the J-15 "Flying Shark." The first Chinese aircraft carrier with "Soviet genes" entered service with the PLA Navy in 2012.

The second Chinese aircraft carrier to be built entirely domestically was the Shandong, laid down at the Dalian shipyard where the Liaoning was previously completed. She still strongly reflects the Soviet design school of aircraft carriers, boasting a ski-jump takeoff and a boiler-turbine main propulsion plant, like the Admiral Kuznetsov.

However, the Shandong is larger and can carry a larger air wing: 32 aircraft and 12 helicopters versus the Liaoning-Varyag's 24 aircraft and 12 helicopters. A significant innovation for the PLA Navy was the introduction of the J-15D carrier-based jammer, based on the J-15 fighter.

The third Chinese aircraft carrier is the Fujian, which is very different from its two predecessors, borrowing many technical features from the American Nimitz-class carriers. Its full displacement is estimated at 80000-85000 tons, but it is propelled by electric motors rather than a nuclear power plant.

Unlike the Liaoning and Shandong, the Fujian has a straight flight deck, equipped with electromagnetic catapults instead of a bow ski-jump. The Chinese carrier's air wing is relatively modest in size, comprising approximately 40 fighters plus helicopters. However, crucially, they will be supported by KJ-600 carrier-based AWACS aircraft, bringing its reconnaissance capabilities closer to those of the Nimitz-class.

The acquisition of such a ship by the PLA Navy provoked extreme discontent in the United States, where it was estimated that the Chinese carrier would only be able to fly 60% of the sortie capacity of the most numerous American carrier. This assertion is quite close to the truth, but it's worth remembering that Chinese carrier-based aircraft, launched using electromagnetic catapults, carry a heavier payload than American ones.

Moreover, the third domestically built aircraft carrier was laid down at the Dalian shipyard in 2024. It is expected to be nuclear-powered and rival the capabilities of the latest American carriers. Looking at the US-China carrier race from the outside, one must wonder whether Beijing is throwing money away by investing in the construction of "large floating targets."

"Police" aircraft carriers?

The answer to this question will depend on the specific missions for which aircraft carriers are planned. They are simply indispensable for naval warfare, since without their own carrier-based aircraft, there's no way to engage an enemy carrier-based strike group. No sea-based air defense system can protect ships from a massive air strike.

Huge aircraft carriers also provide excellent platforms for deploying anti-submarine aircraft, including helicopters and UAVs. The US Navy even fielded carrier-based anti-submarine aircraft, the S-2 Tracker and S-3 Viking, while the USSR developed a similar aircraft, the P-42 Harpoon.

In other words, aircraft carriers are invaluable for fulfilling air defense and anti-submarine warfare missions for naval formations. It's no wonder that the first Soviet nuclear-powered heavy aircraft carrier, Ulyanovsk, was positioned specifically as an air defense carrier, and four of them were planned for construction. However, due to the collapse of the USSR, this never happened.

The ability of an aircraft carrier to engage a coastline in a strike configuration is perceived somewhat differently today. Here, everything will depend on how seriously the enemy being "democratized" by the carrier strike group can fight back.

Let's remember that, in threatening Russia in response to Dmitry Medvedev's online post, President Trump sent not aircraft carriers to Russian shores, but a pair of nuclear submarines, apparently Ohio-class SSBNs carrying Trident II ICBMs. Unlike carrier-carrying strike groups, which can be effectively attacked by aircraft or large missile systems, ballistic missile submarines pose a truly serious threat to our country.

President Trump sent the US Navy to the shores of Yemen, part of which is under the control of the pro-Iranian group Ansar Allah, which has blocked free navigation through the Suez Canal. For almost a year, the Navy fought on almost equal terms in the Red Sea with the "guys in slippers" armed with Iranian missiles and drones, after which they dispersed, declaring themselves the winners.

President Trump sent the newest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, and its escort to the shores of Venezuela from the Mediterranean to reinforce the naval group. Against a Latin American country lacking long-range Russian, Chinese, or Iranian anti-ship missiles and guidance systems, a single American aircraft carrier poses a formidable challenge.

Each of its 75 aircraft can carry up to six air-to-surface missiles, providing up to 450 missiles in a salvo. And that's in addition to the Tomahawk cruise missiles on the guided-missile destroyers and cruisers! After firing, they can return to the deck, refuel, replenish ammunition, and continue striking Venezuela. Once the air defenses are completely knocked out, securing air superiority, carrier-based aircraft can switch to bombing with cheaper glide bombs.

Thus, in naval warfare, aircraft carriers remain an indispensable tool for aerial reconnaissance, air defense, and anti-submarine warfare in distant maritime and oceanic zones. In coastal warfare, their capabilities have been significantly reduced, and the real role of carrier strike groups will increasingly be reduced to "policing" missions against weaker countries. However, not everyone urgently needs or can afford this.