China's first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Type 001A, may be launched on December 26

Recently, foreign media reported that China's first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Type 001A, may be launched on December 26 this year to commemorate the 122nd anniversary
of Mao Zedong's birth.
The report said that while China may be building new aircraft carriers, they may be much
smaller than the U.
S.
Navy's 100,000-ton Nimitz-class or Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

The Chinese ship could be a smaller, conventionally powered aircraft carrier, propelled by steam or diesel, and probably won't be equipped with an electromagnetic ejection system
.
The simple reason is that China does not have the experience
to design and build large warships the size of aircraft carriers or amphibious assault ships.
It lacks the necessary technology
to design and build propulsion systems for such ships.
In addition, China lags behind other countries
in the metallurgy of building hulls.
As for catapults, it took the U.
S.
Navy years to perfect the steam catapults, and the electromagnetic catapults on the Ford-class nuclear-powered carriers have still not been
tested.
Chinese engineers also lack practical experience
in related technologies.

Now Chinese is building modern nuclear reactors
for its submarine fleet.
Indeed, Chinese nuclear submarines are only equivalent to the outdated Soviet nuclear submarines
of the 70s of the last century.
China is now far from ready to raise these designs to a level
suitable for aircraft carriers.

It is conceivable that China may try to emulate the recently decommissioned USS Enterprise, which uses eight submarine nuclear reactors
.
When the USS Enterprise was built, the United States did not have the technology to
build reactors suitable for use by aircraft carriers.
The Navy opted for 8 smaller reactors instead, but at the cost of taking up a lot of space
.
The later Nimitz-class carriers used two large reactors
.