China is rapidly narrowing the military technology gap with the United States across almost every major domain — from fifth-generation stealth fighters to 100,000-ton supercarriers equipped with electromagnetic aircraft launch systems (EMALS). Yet one critical barrier has remained firmly out of reach for Beijing: nuclear propulsion for aircraft carriers, a niche and extraordinarily complex field mastered by only two countries — the US and France.
But now, a flurry of new satellite imagery and photographs strongly suggests that China may be preparing to cross this final threshold.
Fresh images circulating among China military watchers show rapid progress on what is presumed to be the Type 004, China’s fourth aircraft carrier, currently under construction at the Dalian shipyard in Liaoning province.
The most striking feature in the latest photographs is a reactor containment structure — a component that would only appear on a nuclear-powered vessel. Analysts say the design resembles the configuration seen on US Navy nuclear carriers, particularly the latest Ford-class flattops.
Rick Joe, a leading China military analyst, noted the similarity in a post on X: “Broadly similar appearance to USN CVN reactor shielding configurations within their hulls. Physics works the same… this is tracking with rumours that Dalian is doing the first CVN.”
This is not the first hint that China is working on a nuclear carrier. In late 2024, satellite images emerged of a land-based nuclear reactor test facility in Leshan, dubbed the Longwei (“Dragon Might”) Project. Official documents referred to it as a “Nuclear Power Development Project,” classified under a national defense designation — a strong indicator that the reactor is intended for a warship.
More satellite imagery in March 2025 again showed the Type 004 taking shape at the Dalian shipyard. These images revealed a flight deck layout with four aircraft catapult launch positions, similar to the four-launch configuration on US carriers. China’s existing carriers — Liaoning, Shandong, and Fujian — allow takeoffs from only three launch points.
While Beijing has never publicly acknowledged the development of a nuclear-powered carrier, the evidence is steadily accumulating.
The emergence of a potential nuclear carrier comes soon after China officially commissioned its third aircraft carrier, Fujian, the world’s second carrier equipped with EMALS — an achievement the US took decades to perfect.
EMALS allows the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to launch heavier, more advanced aircraft:
J-15T strike fighters
J-35 fifth-generation stealth carrier aircraft
KJ-600 airborne early warning aircraft
The system enables jets to take off with more fuel and weapons, boosting strike range and overall combat performance.
Ironically, the US itself continues to debate whether EMALS is worth the cost. During a visit to sailors aboard the USS George Washington in Yokosuka, Japan, former US President Donald Trump criticized the system as unreliable and overly complex.
“I’m going to sign an executive order — when we build aircraft carriers, it’s steam for the catapults and hydraulic for the elevators… They’re spending billions to build stupid electric. When it breaks, you need to send the most brilliant people at MIT to fix it.”
China, meanwhile, appears to have mastered the technology faster than Washington expected.
Despite China’s progress, one domain remains unchallenged: no Chinese carrier is nuclear-powered, whereas the US operates 11 nuclear supercarriers, and France operates one.
The US Navy’s nuclear heritage is long and deep. Its first nuclear carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), entered service in 1961. Every US carrier built since has been nuclear-powered.
As of 2017, the US Navy operated 81 nuclear-powered vessels:
11 aircraft carriers
70 submarines
92 reactors in total
The French Navy operates the Charles de Gaulle, still the only nuclear-powered carrier outside the US fleet.
Building a nuclear carrier is astonishingly expensive. Nuclear propulsion adds US$3–4 billion to a ship’s construction cost. The US Navy’s most advanced carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, cost around US$13 billion.
But nuclear power offers unique strategic advantages that no conventional carrier can match.
A nuclear-powered carrier can operate for decades without refueling its propulsion reactors.
The USS Nimitz sailed over 1 million nautical miles on its initial fuel load before its first refueling in 1997.
In 1964, the USS Enterprise, USS Long Beach, and USS Bainbridge circumnavigated the globe (30,000 miles) in 65 days without refueling.
In 2021, the USS Nimitz completed a 321-day deployment with no port visits.
Conventional carriers cannot match this endurance. They must refuel every few days at high speed, or every two weeks at cruising speed — a huge operational and logistical constraint.
A nuclear carrier frees up enormous internal space. Without massive fuel tanks and exhaust systems needed for conventional engines, designers can allocate more room for:
aircraft fuel
munitions
spare parts
humanitarian supplies
In wartime, this allows a nuclear carrier to remain on station longer and fight harder.
Conventional carrier groups rely heavily on fleet oilers, which are slow, lightly defended, and high-value targets.
Nuclear carriers drastically cut the number of replenishment operations required — reducing risk to the entire strike group.
Nuclear reactors generate far more energy than conventional engines, enabling future naval systems such as:
Directed-energy weapons (lasers)
Railguns
High-power sensors
Advanced electronic warfare suites
Conventional power systems cannot reliably support these emerging technologies.
In short, nuclear power gives an aircraft carrier true global reach, sustained endurance, and future-proof electrical capacity.
If the Type 004 is indeed nuclear-powered — and the mounting evidence strongly suggests it is — China would join the US and France in an exclusive club of nations capable of building nuclear carriers.
The implications would be enormous.
A nuclear-powered PLAN carrier strike group would be able to:
project power far beyond the First and Second Island Chains
maintain long-duration deployments in the Indian Ocean and Pacific
challenge US global naval dominance in ways not seen since the Cold War
It would also accelerate China’s transition from a regional naval power to a true blue-water navy with global expeditionary reach.
Mastering nuclear propulsion for a 90,000–100,000-ton carrier is vastly more difficult than building nuclear submarines — something China has done for decades.
Aircraft carriers require:
much larger, more complex reactors
significantly more electrical output
advanced shielding and safety systems
precision engineering for decades-long core lifetimes
integration with EMALS, sensors, and combat systems
This is a technological challenge that even the Soviet Union could not overcome.
China has already surprised the world by mastering EMALS, advanced carrier aviation, and rapid industrial-scale warship production. If it manages to launch a nuclear-powered carrier — possibly within the next few years — it will erase one of the last major technological gaps separating it from the United States.
Such a development would mark a historic shift in global naval power dynamics, potentially reshaping the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
