China’s mysterious new flat-top, sighted in late October at a shipyard in southeast China, has been photographed at sea in what may be its first voyage after rapid construction.
A set of photos and a video emerged on social media on November 26, showing the ship sailing on its own power. Intriguingly, the ship does not have a hull number or the insignia of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Instead, it sports the logo of the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), giving the impression that it could likely be a civilian vessel.
Based on the photos (taken from the port side) and the video doing rounds on social media, reports noted that this particular vessel has three island-like structures—a small island near the bow end with a bridge and a conventional mast, a longer and multi-story island in the center with a ball radome at the summit of an enclosed mast construction, and an island towards the stern end with what has been assessed as exhaust stacks.
Some naval analysts drew attention to two cutouts in the port-side view, which are used to drop and recover boats.
An ardent watcher of the PLA Navy and a renowned defense analyst, Alex Luck, wrote on X: “Incidentally, this view of the stern shows no apparent well dock access. The arrangement for a hangar remains to be confirmed, though there are some obvious openings suggesting some sort of space.”
This unknown and unusual carrier was initially misidentified as the Type 075 Amphibious Assault Ship due to comparable dimensions. However, PLA watchers and naval experts soon pointed out that it was the same ‘mysterious’ flat-top that had been spotted at Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) last month.
Late last month, Defense analyst and former submariner Tom Shugart, who is currently an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank, saw the enigmatic ship in satellite imagery of the Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) on Longxue Island, just southeast of Guangzhou.
The analyst shared the photo on social media, which was purportedly from September 2024. At the time, the flat-top ship in issue was thought to be around 200 meters long and 40 meters broad, with two islands on one side of the deck. In one of his posts on X, he said, “So it just jumped out to me that next to the possible new Chinese USV is what looks like might be…possibly a new aircraft carrier or amphibious assault ship of some sort?”
This shipyard first caught Shugart’s attention when he spotted a brand-new, fast-trimaran uncrewed surface vessel (USV) that had been in Guangzhou since at least 2022.
The USV, about 60 meters long, led to the discovery of this mysterious flat-top that is now out at the sea. In subsequent posts on X, he further observed that satellite imagery from late October 2024 revealed the flight deck of this vessel. The USV in the yard also appeared to be painted gray, he said at the time, without drawing any conclusions.
Since the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) frequently keeps the development of new platforms under wraps, the details about this vessel are scant. However, its appearance has given rise to several speculations, with some observers suggesting that it could be an amphibious landing dock and others postulating that it is a civilian research ship.
As previously explained by the EurAsian Times, this shipyard is well-known for building China’s notorious Ro-Ro ships, gas containers, and civilian ships. This has led some military watchers to predict that the flat-top could even be a scientific research vessel or some kind of experimental carrier.
Some others conjectured that it could also be the big, cutting-edge unmanned ship introduced in 2022, which was also to be constructed in Guangzhou.
EurAsian Times understands that these observations are currently only conjectures as there is a lack of reliable information from Chinese officials. However, the ship’s appearance at sea alludes to China’s ability to construct vessels in record time—a feat not matched by any of its contemporaries at the moment.
China’s Shipbuilding Is Booming
The emergence of a new flat-top in China is interesting since the nation already has two carriers in service, a third in testing, and a fourth in the development stage.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) currently has two aircraft carriers—the Liaoning and Shandong—in service. A third carrier, Type-003 “Fujian,” with an electromagnetic catapult, is being tested and should be operational by next year.
An HD footage of this carrier published earlier this year took the internet by storm, showing the cutting-edge features of this PLAN carrier.
China’s goal of developing a blue-water navy, which would let it project force in distant waters and provide the US with fierce competition, depends heavily on developing aircraft carriers. The construction of China’s fourth aircraft carrier has also reportedly begun in earnest. According to reports, the 110,000-ton super-carrier Type 004—which has not yet been named—will be bigger than Type 003 and equipped with rail guns, laser weaponry, an integrated electric system, and nuclear power.
Apart from these heavy carriers, China has also produced and introduced the amphibious assault carriers known as the “Type-075” Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD). According to experts, the Type 075 can carry out extremely complicated tasks, such as amphibious landings. “It is widely believed that the Type 075 would have a significant role in any military attack on Taiwan, which Beijing has vowed to bring under mainland control, by force if necessary,” said a previous report in the South China Morning Post.
Additionally, China is building Type 076, an amphibious assault ship with cutting-edge technology that will eventually replace Type 075. The warship, which is expected to be the world’s largest amphibious assault ship, with a flight deck that spans roughly 260 meters by 52 meters, was spotted with two island superstructures earlier this year. This ship stands out because of its distinctive catamaran hull design, which provides a greater deck area and is anticipated to be a dedicated drone carrier.
China has demonstrated a level of expansion never before seen in history by developing advanced aircraft carriers, destroyers, amphibious landing vehicles, and specialized drone carriers.
In fact, the US has acknowledged that China’s shipbuilding capacity is growing quickly. An annual Pentagon report from 2020 estimated that the Chinese Navy had 350 warships compared to 293 warships in the US Navy battle force.
It warned that the yawning gap of 60 hulls between the two navies would grow every five years until 2035 when China will have an estimated 475 naval ships compared to 305-317 US warships. In contrast, the US shipbuilding capability has been diminished over the years, making it an Achilles heel.
For the United States, the appearance of another vessel that was constructed in a short time should come as another bitter reminder of China’s expanding ship-building capacity and maritime capability.
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