China continuously builds aircraft carriers not to compete with the US but to intimidate neighboring countries.

Recently, some images of an aircraft carrier model displayed at an official Chinese event have been leaked on Chinese websites. This model aircraft carrier is painted with the number 18 and looks very similar to an American nuclear aircraft carrier.

Accordingly, this model aircraft carrier has 4 aircraft launch devices and 3 elevators along with many other evidences proving that this is a nuclear aircraft carrier similar to the US Navy's Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carrier.

An aircraft carrier model on display at a Chinese exhibition.

China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, has the hull number 16, and in 2013, photos released by the Chinese press showed that the country was building a second aircraft carrier, and this one has the hull number 17.

All these signs indicate that China will build a third aircraft carrier (and the second entirely domestically produced one), and this carrier will be equipped with a nuclear reactor with a design similar to the US USS Enterprise.

The USS Enterprise was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier built by the United States Navy and was the prototype for the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. The USS Enterprise is an extremely expensive series of ships, and the United States has only built one of the class, although they plan to build six.

The USS Enterprise is slightly longer than a Nimitz-class carrier, but it is lighter (92,000 tons compared to the Nimitz's 100,000 tons). It was commissioned into the US Navy in 1961, and is about to be retired after nearly 40 years of service.

US Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise

Since the construction of the first aircraft carrier in 1923, the US Navy has made almost no major improvements in aircraft carrier design, even though the US now owns the world's most powerful fleet of aircraft carriers to be able to quickly deploy troops to any region around the globe.

The key reason for the lack of motivation for the US to improve its aircraft carriers is that the US Navy has not had a worthy opponent at sea since 1945. The Soviet Union had previously developed new anti-carrier weapons and planned to use them, but war between the two superpowers never happened.

According to analysts at the Strategy Page in the US, China's continuous construction of many aircraft carriers is not to compete with the US at sea, but mainly to use aircraft carriers as a tool to intimidate neighboring countries.

Photos taken at a Chinese shipyard in 2013 show the country's under-construction aircraft carrier No. 17 using a catapult instead of a ski-jump-style runway for aircraft to take off.

Image believed to be of China's second aircraft carrier

In addition, these photos also show that China's second aircraft carrier is larger than the Liaoning aircraft carrier, which is an old Soviet aircraft carrier that China bought and converted.

The 305-meter-long, 65,000-ton Liaoning was commissioned by China in 2012 after four months of sea trials. China has tested J15 aircraft landing and taking off on the Liaoning without weapons.

According to the plan, China will deploy up to 24 fighter jets and 26 helicopters on the Liaoning aircraft carrier and use the ship for pilot training and scientific research, while being ready to become a combat aircraft carrier when necessary.

According to Khampha