Sharjah24 – Reuters: The U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, recently released new satellite photos showing that China’s surprisingly sophisticated new aircraft carrier is quickly nearing completion and might be launched by the end of this year already.

The CSIS released images of the carrier in Shanghai’s Jiangnan Shipyard taken by satellites of Maxar Technologies on July 12.

The images reveal that the new carrier has slots for three separate plane-launching catapult systems.

These game-changing systems make it much more effective than China’s existing two carriers, which use simple deck ramps to launch their aircraft.

This means these older carriers can only launch fighter-type jets with light bomb loads, while the new carrier should be able to launch and catch heavier fixed-wing planes like the U.S.’ vital E2 Hawkeye radar platform.

All U.S. carriers can deploy the E2 because of their catapult and catching systems.

However, the catapults on China’s new carrier will be electromagnetic systems, which gives it a clear advantage over the steam-powered catapults operated by U.S. carriers.