The global aircraft carrier race is intensifying, with China commissioning its third carrier and Japan moving closer to fielding fixed-wing jets from converted warships, while the United States reaffirms its commitment to an 11-carrier fleet. These shifts are redrawing the naval balance across the Indo-Pacific and beyond, forcing allied and rival navies alike to recalculate their force structures and strategic reach.
America’s 11-Carrier Fleet Sets the Standard
No country comes close to matching the United States in carrier strength. The U.S. Navy operates 11 aircraft carriers, a force level mandated by Congress and recently reaffirmed by Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, the service’s “Air Boss”, who stated that the Navy is committed to maintaining 11 aircraft carriers as part of the Ford-class building program. That commitment matters because each supercarrier can deploy roughly 75 aircraft and project power across entire ocean basins, giving Washington a global presence that no other navy can replicate. The 11-ship benchmark is not just a budgetary target; it underpins U.S. war plans that assume multiple carriers will be available simultaneously for deterrence patrols, crisis response, and high-end combat.
The newest ship in that fleet, USS Gerald R. Ford, recently left the Mediterranean bound for U.S. Southern Command, demonstrating how quickly these vessels shift between theaters. That redeployment from Europe to Latin American waters underscores the Navy’s practice of using carriers as flexible instruments of presence, reassurance, and pressure. While budget debates in Congress periodically threaten procurement timelines for future Ford-class hulls, senior Navy leadership has treated the 11-carrier floor as nonnegotiable. The sheer operational tempo of the fleet, rotating carriers between the Western Pacific, the Middle East, and other regions, illustrates why Washington views carrier numbers as a direct measure of strategic credibility and why any dip below 11 is seen as strategically risky.
China’s Third Carrier Changes the Calculus
Beijing has moved aggressively to close the carrier gap. According to Naval News reporting, the People’s Liberation Army Navy commissioned the aircraft carrier Fujian on November 5, 2025, in Hainan, bringing China’s operational carrier count to three alongside the Liaoning and Shandong. Fujian is the first Chinese carrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults, a technology that until now only the U.S. Ford class employed operationally. That capability allows heavier, more heavily armed aircraft to launch at higher sortie rates, a qualitative leap over the ski-jump ramps on China’s older carriers and a sign that Beijing intends to match not just American numbers but also American technology.
The timing of Fujian’s entry into service carries strategic weight. Three carriers give China the rotation depth to keep at least one flattop continuously available in the Western Pacific while a second undergoes maintenance and a third works up for deployment, mirroring the deployment cycles that U.S. planners have used for decades. That operational math means Beijing can now sustain a persistent carrier presence near Taiwan and across the South China Sea, complicating the calculations of U.S. and allied navies that previously counted on Chinese carriers being scarce and sporadically available. The gap between the U.S. fleet of 11 and China’s fleet of three remains large, but the trajectory favors Beijing’s shipbuilding pace, and the addition of electromagnetic launch technology narrows the qualitative distance as well.
India Builds From Within
India took a different path to carrier capability by designing and building its own ship. INS Vikrant, the country’s first indigenous carrier, was commissioned on September 2, 2022, according to an official Government of India release. The commissioning ceremony also included the introduction of a new ensign for the Indian Navy, signaling a broader institutional shift tied to the carrier’s arrival and a desire to emphasize national heritage in military symbolism. Building a carrier domestically required India to develop shipyard infrastructure, propulsion systems, and aviation integration capabilities that most nations never attempt, and it has elevated the country into a small club of states capable of constructing large-deck carriers from the keel up.
For New Delhi, the strategic payoff centers on the Indian Ocean, where sea lanes carry energy supplies and trade critical to India’s growth. A domestically built carrier reduces dependence on foreign defense suppliers and gives India a platform it can maintain and upgrade on its own timeline, rather than waiting on overseas shipyards. The country’s diplomatic and defense establishment, including the Indian Foreign Service, has framed Vikrant as proof that India can sustain high-end military production and support a more assertive maritime posture. Paired with India’s older carrier, the Russian origin INS Vikramaditya, the fleet now has two flattops, though only Vikrant represents a fully indigenous design. That distinction matters because it positions India as a potential exporter of carrier design expertise to partner navies across the Indo-Pacific, a role previously reserved for the United States, France, and the United Kingdom and now increasingly discussed in regional security dialogues.
Japan Edges Toward Fixed-Wing Carrier Operations
Japan is not building new carriers from scratch but is instead converting two existing helicopter destroyers into ships capable of operating stealth fighters. Associated Press coverage notes that Japan has begun deploying its first F-35B fighter jets, aircraft designed for short takeoffs and vertical landings that will eventually fly from the modified Izumo and Kaga. Tokyo plans to purchase 42 F-35Bs alongside 105 F-35As, with additional F-35Bs expected by March 2026, turning the Maritime Self-Defense Force into one of the world’s largest F-35 operators. The scale of that buy signals a long-term commitment to carrier-based aviation, not a token capability, and reflects Tokyo’s concern over an increasingly contested air and maritime environment around the Japanese archipelago.
The conversion work itself has hit delays, and Japan’s full carrier-like capability will take years to mature. The Izumo’s deck has already been strengthened and reshaped to handle the heat and weight of F-35B operations, while Kaga is undergoing phased modifications to mirror those changes. Flight trials for Japanese F-35Bs are planned in cooperation with U.S. forces, including tests on the U.S. West Coast, to validate procedures and certify pilots and deck crews. Those timelines mean Japan will not field a fully operational carrier air wing for several more years, but once both ships and their air groups are ready, Tokyo will have a mobile airpower asset that can operate beyond the range of land-based aircraft, reinforcing remote islands and supporting joint operations with U.S. and allied navies.
A Crowded Carrier Era and the Risks Ahead
The acceleration of carrier programs across the Indo-Pacific is drawing in other actors as well. Regional governments and defense communities are watching closely through official portals such as India’s external affairs interface, where briefings on naval modernization and maritime cooperation increasingly highlight carrier operations and joint exercises. Smaller navies may not build their own flattops, but they are investing in frigates, submarines, and land-based aircraft designed to operate alongside U.S., Indian, or Japanese carriers or, in some cases, to counter China’s growing blue-water reach. The result is a more networked but also more heavily armed maritime environment, where the presence of large-deck ships can either stabilize through deterrence or heighten tensions during crises.
As the United States clings to its 11-carrier standard, China fields a technologically advanced third carrier, India consolidates its indigenous program, and Japan edges toward fixed-wing carrier operations, the world is entering a new era of floating airfields. These ships are expensive and vulnerable, but they remain unmatched tools for signaling resolve, reassuring partners, and, if deterrence fails, fighting high-intensity wars far from home shores. The emerging balance will depend not only on how many carriers each country can build, but also on how effectively they integrate those vessels into alliances, manage escalation risks at sea, and adapt to new technologies such as long-range missiles and unmanned systems that challenge traditional carrier dominance. In this crowded carrier era, the race is no longer just about who has the biggest deck, but who can best turn that deck into lasting strategic advantage.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
