News Analysis China is reportedly less than six months away from launching its third aircraft carrier. This is also the second carrier that it has constructed domestically (its first is an ex-Soviet vessel purchased by Beijing in the late 1990s). This vessel, designated the Type-003, will be the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) first “supercarrier”: displacing up to 100,000 tons and outfitted with an electromagnetic catapult and integrated electric propulsion. It will be one of the largest and most advanced aircraft carriers built outside the United States. Twenty or 30 years ago, aircraft carriers were dismissed “cruise missile magnets”—modern-day cannon fodder in the new 21st century battlespace. And yet more and more countries in Asia are discovering the potential value of aircraft carriers. For a long time, China and India were the only countries in the region operating large fixed-wing carriers, but they have been—or may soon be—joined by new …