China should complete a 50,000 ton domestic aircraft carrier early in 2016

China is building its second aircraft carrier in Dalian of northeast China’s Liaoning province, said a Defense Ministry spokesperson in Beijing on Thursday.

A spokesman for the ministry, Col. Yang Yujun, told a monthly news briefing in Beijing that the second aircraft carrier was being built in Dalian, a port city in northeast China. He did not indicate when the ship would be completed.

Yang Yujun: a second aircraft carrier is still in the development phase, the follow-up work should be determined according to the design and construction of the situation. As for the long-term development of China’s aircraft carrier construction problems, the departments concerned will consider all factors to be studied carefully.

The second carrier would have a displacement, a measure of a ship’s weight, of 50,000 metric tons and use a “ski jump” takeoff technique for aircraft. The Liaoning has a displacement of 58,500 tons and also uses a ski jump for takeoffs.

By contrast, the United States Navy’s Nimitz-class carriers have a displacement of about 88,000 tons when fully loaded. The ski ramp takeoff limits the loads of fuel and ammunition that planes can carry, relative to the more difficult catapult takeoff system that the United States Navy has developed.

Sina has the latest pictures of construction.