The People’s Liberation Army has confirmed that its most advanced carrier-based fighter, the J-15T, can operate from all three of China’s aircraft carriers, not only the catapult-equipped Fujian. Images from a 40-day mission that ended on 22 June show the jet taking off and landing on the Liaoning, a vessel that relies on a ski-jump deck. The demonstration means the J-15T, designed for electromagnetic catapult launch, can also use the older launch method, giving naval planners the flexibility to deploy the fighter across the entire carrier fleet and to rotate air wings without being constrained by a ship’s launch system.

That flexibility rests on electromagnetic aircraft launch technology, which China is now adapting beyond the carrier deck. State media have released footage of a truck-mounted Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) that hurls fixed-wing drones into the sky within seconds. The modular, three-truck platform can be assembled in the field, aligned into the wind, and used from highways or remote islands, reducing dependence on vulnerable runways. Military specialists in Beijing view the mobile launcher as a way to make drone operations more survivable and to field larger unmanned aircraft with heavier payloads than portable pneumatic or rocket-assisted catapults allow.

In orbit, Chinese researchers have completed an in-orbit test of a different kind of enabling technology: a real-time electromyography (EMG) device for monitoring astronaut muscle condition. The instrument, developed by the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology and the Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, flew aboard the Qingzhou cargo test spacecraft launched on 30 March 2026. It uses a neural-signal detection chip to acquire and transmit muscle data, addressing a long-standing challenge in space medicine—the inability to continuously and directly track muscle atrophy in microgravity. The test successfully demonstrated data acquisition, storage, and downlink under remote ground control, and the received data matched pre-flight predictions. Separately, a Long March-4B rocket placed the Haiyang-2E oceanographic satellite into orbit on 2 July, adding to China’s constellation for ocean monitoring, resource surveys, and disaster warning.

The next milestones to watch are the Fujian carrier’s first operational deployment with J-15T squadrons, which would close the loop on the cross-deck compatibility now proven on the Liaoning, and the integration of the EMG monitor into the world’s first proposed space hospital, a project led by the Shenzhen university. Both are expected to move forward within the current year.