China’s newest aircraft carrier may only be able to conduct air operations at about 60% the rate of a 50-year-old US Navy carrier, two former US carrier officers say, a substantial combat limitation for a vessel meant to revolutionize Beijing’s fleet.

New video clips show three military aircraft, including a J-35 stealth fighter, taking off via electromagnetic catapult from the Fujian.

The analyst identified three destroyers operating with the aircraft carrier. U.S. Naval Institute News reported that the destroyers USS Gridley, USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee joined the strike group on the Nimitz 's initial deployment.

The firepower assembling in the region far outstrips any imaginable requirement by the US military to strike individual drug targets.

The move would be a major escalation of the Trump administration’s military campaign to target drug smugglers and threaten governments in Latin America.

As tensions between Beijing and Washington continue to mount, the Trump administration has dispatched two of the Navy’s aircraft carriers near China. Both the Nimitz and George Washington Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) are currently operating in the Western Pacific.