China State Shipbuilding Corporation Unveils 50MW Powerhouse for Next-Gen Warships
Chinese state-owned engineers are developing a new 50-megawatt gas turbine engine to power the country’s future fleet of advanced warships, including next-generation aircraft carriers and destroyers. This CGT50 engine, under development by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), marks a critical step in Beijing’s drive for complete self-sufficiency in propulsion technology—a sector long dominated by Western manufacturers and heavily restricted by U.S. export controls.
The announcement, reported by state media Economic Daily, is part of a broader industrial push to secure supply chains for technologies deemed vital to national security. Advanced gas turbines are the beating heart of modern, high-performance warships, and their development has been a persistent challenge for China’s naval modernization. “We have achieved full self-sufficiency across the entire process, from design and manufacturing to testing and validation,” stated Liu Bingbing, a scientist at CSSC’s 703rd Research Institute, the division spearheading the turbine development, framing the progress as a major milestone.
The CGT50 is the pinnacle of a new family of marine gas turbines recently unveiled by CSSC. In December 2024, the company launched the 33.5MW CGT30 and the 44MW CGT40 units. Then, just last Friday, it revealed a smaller, versatile 3MW CGT3 turbine. This ramp-up in power and capability signals a concerted effort to close the propulsion gap with leading naval powers. The current mainstay of the Chinese Navy’s larger surface combatants is believed to be a Ukrainian-derived 25MW gas turbine. The jump to the CGT40 and eventually the CGT50 would deliver a dramatic increase in power, enabling faster speeds, greater electrical generation, and support for energy-intensive future weaponry like directed-energy lasers and electromagnetic railguns.
The strategic importance of this breakthrough cannot be overstated, reported the Global Times, a state-run tabloid. It called gas turbine technology a “crown jewel of manufacturing industries” and a matter of “national security and industrial core competitiveness.” For years, China has relied on imported designs and faced limitations due to international sanctions, particularly from the United States, which lists such turbines as a controlled critical technology. Achieving an indigenous, scalable production line frees China’s naval ambitions from these external constraints and allows for bespoke designs tailored to its strategic needs.
Beyond raw power for warships, the new turbine family showcases versatility. The compact CGT3, for instance, is a multi-fuel unit (liquid fuel or natural gas) that takes up just one-fifth the space of an equivalent diesel generator. Sun Peng, deputy director of the 703rd Research Institute, highlighted that its development suggests China has “moved from a follower phase to a stage of autonomous innovation in the field of small and medium-sized gas turbines.” This smaller turbine is envisioned for distributed energy on remote islands, offshore platforms, or as an efficient power supply for various vessels, indicating a dual-use technology strategy that benefits both military and civilian infrastructure.
The roadmap is clear. The CGT40 and CGT50 engines are destined for China’s most capital-intensive naval projects: the anticipated successors to the current Type 055 destroyers and the Fujian-class aircraft carriers, as well as large amphibious assault ships. This indigenous powerplant will be key to enabling integrated electric propulsion systems, which allow for more flexible power distribution, reduced acoustic signatures for stealth, and the high-density energy storage required by futuristic combat systems. It represents not just an engine, but the enabling technology for an entire generation of warships designed for sustained blue-water operations and power projection.
For observers of the naval balance in the Indo-Pacific, the message is unequivocal. China State Shipbuilding Corporation is systematically dismantling the last major barriers to a fully independent naval industrial base. The journey from importing and replicating to “autonomous innovation,” as Sun Peng put it, is nearing completion. When the 50MW CGT50 finally spins up, it will propel not just individual ships, but China’s entire ambition to operate a world-class, self-reliant navy.