China’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier could begin sea trials as early as next month according to official Chinese state media.

The vessel, which is designated as the Type 001A, is currently finishing construction at the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC) construction site in China’s Liaoning province. The ship does not yet have a name, but she is based on the Soviet Kuznetsov-class design. However, unlike the Kuznetsov-class Liaoning—China’s first carrier—which was originally purchased incomplete from Ukraine in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Type 001A was built from scratch in China. The ship could sail as early as next month.

"All the equipment and devices on the carrier are in the joint debugging stage, and the main engine has been powered,” DSIC Chairman Liu Zheng said according to a report on cctv.com. “In 2018, we will present a surprise to the Chinese people.”

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The Type 001A, which was launched on April 26, 2017, was constructed remarkably quickly for a carrier. It has taken Beijing only two years to build the roughly 55,000-ton vessel. By comparison, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), which is a much larger 100,000-ton nuclear-powered carrier, took nearly eight years to complete.  Indeed, China is openly bragging about not only the speed of construction but also the quality of the workmanship on the Type 001A.

"The quality of our construction is also world-class. For example, the world-class standard for the flatness of the flight deck is not more than four percent, and we made it lower than three percent," Liu said.

The new Chinese carrier could be delivered to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) by the end of the year. "This all proves that the Type 001A is getting ready for its first sea trial, and the exact timing will depend on factors like the weather and sea conditions. April 23 is Navy Day, the founding day of the PLA Navy [April 23 1949], so this might also be taken into consideration," Chinese naval analyst Li Jie told the state-owned Global Times.

One of the big differences between Liaoning and the new Type 001A is that while the former was intended to be a test and training asset, the new aircraft carrier is supposed to be an frontline combat vessel. "Liaoning is primarily a platform for training personnel and collecting data through testing, while Type 001A is China's first carrier made for combat missions, so its name could be more special,”a Chinese military expert from a Beijing-based military academy told the Global Times. “It's impossible to name it with a person's name, for only vessels used for scientific research can use a person's name in China."

The new carrier will certainly boost the PLAN’s power projection capabilities, however, the new class is likely only an interim step as China embarks on developing more sophisticated flattops. Future Chinese carriers are likely to dispense with the Soviet ski-jump launch technique and adopt catapults—thus enabling far greater capability. This is just the beginning.

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.