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September 25 has become a hallmark day for China, especially its naval force, as the country’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, entered service.
Overseen by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, the carrier was officially handed over by the China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy at a ceremony held at a naval base in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province.
China is the 10th country in the world and the last among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to have an aircraft carrier in active service. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, India, Thailand and Brazil all possess aircraft carriers.
“The delivery and commissioning of the first carrier are milestones in the PLA’s history and embodies a major achievement of China’s weaponry and equipment development, as well as its national defense modernization,” said Premier Wen Jiabao at the handover ceremony.
Ge Lide, an associate professor at the PLA National Defense University (NDU), told the China News Service that Liaoning’s entry into service will promote the PLA Navy’s strategic transformation to become a blue-sea force able to operate on the high seas and raise the country’s capabilities in handling non-conventional security threats.
An accomplished dream
The Liaoning is a conventionally powered carrier rebuilt from the former Ukrainian vessel Varyag.
Construction of the Varyag began in 1985 at a shipyard on the Black Sea. The vessel, with a displacement of around 60,000 tons, was designed to be among the largest carriers in the world at that time. But with the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Varyag had been only two thirds completed before construction stopped. China bought the carrier’s immense armored hull—with no engine, electricity or propeller—from the Ukraine in 1998 and began to refit the vessel in Dalian in 2002.
After 10 years of refitting, the aircraft carrier conducted its first sea trial in August 2011. Before its commissioning, the vessel had undergone 10 sea trials, with the longest one lasting 25 days in July.
“The main system of the Liaoning is the result of independent building and modification,” said Yang Yujun, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, at a press conference on September 27. He said the country has always adhered to the principle of independent innovation in building weaponry, relying on the country’s own capacity for research and development.
After 10 years of refitting, the carrier is equipped with a China-made defense system able to launch attacks on missiles, aircraft and approaching vessels. It also uses a Chinese radar system that can evaluate risks and has a strong anti-interference capability. Since August 2011, the aircraft carrier has undergone 10 sea trials, with the longest one lasting 25 days in July.
During a recent online interview with people.com.cn, a website of the People’s Daily, Major General Qiao Liang, a professor at the Air Force Command Institute, said, “Among medium-sized aircraft carriers around the world, there’s no doubt ours is advanced.”
Chinese military experts say aircraft carriers in active service are of vital importance to China, a country with more than 18,000 km of coastline and 3 million square km of territorial waters. But the process of acquiring its first aircraft carrier, which began more than 40 years ago, has been long and complicated.
Admiral Liu Huaqing, China’s former naval commander known as the “father of China’s aircraft carrier” because of his great support for the program, wrote in his memoir that, “China launched its initial plan for a carrier as early as 1970.”
Besides the Varyag, China has imported three other carriers since the 1980s.
China’s first imported carrier was the retired Melbourne from the Australian Navy in 1985. But the vessel proved nothing more than a pile of scrap metal, and it was dismantled in a shipyard in Guangzhou, southern Guangdong Province, where the iron was recycled.
Two decommissioned Russian vessels were imported and converted into theme parks in 1998—the Kiev in north China’s Tianjin and the Minsk in Shenzhen in Guangdong.
Some Chinese military enthusiasts have questioned the significance of massive expenditures on refitting an old aircraft carrier rather than building a new one, and some have expressed doubts about the combat effectiveness of a refitted vessel.
But Du Wenlong, a researcher with the PLA’s Academy of Military Science, said that refitting an imported carrier for research and training is like writing a draft for an article.
“The draft might be totally deleted in the future, but its value for reference is irreplaceable,” Du said, adding that the most valuable use of the refitted carrier is to help the PLA build a carrier battle group and learn how to use such vessels.
Many high-ranking military officers have suggested China build more aircraft carriers based on the country’s economic strength.
“China will need at least three aircraft carriers,” said Xu Xiaoyan, a PLA lieutenant general, in March.
At the September 27 press conference, Yang said that China will plan the development of aircraft carriers based on its economic and social development and national defense needs. He dismissed foreign media reports saying China is building a second aircraft carrier in Shanghai to be launched later this year.
Combat effectiveness
Though the Liaoning has been commissioned, Li Jie, a researcher at the China Navy Military Academy and a senior colonel, said that it would not be combat ready until 2017.
“Normally, it takes three years for an aircraft carrier to be commissioned after its first sea trial and another five to eight years to be able to enter combat,” Li said. “An aircraft carrier cannot conduct missions alone, but needs protection and support from a fleet including frigates, destroyers and cruisers. Some submarines are also necessary for scouting and anti-submarine tasks.”
A U.S. aircraft carrier is normally accompanied by two missile cruisers, two frigates, two nuclear-driven submarines and a depot ship.
When asked to confirm reports that the PLA Navy will create an aircraft carrier formation in the future and build an aircraft carrier base in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, Shandong Province, Yang told reporters that China will study the issue in accordance with the development and needs of the aircraft carrier.
Yang also revealed that China is developing carrier-borne aircraft based on domestically built planes for which the country has independent intellectual property rights, and relevant procedures are moving forward as scheduled.
Hu Siyuan, a professor at the NDU, was quoted by the Shanghai Daily as saying that the Liaoning’s accompanying warships might include China’s newly developed 052D missile destroyers and Jiang Kai-II frigates. The destroyer is equipped with a 130-mm caliber cannon and has two vertical launch systems to set off Redflag-9B missiles, and the frigate has a helicopter pad. The No.88 ship that accompanied the aircraft carrier during its sea trials is expected to be its depot ship.
China’s J-15 fighters, which analysts say are match for U.S. F-18 Hornet fighters, would probably be used on the carrier. Many photographs have been published showing the plane on the carrier’s deck.
Personnel training is also vital for Liaoning’s combat capacity, according to military experts.
The carrier reportedly has more than 1,000 officers and sailors onboard, with women accounting for 5 percent. More than 98 percent of the crew hold bachelor’s degrees and more than 50 of them have master’s or doctoral degrees.
But Yin Zhuo, Director of the Expert Consultation Committee of the PLA Navy, said that operating an aircraft carrier is no easy task. “Maintenance staff have to learn to maneuver around limited space to repair or refuel the aircraft. And for the command staff, it is a tough task to master the operations of all the aircraft on deck, and it takes time to build a well-coordinated team around the carrier,”he said.
The training of pilots is especially challenging, Yin said.
The Liaoning is reportedly capable of carrying around 30 fixed-wing fighters and helicopters.
“Generally, the training cycle of a carrierborne aircraft pilot lasts for three years. The pilot then has to go through a three-year residency period on the aircraft carrier, plus one more year of training on the carrier before being permitted to fly alone,” Yin said.
Not a threat
When the Chinese Ministry of National Defense first confirmed the country’s aircraft carrier program last July, spokesman Geng Yansheng said, “The pursuit of an aircraft carrier program will not change the navy’s inshore defense strategy.”
Geng told reporters at a press conference that the aircraft carrier platform will be used for“scientific research, experiments and training.”
Yang reiterated at the September 27 press conference that the Liaoning will be used to conduct scientific experiments and military training.
“China adheres to the path of peaceful development, sticks to the independent foreign policy of peace and pursues a defensive national policy,” he said, adding that the development of the aircraft carrier is to protect national security.
“As a weapon, an aircraft carrier can be used for both defense and offense, and it can also be used for humanitarian purposes,”said Fang Bing, an associate professor at the NDU.
Fang said he did not believe that the commissioning of the Liaoning was directly related to China’s current territorial dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. But he warned that China has zero tolerance for foreign infringement of the country’s territorial waters, with or without an aircraft carrier.
“In dealing with the territorial and mari- time right disputes with some neighboring countries, China has remained committed to solving the problems through diplomatic channels and negotiations, and opposes the use of force or the threat of force. China’s sincerity is well known and should not be doubted,” said Yang Yi, a rear admiral and former dire ctor of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the NDU, in an article in China Daily.
In order to counter claims that its new aircraft carrier is a threat, Yang said that the country should not only continue to make clear its strategies and policies, but also take practical steps to convince the world that with the development of its military strength, especially the strengthening of its navy, China will enhance its role as a defender of regional stability and world peace.
Overseen by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, the carrier was officially handed over by the China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy at a ceremony held at a naval base in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province.
China is the 10th country in the world and the last among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to have an aircraft carrier in active service. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, India, Thailand and Brazil all possess aircraft carriers.
“The delivery and commissioning of the first carrier are milestones in the PLA’s history and embodies a major achievement of China’s weaponry and equipment development, as well as its national defense modernization,” said Premier Wen Jiabao at the handover ceremony.
Ge Lide, an associate professor at the PLA National Defense University (NDU), told the China News Service that Liaoning’s entry into service will promote the PLA Navy’s strategic transformation to become a blue-sea force able to operate on the high seas and raise the country’s capabilities in handling non-conventional security threats.
An accomplished dream
The Liaoning is a conventionally powered carrier rebuilt from the former Ukrainian vessel Varyag.
Construction of the Varyag began in 1985 at a shipyard on the Black Sea. The vessel, with a displacement of around 60,000 tons, was designed to be among the largest carriers in the world at that time. But with the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Varyag had been only two thirds completed before construction stopped. China bought the carrier’s immense armored hull—with no engine, electricity or propeller—from the Ukraine in 1998 and began to refit the vessel in Dalian in 2002.
After 10 years of refitting, the aircraft carrier conducted its first sea trial in August 2011. Before its commissioning, the vessel had undergone 10 sea trials, with the longest one lasting 25 days in July.
“The main system of the Liaoning is the result of independent building and modification,” said Yang Yujun, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, at a press conference on September 27. He said the country has always adhered to the principle of independent innovation in building weaponry, relying on the country’s own capacity for research and development.
After 10 years of refitting, the carrier is equipped with a China-made defense system able to launch attacks on missiles, aircraft and approaching vessels. It also uses a Chinese radar system that can evaluate risks and has a strong anti-interference capability. Since August 2011, the aircraft carrier has undergone 10 sea trials, with the longest one lasting 25 days in July.
During a recent online interview with people.com.cn, a website of the People’s Daily, Major General Qiao Liang, a professor at the Air Force Command Institute, said, “Among medium-sized aircraft carriers around the world, there’s no doubt ours is advanced.”
Chinese military experts say aircraft carriers in active service are of vital importance to China, a country with more than 18,000 km of coastline and 3 million square km of territorial waters. But the process of acquiring its first aircraft carrier, which began more than 40 years ago, has been long and complicated.
Admiral Liu Huaqing, China’s former naval commander known as the “father of China’s aircraft carrier” because of his great support for the program, wrote in his memoir that, “China launched its initial plan for a carrier as early as 1970.”
Besides the Varyag, China has imported three other carriers since the 1980s.
China’s first imported carrier was the retired Melbourne from the Australian Navy in 1985. But the vessel proved nothing more than a pile of scrap metal, and it was dismantled in a shipyard in Guangzhou, southern Guangdong Province, where the iron was recycled.
Two decommissioned Russian vessels were imported and converted into theme parks in 1998—the Kiev in north China’s Tianjin and the Minsk in Shenzhen in Guangdong.
Some Chinese military enthusiasts have questioned the significance of massive expenditures on refitting an old aircraft carrier rather than building a new one, and some have expressed doubts about the combat effectiveness of a refitted vessel.
But Du Wenlong, a researcher with the PLA’s Academy of Military Science, said that refitting an imported carrier for research and training is like writing a draft for an article.
“The draft might be totally deleted in the future, but its value for reference is irreplaceable,” Du said, adding that the most valuable use of the refitted carrier is to help the PLA build a carrier battle group and learn how to use such vessels.
Many high-ranking military officers have suggested China build more aircraft carriers based on the country’s economic strength.
“China will need at least three aircraft carriers,” said Xu Xiaoyan, a PLA lieutenant general, in March.
At the September 27 press conference, Yang said that China will plan the development of aircraft carriers based on its economic and social development and national defense needs. He dismissed foreign media reports saying China is building a second aircraft carrier in Shanghai to be launched later this year.
Combat effectiveness
Though the Liaoning has been commissioned, Li Jie, a researcher at the China Navy Military Academy and a senior colonel, said that it would not be combat ready until 2017.
“Normally, it takes three years for an aircraft carrier to be commissioned after its first sea trial and another five to eight years to be able to enter combat,” Li said. “An aircraft carrier cannot conduct missions alone, but needs protection and support from a fleet including frigates, destroyers and cruisers. Some submarines are also necessary for scouting and anti-submarine tasks.”
A U.S. aircraft carrier is normally accompanied by two missile cruisers, two frigates, two nuclear-driven submarines and a depot ship.
When asked to confirm reports that the PLA Navy will create an aircraft carrier formation in the future and build an aircraft carrier base in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, Shandong Province, Yang told reporters that China will study the issue in accordance with the development and needs of the aircraft carrier.
Yang also revealed that China is developing carrier-borne aircraft based on domestically built planes for which the country has independent intellectual property rights, and relevant procedures are moving forward as scheduled.
Hu Siyuan, a professor at the NDU, was quoted by the Shanghai Daily as saying that the Liaoning’s accompanying warships might include China’s newly developed 052D missile destroyers and Jiang Kai-II frigates. The destroyer is equipped with a 130-mm caliber cannon and has two vertical launch systems to set off Redflag-9B missiles, and the frigate has a helicopter pad. The No.88 ship that accompanied the aircraft carrier during its sea trials is expected to be its depot ship.
China’s J-15 fighters, which analysts say are match for U.S. F-18 Hornet fighters, would probably be used on the carrier. Many photographs have been published showing the plane on the carrier’s deck.
Personnel training is also vital for Liaoning’s combat capacity, according to military experts.
The carrier reportedly has more than 1,000 officers and sailors onboard, with women accounting for 5 percent. More than 98 percent of the crew hold bachelor’s degrees and more than 50 of them have master’s or doctoral degrees.
But Yin Zhuo, Director of the Expert Consultation Committee of the PLA Navy, said that operating an aircraft carrier is no easy task. “Maintenance staff have to learn to maneuver around limited space to repair or refuel the aircraft. And for the command staff, it is a tough task to master the operations of all the aircraft on deck, and it takes time to build a well-coordinated team around the carrier,”he said.
The training of pilots is especially challenging, Yin said.
The Liaoning is reportedly capable of carrying around 30 fixed-wing fighters and helicopters.
“Generally, the training cycle of a carrierborne aircraft pilot lasts for three years. The pilot then has to go through a three-year residency period on the aircraft carrier, plus one more year of training on the carrier before being permitted to fly alone,” Yin said.
Not a threat
When the Chinese Ministry of National Defense first confirmed the country’s aircraft carrier program last July, spokesman Geng Yansheng said, “The pursuit of an aircraft carrier program will not change the navy’s inshore defense strategy.”
Geng told reporters at a press conference that the aircraft carrier platform will be used for“scientific research, experiments and training.”
Yang reiterated at the September 27 press conference that the Liaoning will be used to conduct scientific experiments and military training.
“China adheres to the path of peaceful development, sticks to the independent foreign policy of peace and pursues a defensive national policy,” he said, adding that the development of the aircraft carrier is to protect national security.
“As a weapon, an aircraft carrier can be used for both defense and offense, and it can also be used for humanitarian purposes,”said Fang Bing, an associate professor at the NDU.
Fang said he did not believe that the commissioning of the Liaoning was directly related to China’s current territorial dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. But he warned that China has zero tolerance for foreign infringement of the country’s territorial waters, with or without an aircraft carrier.
“In dealing with the territorial and mari- time right disputes with some neighboring countries, China has remained committed to solving the problems through diplomatic channels and negotiations, and opposes the use of force or the threat of force. China’s sincerity is well known and should not be doubted,” said Yang Yi, a rear admiral and former dire ctor of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the NDU, in an article in China Daily.
In order to counter claims that its new aircraft carrier is a threat, Yang said that the country should not only continue to make clear its strategies and policies, but also take practical steps to convince the world that with the development of its military strength, especially the strengthening of its navy, China will enhance its role as a defender of regional stability and world peace.