First China-made aircraft carrier starts sea trials
BEIJING: China’s first domestically manufactured aircraft carrier has started sea trials, state media said, a landmark in Beijing’s ambitious plans to modernise its navy.
The carrier, known only as Type 001A, set out for the trials from a port in northeastern China on Saturday morning, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Expected to be commissioned by 2020, the ship will give China a second aircraft carrier as it asserts its claims in the South China Sea and seeks to deter any independence movements in Taiwan.
Footage aired by CCTV showed the imposing carrier, accompanied by several smaller military craft, leaving a wharf and heading out to sea.
It was the first time the ship’s engine, propulsion and navigation systems would be tested at sea, state media said, a year after it first took to the water at its official launch.
China’s sole operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, is a repurposed Soviet ship bought from Ukraine, which went into service in 2012.
Neither the Liaoning or the new ship are nuclear powered, but both can carry around 40 planes and have similar “ski jump” ramps, an old launch system that forces aircraft to carry fewer weapons in order to hold more fuel for take-off.
The possession of a homegrown aircraft carrier – which the defence ministry has said displaces 55,000 tonnes – places China among the few military powers with such vessels, including the United States, Russia and Britain.
But it would still be no match in size or range to the nuclear powered vessels of the United States Navy, which has 11 carriers. — AFP