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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China's first aircraft carrier entering service |
| 2012-09-26 |
| BEIJING: China formally entered its first aircraft carrier into service on Tuesday, underscoring its ambitions to be a leading Asian naval power, although the ship is not expected to carry a full complement of planes or be ready for combat for some time. The Defense Ministry’s announcement had been long expected and was not directly linked to current tensions with Japan over a disputed group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. In a brief notice on its website, the ministry said the carrier’s commissioning significantly boosted the navy’s combat capabilities and its ability to cooperate in responding to natural disasters and other non-traditional threats. “It has important significance in effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development benefits, and advancing world peace and common development,” the statement said. China had partly justified the launching of a carrier by pointing out that it alone among the five permanent United Nations Security Council members had no such craft. That had been particularly glaring given the constant presence in Asia of carriers operated by the US Navy, which maintains 11 worldwide. President Hu Jintao, also chairman of the commission that controls the military, presided over a ceremony Tuesday morning at the ship’s home port of Dalian, along with Premier Wen Jiabao and top generals. Hu “fully affirmed” the efforts of those working on the ship and called on them to complete all remaining tasks according to the highest standard, the Defense Ministry said. The carrier is the former Soviet navy’s unfinished Varyag, which was towed from Ukraine in 1998 minus its engines, weaponry and navigation systems. Christened the Liaoning after the northeastern province surrounding Dalian, the ship began sea trials in August 2011 following years of refurbishment. So far the trial runs of the aircraft carrier have been to test the ship’s propulsion, communications and navigation systems. But launching and recovering fixed-wing aircraft at sea is a much trickier proposition. It will take years to build the proper aircraft, to train pilots to land in adverse weather on a moving deck, and to develop a proper carrier battle group. Beijing hasn’t said what role it intends the carrier to fill other than helping safeguard China’s coastline and sea links. The Liaoning has also been portrayed as a kind of test platform for the future development of up to five domestically built Chinese carriers. Writing in Tuesday’s China Daily newspaper, retired Rear Adm. Yang Yi said the carrier will be used to master the technology for more advanced carriers. He said it also will be used to train in how to operate such a craft in a battle group and with vessels from other nation’s navies. Whatever its practical effects on China’s global status, the carrier embodies huge symbolism for China’s political and military leaders as a totem of their country’s rise from weakness to strength, according to Andrew S. Erickson, a China naval specialist at the US Naval War College. “While (Chinese navy) acceptance of this ‘starter carrier’ is the first step in a long journey, it is a journey that will take place in full view of the world, and one that will ultimately take Beijing to a new place as a great sea power,” Erickson wrote on his blog. The carrier’s political importance was highlighted in Wen’s remarks to the ceremony, in which he said it would “arouse national pride and patriotic passion.” “This has mighty and deep significance for the opening of a new facet in our enterprise of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” he said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 Yes, the Chinese continue to aspire to grow their naval forces to the point that they are as capable as the Brazilians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_aircraft_carrier_S%C3%A3o_Paulo_%28A12%29 This is a big nothing militarily, but it does give the USA the green light to sell any kind of cool sh*t to the Taiwanese. So, Taiwan, what do you want? |
| Posted by: rammer 2012-09-26 19:44 |
| #3 We will still have to wait because it takes a long time to get beyond the amatuer level when it comes to carrier and fleet operations. Also a single carrier is a target, they need more than that to be a serious threat. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2012-09-26 14:43 |
| #2 If we keep on cutting our Naval forces, we won't have to wait until 2020 for them to challenge the US on the high seas. |
| Posted by: SLindsey 2012-09-26 10:55 |
| #1 China intends its new "SHILENG/LIAONING" CV to be dual or multi-use, manly training for its new carrier aviation corps/cadres + "showing the flag", but also for legit MilOps in times of national crisis. Year 2020 is the yarn to watch, both as per possible SSSSSHHHH...CCCCCCCCC anti-US OWG? + China is planning to dev an additional 2-3 CV Groups, to include possible US-style Supercarrier as well as possible USS WASP-CLASS styled LHDS. China is also repor mulling purchasing either another ex-Soviet CV or a UK Royal Navy CV to convert into a nuclear CV testbed + CVT. * WORLD MILITARY FORUM > RUSSIAN MEDIA: CHINA'S TOP LEADERS PROCLAIM THE PLAN'S CARRIER AVIATION TECHNOLOGY AS SUPERIOR TO RUSSIA'S + BRITAIN'S, + SECOND IN THE WORLD ONLY TO THE USA. * DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Chinese-Military-Aviation = blogspot] CHINA DEVELOPING 40,000-TONNE HELICOPTER CARRIER!?, similar to USN asp-CLASS LHD as per recent Chin Govt. decision. Its clear that China [+ Iran?] hope one day to effec challenge USN dominance of the seven seas. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-09-26 00:46 |