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Since the 1970s,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
's
People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...
(PLAN) has had ambitions to develop and operate
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
s, and since 1985 has acquired four retired aircraft carriers for study; namely, the British-built Australian and the ex-
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
carriers , and . The ''Varyag'' later underwent an extensive refit to be converted into the ''Liaoning'', China's first operational aircraft carrier, which also served as a basis for China's subsequent design iterations. , the PLAN has two combat-ready aircraft carriers, the and , with the third, , being fitted out. Wang Yunfei, a retired PLA Navy officer and other naval experts projected that China may possess five or six aircraft carriers by the 2030s.


History


Early ambitions

Since the 1970s, the PLAN has expressed interest in operating an
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
as part of its
blue water Maritime geography is a collection of terms used by naval military units to loosely define three maritime regions: brown water, green water, and blue water. Definitions The elements of maritime geography are loosely defined and their meanings hav ...
aspirations. To prepare the commanders needed for the future aircraft carriers, the Central Military Commission approved the program of training jet fighter pilots to be future captains in May 1987, and the Guangzhou Naval Academy was selected as the site.


Acquisition of HMAS ''Melbourne''

China acquired the Royal Australian Navy's decommissioned aircraft carrier in February 1985, when it was sold to the China United Shipbuilding Company to be towed to China and broken up for scrap. Prior to the ship's departure for China, the RAN stripped ''Melbourne'' of all electronic equipment and weapons, and welded her rudders into a fixed position so that she could not be reactivated. However, her steam catapult, arresting equipment and mirror landing system were not removed. At this time, few western experts expected that the Chinese government would attempt to develop aircraft carriers in the future. ''Melbourne'' finally arrived in China on 13 June. The ship was not scrapped immediately; instead she was studied by Chinese naval architects and engineers. It is unclear whether the
People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...
(PLAN) orchestrated the acquisition of ''Melbourne'' or simply took advantage of the situation; Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong, a staff member at the National Defence College, has stated that the Navy was unaware of the purchase until ''Melbourne'' first arrived at Guangzhou. ''Melbourne'' was the largest warship any of the Chinese experts had seen, and they were surprised by the amount of equipment which was still in place. The PLAN subsequently arranged for the ship's flight deck and all the equipment associated with flying operations to be removed so that they could be studied in depth. Reports have circulated that either a replica of the flight deck, or the deck itself, was used for clandestine training of
People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...
pilots in carrier flight operations. Chinese engineers reverse-engineered a land-based replica of the steam catapult and landing system from that of , and a J-8IIG was used to conduct take-off and landing trials on the land-based flight deck in April 1987, which was not finally confirmed officially until 27 years later in April 2014 by
CCTV-13 CCTV-13 (, China Central Television News Channel), formerly CCTV News (), broadcasting across China since 2003, is a 24-hour news channel of China Central Television and the biggest news channel in mainland China. Content CCTV News channel broad ...
. Both the take-off and landing were conducted on the same day, and the test pilot was
PLANAF The People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF; ) is the naval aviation branch of the People's Liberation Army Navy. Overview Historically, the PLANAF's main role has been to provide the navy's warships with air defense coverage. Part of ...
pilot Li Guoqiang. The experience gained would be later applied to the development of the
Shenyang J-15 The Shenyang J-15 (Chinese: 歼-15), also known as ''Flying Shark'' (; NATO reporting name: Flanker-X2, is a Chinese all-weather, twinjet, carrier-based fourth-generation multirole fighter aircraft developed by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporat ...
. It has also been claimed that the Royal Australian Navy received and "politely rejected" a request from the PLAN for blueprints of the ship's steam catapult. The carrier was not dismantled for many years; according to some rumours she was not completely broken up until 2002.


Other acquisition attempts

China also negotiated with Spain in an effort purchase the blueprints for proposed conventional take off/landing ships from ''Empresa Nacional Bazán'', specifically 23,000-ton SAC-200 and 25,000-ton SAC-220 designs. Negotiations started between 1995 and 1996 but did not result in any purchase. However, the Spanish firm was paid several million US dollars in consulting fees, indicating the probable transfer of some design concepts. China acquired the former Soviet s in 1995 and in 2000. ''Minsk'', along with its sister ship , were initially sold to South Korea in 1995 to be scrapped, but due to objections from environmentalists, ''Minsk'' was resold to China in 1998 to be broken up there instead. ''Kiev'', likewise, was sold to China in 2000 by Russia with a contractual requirement for it to be scrapped. However, neither ship was dismantled and both were instead converted into tourist attractions, with ''Minsk'' turned into a theme park and ''Kiev'' a luxury hotel. In 1997, China attempted to purchase the retired French aircraft carrier , but negotiations between China and France failed.


''Liaoning'' (Type 001)

The 67,500 ton ex- Soviet aircraft carrier ''Varyag'' (), which was only 68% completed and floating in
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, was purchased through a private
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
tourist venture in 1998. Following her troublesome tow to Dalian shipyard, the carrier underwent a long refit. ''Varyag'' had been stripped of any military equipment as well as her propulsion systems prior to being put up for sale. In 2007 there were news reports that she was being fitted-out to enter service. In 2011,
People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...
Chief of the General Staff
Chen Bingde Chen Bingde (; born July 1941) is a retired general ('' shangjiang'') in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He was the Director-General of the General Armaments Department until September 2007. In this position he acted as the head of the space ...
confirmed that China was constructing at least one aircraft carrier. On 10 August 2011, it was announced that the refurbishment of ''Varyag'' was complete, and that it was undergoing sea trials. On 14 December 2011, DigitalGlobe, an American Satellite imaging company, announced that while scouring through pictures taken 8 December, it had discovered the retrofitted ''Varyag'' undergoing trials, DigitalGlobe further stated that their images captured the ship in the Yellow Sea where it operated for 5 days. In September 2012, it was announced that this carrier would be named ''Liaoning'', after
Liaoning Province Liaoning () is a coastal provinces of China, province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and i ...
of China. In September 2012, China's first aircraft carrier, ''Liaoning'', was commissioned. On 23 September 2012, ''Liaoning'' was handed over to the People's Liberation Army Navy, but was not yet in active service. In November 2012, the first landing was successfully conducted on ''Liaoning'' with
Shenyang J-15 The Shenyang J-15 (Chinese: 歼-15), also known as ''Flying Shark'' (; NATO reporting name: Flanker-X2, is a Chinese all-weather, twinjet, carrier-based fourth-generation multirole fighter aircraft developed by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporat ...
. Four years later, in November 2016, it was reported that ''Liaoning'' was combat ready. China has confirmed that it is constructing a second carrier that will be built entirely with indigenous Chinese designs. Similar to ''Liaoning'', China's second carrier will also use a
ski jump Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the final ...
for takeoff.


Current status

In mid-2007, Chinese domestic sources revealed that China had purchased a total of four sets of aircraft carrier landing systems from Russia and this was confirmed by Russian manufacturers. However, experts disagreed on the usage of these systems: while some have claimed that it is a clear evidence of the construction of an aircraft carrier, others claim these systems are used to train pilots for a future ship. Reports initially claimed that up to two carriers based on the ''Varyag'' would be started by 2015. According to the
Nippon News Network Nippon News Network (NNN) is a Japanese commercial television network owned by Nippon Television, which itself is controlled by the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' newspaper. The network's responsibility includes the syndication of national television news ...
(NNN), research and development on the planned carriers is being carried out at a military research facility in
Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...
. NNN states that the actual carriers will be constructed at
Jiangnan Shipyard Jiangnan Shipyard () is a historic shipyard in Shanghai, China. The shipyard has been state-owned since its founding in 1865 and is now operated as Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co. Ltd. Before 2009, the company was south of central Shanghai at ...
in
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
. ''Kanwa Intelligence Review'' reports that the second carrier to be constructed will likely be assigned to
Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
. According to a February 2011 report in ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'', the Chinese military has constructed a concrete aircraft carrier flight deck to use for training carrier pilots and carrier operations personnel. The deck was constructed on top of a government building near Wuhan (Wuhan Technical College of Communication campus next to Huangjiahu). On 7 June 2011,
People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...
Chief of the General Staff
Chen Bingde Chen Bingde (; born July 1941) is a retired general ('' shangjiang'') in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He was the Director-General of the General Armaments Department until September 2007. In this position he acted as the head of the space ...
confirmed that China was constructing its own aircraft carrier. He stated he would provide no further details until it was complete. On 30 July 2011, a senior researcher of the Academy of Military Sciences said China needed at least three aircraft carriers. "If we consider our neighbours, India will have three aircraft carriers by 2014 and Japan will have three carriers by 2014, so I think the number (for China) should not be less than three so we can defend our rights and our maritime interests effectively." General Luo Yuan. In July 2011, a Chinese official announced that two aircraft carriers were being built at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai. On 21 May 2012, Taiwan's intelligence chief Tsai Teh-sheng told the Legislative Yuan that the PLA Navy plans to build two carriers, scheduled to start construction in 2013 and 2015 and launch in 2020 and 2022 respectively. The price of the two vessels is estimated to be worth US$9 Billion dollars. On 24 April 2013, Chinese Rear Admiral Song Xue confirmed that China will build more carriers and these will be larger and will carry more fighter-planes than ''Liaoning''.


''Shandong'' (Type 002)

The Type 002, or Shandong, is China's first domestically produced aircraft carrier. Construction began in November 2013 and the ship was launched on 26 April 2017. After being fitted out, China's first homemade aircraft carrier underwent nine sea trials over the course of 18 months, starting from May 2018. The ship was formally commissioned into service on 19 December 2019 as the ''Shandong'', with pennant number "17". The 002 is a conventionally powered ski jump carrier with a displacement of around 70,000 tonnes. The ship is derived from the ''Liaoning''. It uses conventional steam turbines with diesel generators as propulsion. The ''Shandong'' is a significant improvement over the Soviet-built ''Liaoning''. For example, the ''Shandong'' carrier's ski-jump has an angle of 12.0°, an angle ideal for launching the
Shenyang J-15 The Shenyang J-15 (Chinese: 歼-15), also known as ''Flying Shark'' (; NATO reporting name: Flanker-X2, is a Chinese all-weather, twinjet, carrier-based fourth-generation multirole fighter aircraft developed by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporat ...
fighter, instead of the 14.0° on the ''Liaoning''. Together with the enlarged
hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
, the
island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
(which has been made smaller by 10%), and extended on sponsons in the aft-starboard quarter, space has been freed up allowing for up to eight more aircraft and helicopters to be carried. The island includes a second glazed deck which permits the bridge and flight control areas to be separate, creating greater operational efficiency. It also features a faceted upper area of four
active electronically scanned array An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a type of phased array antenna, which is a computer-controlled array antenna in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the an ...
s (AESAs) for the S-band
Type 346 radar Type 346 radar is a highly digitized, multi-function, dual-band (S and C bands) naval active electronically scanned array (AESA) installed on Type 052C destroyers, Type 052D destroyers, Type 055 destroyers and Type 002 aircraft carriers of the PLA ...
.


''Fujian'' (Type 003)

The third aircraft carrier, known as Fujian, is an entirely different design than ''Liaoning'' and ''Shandong''. It is the largest of China's current fleet. The Type 003 will have a displacement of around 85,000 to 100,000 tonnes and be slightly smaller in size than the US Navy's Ford Class ships. In 2015, media reports stated that both an
electromagnetic catapult An electromagnetic catapult, also called EMALS ("electromagnetic aircraft launch system") after the specific US system, is a type of aircraft launching system. Currently, only the United States and China have successfully developed it, and it i ...
and a steam-powered catapult were constructed at the Huangdicun naval base for testing; this is thought to indicate that the Type 003 class as well as future PLAN carriers could possibly be
CATOBAR CATOBAR ("Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery" or "Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery") is a system used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Under this technique, aircraft ...
carriers. The construction of the first Type 003 class aircraft carrier started in February 2017. Satellite observation at the
Jiangnan Shipyard Jiangnan Shipyard () is a historic shipyard in Shanghai, China. The shipyard has been state-owned since its founding in 1865 and is now operated as Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co. Ltd. Before 2009, the company was south of central Shanghai at ...
in
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
only shows one carrier of this type under construction. It was reported in early 2021 that the first ship would be launched in the same year, with construction already started on a second ship in this class. On 10 November 2021, Bloomberg reported that "China is three to six months away from launching its third aircraft carrier", citing a report by the
Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...
. On June 17, 2022, the Type 003, now named Fujian was officially completed and launched.


Type 004

The Type 004 is planned to be larger than the Type 003, and also feature nuclear propulsion, which could power weapons like lasers and
railgun A railgun or rail gun is a linear motor device, typically designed as a weapon, that uses Electromagnet, electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles. The projectile normally does not contain explosives, instead relying on the proj ...
s. It is claimed that construction started in December 2017 at Jiangnan Shipyard.


Development of carrier-based aircraft

China initially intended to acquire Russian
Sukhoi Su-33 The Sukhoi Su-33 (russian: Сухой Су-33; NATO reporting name: ''Flanker-D'') is an all-weather carrier-based twin-engine air superiority fighter designed by Sukhoi and manufactured by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association ...
carrier-based aircraft Carrier-based aircraft, sometimes known as carrier-capable aircraft or carrier-borne aircraft, are naval aircraft designed for operations from aircraft carriers. They must be able to launch in a short distance and be sturdy enough to withstand ...
to be operated from its aircraft carriers. However, China later developed the
Shenyang J-15 The Shenyang J-15 (Chinese: 歼-15), also known as ''Flying Shark'' (; NATO reporting name: Flanker-X2, is a Chinese all-weather, twinjet, carrier-based fourth-generation multirole fighter aircraft developed by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporat ...
as a derivative of the Su-33, featuring Chinese technology and avionics from the J-11B program. On 25 November 2012, it was announced that at least two Shenyang J-15s had successfully landed on ''Liaoning''. The pilot credited with having achieved the first landing was Dai Mingmeng. According to Chinese media reports, the J-15 cannot take off from ''Liaoning'' with a full fuel and munition load, being unable to get off the carrier's ski jump-ramp if the payload exceeds . In a follow up review by Rick Joe of the Diplomat in 2021, he argued that the source of this Chinese media was unreliable and proved that the J-15 was able to take off with MTOW when the speed of the carrier was taken into calculation. The
Shenyang FC-31 The Shenyang FC-31 Gyrfalcon ( zh, s=鹘鹰, p=Gǔ yīng), also known as the J-31 is a Chinese prototype mid-sized twinjet 5th-generation fighter aircraft developed by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC). The official nickname published by SA ...
is an in-development medium-sized fifth-generation stealth fighter that may in future be adopted for carrier use. The ''
South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...
'' reported on 6 July 2018 that China is developing an upgraded variant of the FC-31 as an alternate carrier operational jet. The Xi'an KJ-600 is an in-development
high High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...
-
straight wing The wing configuration of a fixed-wing aircraft (including both gliders and powered aeroplanes) is its arrangement of lifting and related surfaces. Aircraft designs are often classified by their wing configuration. For example, the Supermarin ...
AEW&C aircraft suspected to be fitted with an
AESA Aesa or Aisa ( grc, Αἶσα) was a town of ancient Macedonia. Aesa belonged to the Delian League since it appears on a tribute list to Athens in 434/3 BCE. The editors of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World identify Aesa wi ...
-type
radome A radome (a portmanteau of radar and dome) is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna (radio), antenna. The radome is constructed of material transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weather and ...
system, and current non-flying mock-up model has a striking external resemblance to the aftward-folding
Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye The Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is an American all-weather, carrier-capable tactical airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft. This twin-turboprop aircraft was designed and developed during the late 1950s and early 1960s by the Grumman Aircraft ...
, a carrier-based AEW&C aircraft serving the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. The design is likely to be a case of form following function, as the cancelled Soviet Yak-44 shared the same layout. Rick Joe, who writes extensively on Chinese aviation and naval developments for ''
The Diplomat ''The Diplomat'' is an international online news magazine covering politics, society, and culture in the Indo-Pacific region. It is based in Washington, D.C. It was originally an Australian bi-monthly print magazine, founded by Minh Bui Jones ...
, commented that "fixed-wing carrier-borne AEW&C are a vital and essential part to any navy that seeks to field a robust and capable carrier airwing, and their ability to enhance a
carrier group A carrier battle group (CVBG) is a naval fleet consisting of an aircraft carrier capital ship and its large number of naval convoy, escorts, together defining the group. The ''CV'' in ''CVBG'' is the Hull classification symbol#Aircraft carrie ...
's offensive and defensive capabilities and overall
situational awareness Situational awareness or situation awareness (SA) is the perception of environmental elements and events with respect to time or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their future status. An alternative definition is tha ...
and
network-centric warfare Network-centric warfare, also called network-centric operations or net-centric warfare, is a military doctrine or theory of war that aims to translate an information advantage, enabled partly by information technology, into a competitive advantag ...
is unmatched by any other platform type that will exist in the near future." Analysts H. I. Sutton believed the KJ-600 will be a massive boost to the Chinese Navy, and "once it enters service on the carriers, it will greatly enhance the aerial and maritime situational awareness, and the offensive and defensive capabilities of the carrier group", and that "Chinese aerospace and military industry has certainly shown its ability to develop quite modern and capable AEW&C systems for other air, naval and ground applications".


List of carriers


See also

* *
List of aircraft carriers in service This is a list of aircraft carriers which are currently in service, under maintenance or refit, in reserve, under construction, or being updated. An aircraft carrier is a warship with a full-length flight deck, hangar and facilities for arming, d ...
*
DF-21D The Dong-Feng 21 (DF-21; NATO reporting name CSS-5 - Dong-Feng () is a two-stage, solid-fuel rocket, single-warhead medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) in the Dong Feng series developed by China Changfeng Mechanics and Electronics Technology A ...
– Chinese
anti-ship ballistic missile An anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is a military ballistic missile system Anti-ship missile, designed to hit a warship at sea. Due to the often hypersonic flight speed of ballistic missiles an ASBM's kinetic energy alone may be sufficient t ...


References


External links


China / Aircraft Carrier Project
GlobalSecurity.org * Rick Joe
A Mid-2019 Guide to Chinese Aircraft Carriers: What is the future trajectory of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy carrier program?
"The Diplomat," 18 June 2019. Varying use of "“001A” and “002” designations {{Portal bar, China, War Proposed aircraft carriers Projects established in 2015 2015 in China