China Conducts Successful Landing On First Aircraft Carrier

[News_Editor]

China conducts successful landing on first aircraft carrier < br />

2012-11-26 07:20:39 GMT+7 (ICT)

BEIJING, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- A Chinese fighter jet recently carried out the first successful landing on the country's first aircraft carrier, defense officials and state-run media announced on Sunday. The flight also marked the public debut of the home-built Shenyang J-15 fighter jet.

Photos and video released by state-run television showed the aircraft, which has capabilities that are comparable to the U.S.-built F-18, as it took off and landed on the aircraft carrier. It was not clear when or where the landing took place, but defense officials said it was part of recent exercises.

The aircraft carrier, known as Liaoning, completed its maiden sea trial in August 2011 but advanced cable landing technology was not installed until recently. Liaoning is a former Soviet aircraft carrier which has been completely refitted for its new role as a platform for research and pilot naval training at the Dalian shipyard in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The Admiral Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier was 70 percent complete when China bought it from Ukraine for $20 million in 1998. China started an overhaul of the vessel in 2005, and the 305 meter (1,000 feet)-long vessel is now capable of carrying up to 26 aircraft and 24 helicopters.

While the introduction of the aircraft carrier comes amid escalating territorial disputes with neighbors, China previously stressed the carrier is intended solely for scientific research, experiments and training. There are currently a total of 21 active-service aircraft carriers worldwide, and China was the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) which was not in possession of one.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-11-26

[ttelise]

Wow, they are certainly ahead of the curve technology wise. An Ukranian designed carrier at that . . .

Edited November 26, 2012 by ttelise

[Sing_Sling]

Oh dear . . . I can just see the American neo-cons call for more military spending because China has 'caught up'.

[negreanu]

Looks like he got the 4th cable.... keep practising.

[ttelise]

Nice, China got ahold of a SU-33 and copied it. Even China's fighters are Chinese made knock offs or bootlegs.

Edited November 26, 2012 by ttelise

[chuckd]

Oh dear . . . I can just see the American neo-cons call for more military spending because China has 'caught up'.

Before we declare it the mother of all weapon platforms why don't we wait until the Chinese start recovering aircraft at night in high seas to see how well this 14 year old carrier performs

[Sing_Sling]

Oh dear . . . I can just see the American neo-cons call for more military spending because China has 'caught up'.

Before we declare it the mother of all weapon platforms why don't we wait until the Chinese start recovering aircraft at night in high seas to see how well this 14 year old carrier performs

I'm still cringing about the Aus navy losing choppers over the side of ours

[chiangmaikelly]

What countries have aircraft carriers now?

[transam]

Oh dear . . . I can just see the American neo-cons call for more military spending because China has 'caught up'.

Doubt it. Stuff has moved on. Carrier can be taken out in this day and age. Carriers are still used in regions where the opposition are numnuts.

[Fozfromoz]

What countries have aircraft carriers now?

Just about everyone except Australia.............

[Dancealot]

The chinese have been working on this for years. This is great news for them. It means they can actually deploy an aircraft carrier now.

[chiangmaikelly]

What countries have aircraft carriers now?

Just about everyone except Australia.............

193 countries in the world and 10 have operational aircraft carriers. I don't think that is everyone is it?

[Fozfromoz]

What countries have aircraft carriers now?

Just about everyone except Australia.............

193 countries in the world and 10 have operational aircraft carriers. I don't think that is everyone is it?

Ok, if you want to split hairs I didn't say everyone. If you knew the answer why did you ask in the first place?

[chiangmaikelly]

What countries have aircraft carriers now?

Just about everyone except Australia.............

193 countries in the world and 10 have operational aircraft carriers. I don't think that is everyone is it?

Ok, if you want to split hairs I didn't say everyone. If you knew the answer why did you ask in the first place?

I looked it up after you said everyone because that sounded odd to me. I mean I knew Thailand and the USA have them but I wondered about what other countries.

[ttelise]

The chinese have been working on this for years. This is great news for them. It means they can actually deploy an aircraft carrier now.

US and GB has had aircraft carriers for how long? Not like China will be able to position theirs in any place that could be considered tactically advantageous. The key now is technology of weaponry systems. US, Great Britian and Israel could take J-15s down miles before their weapons are within range of our planes. US could also take their carrier out before they even get a launch of their planes fully underway.

As mentioned, carriers are good for conflicts with small countries like Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Carrier great for national pride I suppose.

Edited November 26, 2012 by ttelise

[Fozfromoz]

@Chiangmaikelly.

No problemo. My first point was a dig at my homeland, pure sarcasm :-)

[folium]

Oh dear . . . I can just see the American neo-cons call for more military spending because China has 'caught up'.

Doubt it. Stuff has moved on. Carrier can be taken out in this day and age. Carriers are still used in regions where the opposition are numnuts.

Carriers are and always have been very vulnerable to attack. But they are great for force projection and sheer intimidation. A Chinese carrier fleet in the South China Sea and beyond would really make the point about the new kid on the block. Believe naval type call this a Blue Water (ie ocean going) capability as opposied to a Green Water coastal role.

The Chinese are busy building somewhere betwen 3 to 5 of their own carriers, and this ex-Soviet ship is for training in the meantime. They bought 3 other Soviet carries and HMAS Melbourne to research carrier technology and specifications.

[chuckd]

The chinese have been working on this for years. This is great news for them. It means they can actually deploy an aircraft carrier now.

In three to five more years. Remember sea trials?

[JimmyTheMook]

Not all that comfortable if these end up parked at your doorstep.

[Dancealot]

The chinese have been working on this for years. This is great news for them. It means they can actually deploy an aircraft carrier now.

In three to five more years. Remember sea trials?

Ok i catch your drift.. Anyway the testing has been done on the Chinese vessel. The trial has to have been done on the aircraft landing.

Edited November 26, 2012 by Dancealot

[Zatoichi]

Sure it seems like nothing at the moment, but keep in mind building up ones military is not a quick process. You need to have it in place well before hostilities break out . That and China has the world by the balls production wise, they are the worlds factory choking the rest of the competition out of business. Do you want them to control the worlds manufacturing, AND be a military powerhouse?

[Morch]

China having aircraft carrier isn't a major issue from a military point of view, more to do with politics and prestige, possible as slight intimidation vs. some of the neighbors.

Having an aircraft carrier is not quite the same as having a few decades worth of operating them.

[Publicus]

The CCP-PRC has yet to organize an aircraft carrier battle group of ships, which include both surface and submarine craft. The PLA Navy doesn't yet know which ships it can put into a Chinese aircraft carrier battle group if Beijing were to organize one.. The PLA Navy needs thousands of highly trained personnel and sophisticated systems of radar, ASW and other offensive and defensive weaponry. Then a single aircraft carrier battle group must train and drill and train and drill until they are coordinated spontaneously, without having to think about what their function is, 100%. The PLA will need several years to a decade just to get this one previously owned aircraft carrier at the center of a noticable naval flotilla that is not only functional, but a highly effective instrument of naval power and of a nation's ability to assert itself by projecting power globally on the surface, in the air and beneath the surface. .

The CCP-PRC knows it's a long way from forming, organizing and operating an effective aircraft carrier battle group of up to a dozen ships to include nuclear powered attack submarines. Meanwhile India has one carrier and two more on order. Japan also has one small carrier and group with two more in the works.

Beijing knows it cannot become a global power, a naval one especially, unless it first can become a regional power. Hence its broad maritime assertions in the South China Sea, the East Sea and anywhere else it believes it can bully smaller and weaker governments and countries. However, the CCP-PRC is hemmed in regionally by Japan and S Korea in the northeast and by Indonesia, the Phillipines, Thailand, Singapore, Australia to the south and east. And India is building a naval base on the Andaman Islands which are at the northern tip of the Strait of Malacca - India is doing this in accordance with its recent "Look East" naval policies, in addition to its creating two new infantry mountain divisions along its land border with China because of Beijing's belligerence against its maritime "neighbors" from Japan to Singapore.

The reality is that the PLA Navy are fish in a barrel. And a very small barrel at that. Beijing isn't going to be able to break out of its inner ring of islands region ten years from now with one small flotilla of warships assembled around a previously owned aircraft carrier that has a dozen fighter planes hanging off it. The CCP-PRC is in a region of nations whose economies are strong and which have strong naval capacities in the present which will only increase in the immediate future because of the usual foolhardy decisions of predictable fascist dictators, this time in Beijing.

This one PLA Navy aircraft carrier and one plane that landed on it yesterday is either a joke or a diversion. Neither is a good place for Beijing to be. Nobody trusts the gang of thug dictators in Beijing, aircraft carrier or not.

[maidu]

90 years after Americans landed planes on the first a.c. carrier.

I wouldn't worry too soon about Chinese tech prowess. Besides copying everything remotely high tech (as mentioned earlier), their copies are crummy. I just did some plumbing maintanance on a 12 year old house. The shut-off cocks and faucets were made in Chinese and Thai companies. Many failures. Pieces of metal breaking right and left. Even when they copy western designs, they use inferior materials or allow thinner/weaker material (thinking, "we will save a penny per unit by making this metal a bit thinner (or a bit inferior quality metal), it should be just as strong, don't you think?."

Question: what merchandise quality is worse: Thai, Chinese or Indian?

Answer: I don't know.

What countries have aircraft carriers now?

US has the lion's share, of course. Down the line: UK, France, Russia, and possibly China (if you count the one they're testing). Oh, and Thailand, if it doesn't matter whether it has planes to launch. Perhaps a few others.

[Baloo22]

Agree with Publicus and others. There is a huge gulf between landing one aircraft on a carrier and being able to conduct effective carrier strike operations. The U.S. and Great Britain both have well over sixty years experience in effective carrier operations. Even after a decade, China will only be able to use it to bully (or attempt to bully) less powerful nations in the region. Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia come to mind. Spratly Islands anyone! In fact, that is the most likely purpose for which they purchased the darn thing in the first place!

[chooka]

Oh dear . . . I can just see the American neo-cons call for more military spending because China has 'caught up'.

Before we declare it the mother of all weapon platforms why don't we wait until the Chinese start recovering aircraft at night in high seas to see how well this 14 year old carrier performs

I'm still cringing about the Aus navy losing choppers over the side of ours

Actually I don't think Australia has an aircraft carrier, If we do it is stealth. Wasn't the Melbourne taken out of service in the late 70's early 80's? I think you can relax.

[Sing_Sling]

Oh dear . . . I can just see the American neo-cons call for more military spending because China has 'caught up'.

Before we declare it the mother of all weapon platforms why don't we wait until the Chinese start recovering aircraft at night in high seas to see how well this 14 year old carrier performs

I'm still cringing about the Aus navy losing choppers over the side of ours

Actually I don't think Australia has an aircraft carrier, If we do it is stealth. Wasn't the Melbourne taken out of service in the late 70's early 80's? I think you can relax.

I'm an ex-Navy Lt . . . relax? About this? You have no idea about the stick we received and I wasn't even around then. Yup, the last of three aircraft carriers . . . for the mouse that roared . . . and realised it was a - mouse

[folium]

The CCP-PRC knows it's a long way from forming, organizing and operating an effective aircraft carrier battle group of up to a dozen ships to include nuclear powered attack submarines. Meanwhile India has one carrier and two more on order. Japan also has one small carrier and group with two more in the works.

Beijing knows it cannot become a global power, a naval one especially, unless it first can become a regional power. Hence its broad maritime assertions in the South China Sea, the East Sea and anywhere else it believes it can bully smaller and weaker governments and countries.

The reality is that the PLA Navy are fish in a barrel. And a very small barrel at that. Beijing isn't going to be able to break out of its inner ring of islands region ten years from now with one small flotilla of warships assembled around a previously owned aircraft carrier that has a dozen fighter planes hanging off it. The CCP-PRC is in a region of nations whose economies are strong and which have strong naval capacities in the present which will only increase in the immediate future because of the usual foolhardy decisions of predictable fascist dictators, this time in Beijing.

This one PLA Navy aircraft carrier and one plane that landed on it yesterday is either a joke or a diversion. Neither is a good place for Beijing to be. Nobody trusts the gang of thug dictators in Beijing, aircraft carrier or not.

I hope you are right, but you appear to overlook the fact that China is currently constructing 3, possibly as many as 5, carriers with the aim of having the reach and potential to dominate the western Pacific out to what it calls the Second Island Chain (see below). Interesting article below which highlights that the cost of such a strategy may well be the biggest hurdle to PLAN's blue-water dream.

http://www.atimes.co...a/NK16Ad01.html

And if you are interested here is a longer, more detailed article (including a fascinating account of how China acquired 3 ex-Soviet carriers in a somewhat underhand style).

HMAS Melbourne was a real gift to China allowing it to study the construction methods (albeit 1940/50 style) and after it was scrapped the flight deck was kept for flight training.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2004/art6-w04.htm

Edited November 30, 2012 by folium

[Dancealot]

To me it seems to blatantly sharing this intel is a far too delicate subject matter. Surely Mr folium doesn't plan venture to the Chinese region anywhere soon..

Edited November 30, 2012 by Dancealot

[Ricardo]

What countries have aircraft carriers now?

Nice to see China finally catch up with Thailand !