China Readies 1st Domestically Built Aircraft Carrier for Sea Trials

Di Vincenzo Santo*

(Da The Diplomat – 4 aprile 2018)

Pekin. China’s first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier, the Type 001A Shandong (CV-17), could take to the sea for the first time this month as final preparations for the ship’s sea trials are underway at the at the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC) shipyard in Liaoning Province. […] The 65,ooo-ton Type […] is an improved variant of the PLAN’s only operational aircraft carrier, the 60,000-ton Type 001 Liaoning — a retrofitted Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov-class multi-role aircraft carrier. […]

The Shandong has been fitted with a so-called ski-jump assisted Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) launch system also installed aboard the Liaoning. STOBAR-launched aircraft have a more limited operational range and carry lighter payloads than fighter jets launched from so-called Catapult-Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) systems used on U.S. Navy carriers (STOBAR systems put a lot of strain on the airframe of fighter jets during take-off). The Shandong will be able to carry up to 24 Shenyang J-15 multirole fighter jets, a variant of the fourth-generation Sukhoi Su-33 twin-engines air superiority fighter, as well as around ten rotary wing aircraft including Changshe Z-18, Ka-31, or Harbin Z-9 helicopters. […]

The Shandong is expected to serve in the PLAN’s North Sea Fleet or East Sea Fleet and unlike the Liaoning, which primarily serves as a test platform for PLAN naval aviation, will be deployed for regular carrier strike group operations.

The Shandong is expected to serve in the PLAN’s North Sea Fleet or East Sea Fleet and unlike the Liaoning

*Generale CA ris

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