China’s first indigenous carrier sets out for sea trials
China has dispatched its first domestically-built aircraft carrier for sea trials, a sizable step toward modernizing the country’s military and boosting its capabilities.
China’s first entirely locally-built aircraft carrier left the port of Dalian in the northeastern province of Liaoning and started its maiden sea trial early on Sunday, according to Chinese state media.
The 50,000-ton ship, temporarily named Type 001A, is the country’s second aircraft carrier, the other being a retrofitted Soviet-era vessel, the Liaoning.
“Our country’s second aircraft carrier set sail from its dock in the Dalian shipyard for relevant waters to conduct a sea trial mission, mainly to inspect and verify the reliability and stability of mechanical systems and other equipment,” the official Xinhua news agency said.
Construction on the carrier has been carried out as planned since it began in April last year, and equipment debugging, outfitting, and mooring tests have been completed to make it ready for the trial mission at sea, according to Xinhua, which cited unnamed sources.
Type 001A, which is roughly 315 meters in length and 75 meters in width, is a conventionally-powered vessel and will be able to carry China’s Shenyang J-15 fighter jets.
The aircraft carrier is scheduled to be formally commissioned before 2020 following the completion of sea trials and the arrival of its full air complements.
China has previously announced readiness to increase its military budget by 8.1 percent to 1.1 trillion yuan (173 billion dollars) in 2018, in an effort to further modernize the world’s largest army.
The military is also to integrate stealth fighters into its air force and field an array of advanced missiles capable of attacking air and sea targets at long distances.
China aims to safeguard regional and international waterways, where the US Navy has long been dominant and regional rivals such as Japan and India are stepping up their presence.
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