Another Look at China's Aircraft Carrier

Signal Magazine has a quick run-thru of China's aircraft carrier project.

Far from being amusement park oddities, the country’s new carriers will be highly capable indigenous ships.

China’s growing blue-water naval strength soon may be augmented by the country’s first aircraft carrier. A series of seemingly unconnected steps over the past two decades have positioned the People’s Republic to begin construction and incorporation of a modern carrier into its fleet.

For decades, China’s position has been that aircraft carriers were tools of evil superpowers and China would never build one. Announcements of the Chinese desire for People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) carriers in 2006 actually came from PLAN captains of the Luda-class DDG-108 destroyers and the Jianghu-III-class FFG-537 frigates rather than from senior aviation officers. One possible reason for this anomaly could be that in 1990 the first nine naval air pilots graduated from the Guangzhang Naval Academy “Captain Pilot Warship” class and now are commanding destroyers until the carrier is launched.

Dalian Naval Academy began a 50-man class for carrier pilot training in 2009. An “Aircraft Carrier Office” was established in 2004 under the name of Program 048 for the carrier. China’s 2006 defense white paper noted a reorganization of China’s naval air administration: “The navy has cut the naval aviation department and converted naval air bases into support ones. Following these adjustments, the combat troops … are now directly under the fleets.” In December 2008, Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie said, “Among the big nations, only China does not have an aircraft carrier. China cannot be without an aircraft carrier forever.” Early in March 2009, Adm. Hu Yanlin, PLAN, stated, “Building aircraft carriers is a symbol of an important nation. It is very necessary.”

A study for a carrier program began in 1992, aiming at a planned launch by 2000. In 1993, China stated that starting construction on two 48,000-ton carriers would allow them to be completed by 2005. In 1995, Beijing said two 40,000-ton carriers would begin construction in 1996. In 1998, rival India claimed two Chinese carriers were being constructed in Dalian under the code name of “Project 9935.” In 2004, Internet photographs showed a “carrier” under construction in Shanghai. A 2006 Beijing news release stated that a 78,000-ton carrier was to be built at Jiangnan. The latest indication was a Taiwan news release in December 2009 stating that China had begun carrier construction.

India’s and China’s carrier programs have several parallels, such as the use of Russian technology. India has a one- or two-year head start on China. Nearly all of the carrier predictions feature a ski-jump design because of the complexity of airplane elevators and steam catapult technology; although one report states that China already has obtained those, and an 80,000-ton Essex-size carrier is predicted, as unlikely as this seems.

By: Brant