‘Chinese navy operates all of its three aircraft carriers for first time’

Beijing: The Chinese navy for the first time carried out exercises and tests of all three of its aircraft carriers recently to highlight that its carrier warship programme has entered a fast lane, official media reported on Tuesday. Currently, China has two aircraft carriers in operation - the Liaoning, a refit of the Soviet-era ship commissioned on Sept 25, 2012 - and Shandong, an indigenously built 2nd aircraft carrier commissioned in 2019. China’s third aircraft carrier Fujian, which is larger than the two carriers with a displacement of 80,000, is currently undergoing trials.

Ahead of the 12th anniversary of the commissioning of China’s first aircraft carrier, which falls on Wednesday, all three Chinese aircraft carriers reportedly carried out exercises or tests over the past week, state-run Global Times reported on Tuesday.

With this, China’s aircraft carrier programme has entered a fast lane, it quoted observers as saying. According to the official media, the Chinese navy plans to have four to five aircraft carriers making them the frontline force of its navy as China seeks to expand its global influence with deployments in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the Indian Ocean in future.

Fujian is the “first fully domestically developed and constructed” aircraft carrier with an EMALS similar to that of the American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, according to official media reports. China’s other two aircraft carriers are equipped with ski-jump take-off ramps while the Fujian features a flat-top flight deck.

Liaoning last week provoked protests from Japan by spotted sailing in waters near Diaoyu Dao islands in the western Pacific which are under the control of Japan, which calls the islands the Senkakus.