People’s Liberation Army
Recent training occurred in the Yellow Sea and East and South China Seas. The two carriers and the other warships worked to enhance combat-ready forces and readiness, China’s navy said.
In the photos, the carriers are accompanied by almost a dozen vessels and fighter jets conducting flight operations. The aircraft are Shenyang J-15s, China’s current carrier-based fighters.
In the images, there appear to be different variants of the jet on display. Beyond efforts to improve the J-15 fighter, which is a Flanker-style aircraft, China is also working on a next-generation carrier-based fighter jet as it moves on from the Soviet-style carrier design to more modern flattops.
The Liaoning and Shandong, China’s first two aircraft carriers, feature ski jumps for launching aircraft. The Liaoning was built from the stripped hulk of an unfinished Soviet-era Kuznetsov-class carrier that China purchased in the late 1990s. While it officially entered service in 2012, it wasn’t deemed combat-ready until 2016.
People’s Liberation Army
In concert with its efforts to build a world-class military, China has aggressively pursued naval modernization efforts, bolstering its domestic shipbuilding capabilities and capacity for both commercial and military vessels.
Its naval buildup, characterized by notable increases in both quantity and quality, has been noted by the US as a point of concern as the Pentagon attempts to shift its focus towards deterring and countering growing Chinese military power in the Indo-Pacific region.
By 2030, the US Department of Defense expects the PLAN to have an overall battle force of 435 ships, with a substantial increase in “major surface combatants.”