China was making final preparations to launch its first domestically built aircraft carrier as it marked the 68th anniversary of the founding of the PLA Navy on Sunday. While Liaoning took nearly 15 years to be commissioned, the construction for the latest aircraft carrier began only in 2015. The first Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was purchased from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted in China.
Meanwhile, China's military experts have cautioned that this latest launch showed only modest progress in military modernisation, and there remains a huge technological gap between the Chinese Navy and the American Navy - Beijing's most powerful rival in the Asia-Pacific region.
The new carrier will deploy Shenyang J-15 fighter jets, but is considered by many military observers to be technologically inferior to the 10 carriers used by the USA navy.
The Liaoning conducted its first live-fire drill in December before heading to the South China Sea, raising concerns in Taiwan and neighbouring countries, such as Japan and Vietnam, which have overlapping territorial claims with China in the East and South China Sea.
The new carrier is part of an ambitious expansion of the Chinese navy, which is projected to have a total of 265-273 warships, submarines and logistics vessels by 2020, according to the Washington-based Center for Naval Analysis.
Still, the new ship has likely helped China learn about shipbuilding and it already has plans for a third carrier. In addition to carriers, China has also been constructing new destroyers, cruisers, and supply ships. In contrast, the keel of India's Vikrant (named after India's first aircraft carrier), was laid in February 2009, and though she was sailed out for the first time in in 2011, completion of the project may not take place before 2023 according to report from the national auditor a year ago.
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They are expected to be closer in size to the US Navy's nuclear-powered 100,000-tonne Nimitz class ships, with flat flight decks and catapults to allow planes to launch with more bombs and fuel aboard.
China has unveiled the first aircraft to be built domestically.
China's ultimate goal is to be able to field a blue water navy and project power as the US does, and some observers suspect that China is moving along that trajectory at a rapid pace.
The new Chinese carrier is conventionally powered and has been designed with Shenyang J-15 jets in mind.
On a more serious note, China's second aircraft carrier is ready to be launched when the tides are right in Dalian-in Northeast China not far from the Korean peninsula.
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