With President Xi Jinping in attendance, China on Tuesday commissioned the Type 002-class aircraft carrier Shandong in Sanya in the island province of Hainan, bordering the South China Sea. This puts China in a group of only four countries that have multiple fixed-wing aircraft carriers
While little is known about the Chinese carrier programme, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies has estimated the Shandong to be in the range of 66,000-70,000 tons. Believed to have a slightly larger airwing than the Liaoning, it could carry more than 24 J-15 ‘flying shark’ fighters (a Chinese derivative of the Russian Su-33). It could also carry KA-28/Ka-31/Z-8s/Z-8JH/Z-8AEW helicopters.
China has not revealed the number of fighters the new carrier would field. The programme itself was only announced in 2015 with the United States Naval Intelligence News reporting that a domestically-built carrier was being built in the Dalian Shipyard.
With a STOBAR (Short Take-Off Barrier-Arrested Recovery) configuration, the carrier would be China’s second after the Kuznetsov-class Liaoning, which was purchased from Ukraine in 1998 and used as a training ship—later declared combat-ready in 2016.
The addition of the Shandong to the Chinese fleet will greatly the PLAN’s capabilities in the South China Sea region. The Hainan province where the ship was launched is located to the East of Vietnam, which contests the SCS with China along with Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei.
In November, China sailed the carrier through the Taiwan strait, resulting in Taiwan scrambling fighters and jets and both the US and Japan trailing the ship with their own vessels.
A third carrier project is also reportedly underway, the Type 003, with a fourth also in conception.
After the retirement of the INS Viraat in 2017, India has only one aircraft carrier in service, the 45,000-ton Kiev-class INS Vikramaditya. The domestically-built INS Vikrant is expected to commence basin trials in 2020, with delivery to the Navy expected by 2021.
