PLAN CV-16 Liaoning

In early 2013, the Liaoning moved to her new home port, Dazhu Shan, a new base built specifically for the carrier, 50 km southwest of the City of Qingdao, China...which lies to the South of Beijing.

In late 2013 (November) the Liaoning was sent on exercises for the first time with a Carrier Battle Group consisting of two Type 054A frigates and two Type 051C anti-aircraft warfare destroyers. She was sent to the new carrier base on Hainan Island, Sanya, where she was tasked with conducting training exercises in the South China Sea. Those exercises centered on training for carrier group formation, combat simulations, more aircraft handling, and other needs, and were expected to last as many as six months.

History:
The Chinese purchased the former Soviet carrier, Varyag, from the Ukraine in 1998 for about $20 million dollars (US). The Varyag was the newer, sister ship to the Russian Kuznetsov. But the Ukraine government had never finished the carrier after the fall of the Soviet Union and had tried to sell it to various concerns. As a result, the carrier fell into a state of disrepair. The Chinese bought the carrier and indicated that the holding company that had purchased it planned to tow it to China and make it a floating casino.

The Chinese could not get permission from the government of Turkey to pass threough the Sraits of Istanbul until 2001, at which time the Varyag was towed to China, a cruise that the big ship, now without rudders or engines, made in surprisingly good condition passing through the Mediteranean, by the Cape of Good Hope headland, across the Indian Ocean, through the Straits of Malacca, into the China Sea and finally to Dalian, China in mid 2002. It was ultimately docked at the Naval Shipyards in Dalian where it has been under tight security ever since. The holding company, which had ties to the PLAN, had by that point gone out of business.

The Varyag was undergoing significant work, although until 2010, the Chinese government did not indicate to what end. Nonetheless, the carrier, after well over two years at the shipyards, was painted in the offical PLAN combatant colors, causing a stir of speculation as to what work may have been accomplished internal to the ship over the first 2-3 years and what her future held. In 2010 the Chinese indicated that they would make her operational where she would serve to gain experience in carrier operations for the PLAN while the Chinese build their own indegenous carriers. The Chinese have indicated that they intend to build several more large carriers by 2020 and that the first would be built in Shanghai. To date (2013) no new construction has been observed.

By summer 2011, the carrier had progressed to the point of having its sensors and close in weapons systems completely installed. By August of 2011, with initial dock side testing of lighting and engines complete, with her deck painted, and an initial helo landing performed on deck, she appeared ready to put to sea for her initial sea trials. The Liaoning set sail for those initial sea trials on Aug 9, 2011. She returned to port on August 14, 2011 and went into dry dock. While there she had her hull scraped and painted, received a new non-skid surface on her main deck, and may have had arrestor wires installed. She left dry dock on October 30, 2011 to return to more trials. She then conducted a total of ten builder's Sea Trials over the next year. It is likely that towards the end of these trials, that her actual intial landings and take-offs occurred. She was officially handed over to the PLAN from the builders in a ceremony on September 23, 2012 in Dalian.

By September, 2012, she had completed a total of ten builder's sea trials in the year since her launch. In early September 2012, the pennant number "16" was painted on either side of her bow and on the forward part of her flight deck, ending the speculation as to what her pennant number would be. As stated, she was then handed over to the PLAN on September 23, 2012 as the PLAN Liaoning, CV-16. Here are the dates of her sea trials throughout the first year of her operation before handover:

-1st: sea trial (10 Aug 2011 – 13 Aug 2011) (03 days)
-2nd: sea trial (28 Nov 2011 – 10 Dec 2011) (12 days)
-3rd: sea trial (20 Dec 2011 – 29 Dec 2011) (09 days)
-4th: sea trial (07 Jan 2012 – 16 Jan 2012) (09 days)
-5th: sea trial (19 Apr 2012 – 30 Apr 2012) (11 days)
-6th: sea trial (07 May 2012 – 16 May 2012) (09 days)
-7th: sea trial (23 May 2012 - 01 Jun 2012) (09 Days)
-8th: sea trial (07 Jun 2012 - 21 Jun 2012) (14 Days)
-9th: sea trial (06 Jul 2012 - 30 Jul 2012) (24 Days)
-10th:sea trial (27 Aug 2012 - 30 Aug 2012) (03 Days)

That's was a a total of ten sea trials in a year's time and a total of 92 days at sea,

Air Wing:
To serve in her airwing, the PLAN has developed a navalized version of the indegenous J-11B aircraft, called the J-15, which is an improved and updated Chinese built version of the Russian SU-33 aircraft that operate of off the Kuznetsov. The new Chinese has new avionics, a glass cockpit, and AESA radar and potentially more range than its older Russian counterpart. It has, of course, the heavier landing gear, tailhook, folding wings, and other characteristics necessary for air operations aboard the carrier.

It should be noted, that due to the costs of maintaining their small number of older SU-33 aircraft, the Russians are now moving towards making the newer Mig-29K, navalized aircraft their naval aircraft of choice. The Chinese will apparently make the J-15 their heavy strike and fleet defence aircraft, but have also recently (late 2012) flown a prototype of a new, smaller aircraft, the J-31, which adopts many stealth characteristics similar to the US F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Chinese are also currently embarking the Ka-27 export version of the Russian Ka-25 ASW and SAR helicopter, but also embark their own Z-9 ASW/SAR helo. They use the Ka-31 AEW helo from Russia for AEW operations, but have also built and embarked their own, new Z-8 AEW helicopter, which is heavier, carries more equipment and has greater range. The Chinese are currently working on a twin engine turboprop aircraft with a radar dome that many believe potentially could be adopted as a fixed wing AEW aircraft for the new Liaoning and eventual other, indegenous Chinese aircraft carriers.

When made operational, with a wing of indegenous J-15 aircraft, and eventual J-31 aircraft, coupled with Z-8 or Ka-31 AEW helicopters and Ka-27 ASW helos, CV-16, Liaoning will represent a significant shift in the balance of naval power in the Western Pacific.

Carrier Strike Group:
Since the late 1990s, the PRC has been engaged in one of the most ambitious modern naval shipbuilding programs since World War II. Although they are retiring some older vessels, the shear rapidity with which they are replacing them with very efficient modern combatants is significant.

These new combatants include all of the necessary vessels to create and field a major carrier battle group of their own.

This includes a new class of AEGIS-like guided missile destoyers, the Type 052C, Lanzhou class, which they have built six of, along with a new, upgraded version of this same destroyer, the Type 052D, which has 64 hot launched VLS cells rather than the 48 cold launch VLS cells of the Type 052C, and which the PLAN has already prodcued two of and is building two more. It is expected that the PLAN will build twelve or more of these new destroyers bringing the total number of their AEGIS-like destroyers to eighteen.

The PLAN has also mass produced 18 very modern, mutli-role guided missile frigates, the Type 054A, Jiangkai II Class FFG, which themselves have 36 VLS cells and strong ASW and anti-surface capabilities. They are building more of these vessels in series production.

In addition, the PLAN is also building new, more modern, Type 93 and Type 95 nuclear attack submarines that can serve as sub-surface escorts for the Liaoning and other carriers as they are built.

The PLAN also has developed and purchase/refurbished and/or built the underway replenishment vessels necessary to refuel and replenish the carrier at sea, having conducted many UNREP operations over the years with these vessels and their new combatants.