Posted on 08/11/2011 4:33:31 PM PDT by Kaslin
Defense: China's first flattop begins its sea trials, setting the stage for a fleet that eventually will challenge the U.S. and back up its claims to territory that would make the South China Sea a virtual Chinese lake.
Very soon a jet fighter will lift off the deck of a carrier in the Western Pacific. For the very first time its pilot will be Chinese.
China sent its first aircraft carrier, the refurbished ex-Soviet Varyag, to sea on Wednesday, virtually unnoticed among the news about the stock market, our credit rating and the debt ceiling debate.
It is not yet a full-fledged fighting ship. Its mission is to gain experience in carrier operations, particularly for pilots unaccustomed to taking off from and landing on a carrier's moving deck.
Yet it represents a sea change in potential capability and something that Congress' bipartisan fiscal supercommittee should ponder as draconian defense cuts remain on the table.
China's as-yet-unnamed carrier, which will carry a crew of 2,000 and 50 fighter aircraft, slipped quietly out of the port of Dalian early Wednesday — the latest entry in a massive Chinese military buildup designed to challenge us in the Western Pacific and deny us access to the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
A few weeks ago Chinese Su-27 fighters intercepted a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft that had taken off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa as part of a routine surveillance program of China. And Beijing issued a warning that such surveillance near its shores will not long be tolerated
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Non hotel models are for forward projection of force, necessary if you ever wanted to invade somewhere.
I think about 12 years.
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Taiwan’s been advertising its new series of sea missiles as “carrier killers.” Can the PLAN build a proper Carrier Battle Group? Not yet.
bumping for later comment
Thinking...
Thinking...
Thinking...
Sorry, I got nuttin'
Since then, Nada. They never even had a deck gonne until the Portuguese showed them how they worked in the 16th century, and they invented gunpowder.
Landing on it..OTOH...
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