BEIJING (AP) — China has begun flight training on its first aircraft carrier, with photographs posted on websites Monday showing navy pilots practicing touch-and-go landing exercises.
Military enthusiast websites posted pictures of a J-15 fighter-bomber executing the maneuver, in which the plane makes brief contact with the flight deck before flying on. It wasn’t clear when the pictures were taken, and they did not appear on the Defense Ministry’s website or in official media.
The exercises are the latest move to provide a combat capability for the carrier, which was launched last month without aircraft or an accompanying battle group. The next step would be the launching and recovery of aircraft, a much trickier process that may be years away.
Chinese-produced Z-8 helicopters have also been practicing take-offs and landings on the carrier. Both aircraft are based on Russian and French designs. Chinese pilots are believed to have been practicing carrier operations on mock flight decks located inland.
The carrier is the former Soviet navy’s unfinished Varyag, which was towed from Ukraine in 1998 minus its engines, weaponry and navigation systems. Christened the Liaoning, the province where its home port is located, the ship began sea trials in August 2011 following years of refurbishment.
The carrier’s launch underscores China’s ambitions to be a leading Asian naval power amid sharpening conflicts with its neighbors over disputed island chains in the South China and East China Seas.
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Military enthusiast websites posted pictures of a J-15 fighter-bomber executing the maneuver, in which the plane makes brief contact with the flight deck before flying on. It wasn’t clear when the pictures were taken, and they did not appear on the Defense Ministry’s website or in official media.
The exercises are the latest move to provide a combat capability for the carrier, which was launched last month without aircraft or an accompanying battle group. The next step would be the launching and recovery of aircraft, a much trickier process that may be years away.
Chinese-produced Z-8 helicopters have also been practicing take-offs and landings on the carrier. Both aircraft are based on Russian and French designs. Chinese pilots are believed to have been practicing carrier operations on mock flight decks located inland.
The carrier is the former Soviet navy’s unfinished Varyag, which was towed from Ukraine in 1998 minus its engines, weaponry and navigation systems. Christened the Liaoning, the province where its home port is located, the ship began sea trials in August 2011 following years of refurbishment.
The carrier’s launch underscores China’s ambitions to be a leading Asian naval power amid sharpening conflicts with its neighbors over disputed island chains in the South China and East China Seas.
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Related: China lands first jet on its aircraft carrier
"Asian powers double defense spending in a decade" Associated Press, October 16, 2012
WASHINGTON — Asia’s top powers have doubled defense spending in the past decade, spurred by the explosion in military expenditure by China, new research shows.
While troop numbers have remained constant, overall annual spending has grown to $224 billion in 2011, according to a report released Monday by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Spending particularly accelerated in the second half of the decade.
That's still one-third of what we spend alone, and the Chinese economy is in way better shape.
The research covers China, Japan, India, South Korea, and Taiwan, which account for some 87 percent of Asia’s defense spending....
Those other four are US allies.
Only the United States spends more on defense: about $670 billion this year, more than double the amount spent in 2001.
China’s lightning economic rise and elevation as a military power have unnerved its neighbors and drawn more attention from the United States, long the preeminent force in the Asia-Pacific region.
How has that worked out for the region anyway? I'd start by asking the Vietnamese then working my way around.
China eclipsed Japan as the top defense spender in the region in 2005. China’s official defense spending in 2011 was $89.9 billion, followed by Japan with $58.2 billion, and India with $37 billion. So we are spending what, 8x what China is on "defense."
Btw, the word defense means empire in the AmeriKan ma$$ media.
Meanwhile, defense spending in European countries has dropped.
Asia’s elevated global role and economic growth, along with China’s military buildup, have prompted the Obama administration to devote more military resources to the region.
I thought we we friends and trading buddies.
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