China shows off the Liaoning

Photo: Xinhua

China announced on Saturday 24^th that it has successfully completed the first take off and landing sea trials on the Liaoning, its new aircraft carrier.

It hasn’t been an easy task but China is finally on track to become not only an economic superpower, but a military one as well. Although they still lag far behind the capabilities of American ships, the country starts to develop a characteristic of every superpower through History, the projection of force.

The announcement came just a day after the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan issued a formal protest for the new Chinese passports. The documents depict a map of disputed islands in the South China Sea as belonging to China.

With the Liaoning finally being able to launch aircrafts, China enters the selected group of ten nations that operate aircraft carriers. However, the road here hasn’t been easy and China is far from the finish line.

The milestone comes almost 15 years after the purchase and reconditioning of the Liaoning -formerly the SovietVaryar. In order to train the future Navy pilots, China built on land a replica of the flight deck of the ship. Trials at this mock-up began two years ago.

Still, most analysts agree that the new Chinese achievement will not translate in an immediate change of the power balance in the region. The most important part of an aircraft carrier, the air wing, is composed of J-15s -an enhanced reverse engineered version of the Russian Su-33.

Photo: Xinhua

The J-15 fleet is still too new, untrained and small. It doesn’t help either that the lack of steam catapults on the Liaoning forces the planes to take off with minimal loads of fuel and weapons.

In fact, the primary reason for the new Chinese carrier and the J-15 is not that much showing muscle but warming up. The Liaoning is to serve as a platform to train and test future developments of the Chinese Navy that may be years or decades in the future. The former Varyar and its air wing are only a step in the forward direction.

To that extent, there are signs that show that China might be working on something. For starters, a battle group. Beijing has spent billions of dollars in the development of a new nuclear submarine and an AEGIS-style destroyer. And to train the crew, China has increased its participation in recent international military operations far from its shores -like anti-piracy patrols in waters off Somalia, Chinese citizen's rescue missions in Lybia or 'soft power' operations in South America.

Furthermore, China is known to be the only nation -together with the US- developing not one but two 5^th Gen. stealth fighters, the J-20 and the J-31. The later one shows signs of being carrier capable -like a double wheeled front landing gear- and it is comparable to the much troubled and delayed American F-35.

For now, Liaoning’s milestone has given Beijing the opportunity to show off and the two pilots involved in the trials have become instant heroes. It is not about the capabilities of the vessels, but a matter of national pride similar to the indigenous space program. Indeed, state media has reported that the two pilots’ task of performing the trials was “far more difficult” than an astronaut’smission.