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the chinese navy's "liaoning" aircraft carrier is deployed again!

according to a report from the joint staff office of the japanese ministry of defense on september 17, at around 7 pm that day, the japan maritime self-defense force discovered the chinese navy's "liaoning" aircraft carrier battle group moving southward in the east china sea about 210 kilometers northwest of china's diaoyu islands.

in addition to the "liaoning" ship, the battle group also includes two type 052d destroyers, namely the no. 120 "chengdu" ship and the no. 123 "huainan" ship. both ships belong to a destroyer detachment of the northern theater command navy.

on the 18th, the three warships passed through the waters between yonaguni island and iriomote island and headed towards the western pacific ocean. the "takahashi" destroyer of the 6th escort squadron of the 2nd escort squadron of the japan maritime self-defense force, the "kawachi" frigate of the 14th escort squadron of the maizuru naval base, and reconnaissance aircraft from the 1st and 5th air groups of the maritime self-defense force tracked the advancing "liaoning" aircraft carrier battle group.

just when everyone was wondering why the "liaoning" aircraft carrier only brought two 052ds this time, the second echelon of the chinese navy heading to the western pacific arrived!

at about 9:00 am on september 18, the joint staff office of the japanese ministry of defense reported that a chinese naval fleet was spotted in the waters about 80 kilometers northwest of the diaoyu islands. the fleet included a type 055 large destroyer no. 103 "anshan", a type 052d destroyer no. 118 "urumqi", and a type 901 large fleet supply ship. the fleet also passed through the waters between iriomote island and yonaguni island, following the "liaoning" aircraft carrier battle group into the western pacific.

the japanese maritime self-defense force's 2nd escort flotilla's 6th escort squadron's "takahashi" destroyer, the maizuru naval base's 14th escort squadron's "kawauchi" destroyer and other surface ships tracked and monitored the small squadron centered on the large destroyer "anshan" which continued to move south.

aircraft carrier battle group configuration

at this point, after completing an "incremental maintenance" cycle and recertifying its combat effectiveness, the chinese navy's "liaoning" aircraft carrier's first deployment to the western pacific has been confirmed:

the fleet includes the liaoning aircraft carrier as the core ship, and a carrier-based aircraft unit on board. according to photos taken by the maritime self-defense force, the aircraft are still the j-15 carrier-based aircraft; a type 055 large destroyer anshan, three type 052d destroyers urumqi, chengdu and huainan, and a type 901 fleet supply ship. the above combat ships come from different destroyer detachments and combat support ship detachments of the northern theater navy.

in terms of the tasks assigned to each ship, the core ship "liaoning" and the carrier-based aircraft units are responsible for multiple missions such as fleet air defense and aviation sea control, and are responsible for increasing the air and sea surveillance range of the entire fleet to 400 kilometers to 600 kilometers; the 055 large destroyer cooperates with the "liaoning" aircraft carrier to serve as the fleet's air defense command ship, responsible for organizing the air defense operations of the entire fleet; the 052d destroyer cooperates with the 055 large destroyer to undertake the fleet's air defense warfare, surface warfare, and anti-submarine warfare functions; the 901 supply ship is responsible for accompanying the "liaoning" aircraft carrier and providing security support for the entire fleet.

in terms of battle formation, it is expected that the four destroyers can form two double-ship echelons, deployed in the left and right directions of the aircraft carrier. this formation mode is sufficient to take into account the two main threat directions of the aircraft carrier. the fleet supply ship will act in coordination with the aircraft carrier. on the one hand, it can always be protected by the destroyers in the center of the formation. on the other hand, it can also serve as a "meat shield" for the aircraft carrier and "take damage" for the aircraft carrier when necessary. this is a relatively mature formation mode for the chinese navy's aircraft carrier battle group.

however, the only thing missing from the liaoning aircraft carrier battle group is the type 054a frigate. in theory, this type of frigate is used to cooperate with the type 052d destroyer for medium-range regional air defense and to establish a short-range anti-submarine warning curtain between the aircraft carrier and the destroyer. or, if necessary, it can move in a zigzag pattern in the direction of the aircraft carrier's stern to interfere with the threat of wake-guided torpedoes that may exist at the stern of the aircraft carrier.

the mission is relatively difficult and important. it is unclear why the chinese navy did not send the type 054a frigate to join the liaoning fleet. of course, it is also possible that the japanese maritime self-defense force missed the tracking, which needs to be further observed.

highlights of liaoning's actions

so what is the highlight of the chinese navy's "liaoning" aircraft carrier battle group's advance this time? big ivan believes that as the "liaoning" ship's first attack after completing a year-long "incremental maintenance" improvement, the focus is to see whether the chinese navy's "liaoning" ship has truly reached the capability of an operational aircraft carrier.

i remember that at the beginning of last year, when the "liaoning" aircraft carrier was implementing "incremental maintenance" improvements, the chinese navy seemed to have issued a statement to the outside world, pointing out that the improvement of the "liaoning" was to modify it into an aircraft carrier with stronger combat capabilities, that is, to completely get rid of the previous "scientific research" and "experimental" colors.

the liaoning does need this improvement. big ivan specifically looked for the notification materials from the joint staff office of the japanese ministry of defense on the maritime self-defense force's surveillance of the liaoning, and checked the efficiency of the liaoning's carrier-based aircraft activities before the implementation of this "incremental maintenance" cycle.

taking the last time the liaoning went out to the western pacific before entering the port for improvement, that is, the "winter pulse" from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023, as an example, the japan maritime self-defense force monitored the liaoning for many days, including statistics on the number of sorties of the liaoning's carrier-based aircraft:

according to statistics from the japan maritime self-defense force, the liaoning aircraft carrier carried out about 60 takeoffs and landings of j-15 carrier-based fighters and 70 takeoffs and landings of helicopters in the four days from december 17 to 20, 2022, which means that an average of about 15 j-15 sorties were flown every day; from the 21st to the 22nd, about 40 takeoffs and landings of j-15 carrier-based aircraft and 20 takeoffs and landings of helicopters were carried out. from the 17th to the 22nd, the total number of takeoffs and landings of all carrier-based aircraft on the liaoning aircraft carrier did not exceed 180 times.

subsequently, on december 23, 26 and 27, 2022, the liaoning aircraft carrier was observed to have carried out a total of about 40 take-offs and landings of j-15 carrier-based aircraft and 40 helicopters, an average of about 13 take-offs and landings per day. the japan maritime self-defense force pointed out that from december 17 to 27, the liaoning aircraft carrier carried out a total of 260 take-offs and landings, an average of 26 times a day, of which the j-15 carrier-based aircraft carried out take-offs and landings of more than a dozen times a day.

this number of sorties is indeed not very good from our perspective now. in comparison, during the "autumn pulse" of the shandong aircraft carrier last fall, in the nine days from october 28 to november 5, it was observed that the j-15 carrier-based aircraft carrier carried out 420 sorties, an average of nearly 50 sorties per day, which is more than three times the number of sorties when the "liaoning" implemented the winter pulse at the end of 2022.

this average daily number of sorties is equivalent to about half of the us navy's nimitz-class aircraft carrier. if calculated by aircraft type, the average daily number of two sorties per carrier-based aircraft has reached the average daily sorties of the us navy's f-14a carrier-based aircraft squadron at that time, proving the strong combat capability of the shandong when carrying out fleet air defense missions.

in contrast, the efficiency of the carrier-based aircraft of the liaoning is much lower. this also proves what the chinese navy has mentioned before, that the maintenance and improvement of the liaoning aircraft carrier is mainly to change the aircraft carrier from its original "training" purpose to a real "combat" purpose.

now, after more than a year of improvements, plus half a year of sea trials and recertification, the "liaoning" appears to have completed all equipment modifications and sea trials.

so, this dispatch is the first comprehensive test of the "liaoning" aircraft carrier after completing a major modification. whether the modified "liaoning" ship can really meet the standards of a combat aircraft carrier, and whether it can truly reach or approach the number of carrier-based aircraft sorties of the "shandong" ship, will be tested in this autumn pulse, and we will wait and see.

actions of the shandong and fujian ships

in addition to the liaoning aircraft carrier that has already set out to the western pacific, another combat-capable chinese naval aircraft carrier, the shandong, has also been busy recently. according to cctv's military channel, the shandong aircraft carrier is currently conducting night flight qualification certification for a new batch of carrier-based aircraft pilots in a certain area of ​​the south china sea. apart from this, no other news has been released.

although the outside world is eagerly looking forward to the two aircraft carriers of the chinese navy to form a dual aircraft carrier battle group as soon as possible and appear together in the ocean, it seems that the chinese navy does not care much about this form, and still maintains one aircraft carrier in operation and the other aircraft carrier for training and certification of carrier-based aircraft pilots.

in fact, judging from the actions of the shandong ship, it carried out a summer pulsation in june this year, and returned to a naval port in the southern theater command in july in response to the situation in the south china sea. now it is september and it is conducting training and certification of carrier-based aircraft pilots. if it is arranged according to the corresponding training plan, the shandong ship may conduct a round of "winter pulsation" at the end of this year. we can wait and see.

finally, don’t forget that in addition to the "liaoning" and "shandong" ships that are already on the voyage to perform different missions, the chinese navy’s third aircraft carrier, the "fujian", has been in operation for half a month since it left the port on the 3rd of this month, and the sea trials are very exciting.

in other words, the three aircraft carriers of the chinese navy are now all on the sea. two of them are fleet aircraft carriers that are only a few with real combat capability other than the us navy, and one is a battleship that has never been seen in east asian countries. all of them are on standby on the sea. this is the 200,000-ton truth of the chinese navy.