Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

PLAN Liaoning carrier battle group ( Credits- Internet Image) Source- Want China Times Konstantin Sivkov, a Russian defense analyst, said in his piece written for Moscow-based Military Parade that even as China speeds up the development of its first domestic aircraft carrier, it would still be unable to defeat the United States in a future carrier battle. Sivkov said that China had successfully changed the equipment aboard the Liaoning, the nation's first aircraft carrier introduced from Ukraine, to use domestic products. A Type 382 Sea Eagle S/C air-search radar which allows Liaoning to track 10 targets in the air simultaneously can be seen aboard the ship. It is also fitted with a set of four active electronically scanned array radar panels which give the Liaoning a very similar air defense capability to the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, according to Sivkov. However, the Russian expert also said that China's air defense missiles can only intercept between f

Chinese carrier Liaoning ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The National Interest Author- Zachary Keck China has all but confirmed that it is building an indigenous aircraft carrier, and that it may even be a nuclear-powered one. On Thursday, huanqiu.com, the Chinese-language version of the state-run Global Times, published an internal document of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, one of China’s two largest shipbuilding companies. CSIC is a state-owned company. The report lists building nuclear submarines and an aircraft carrier as the company’s “priority missions.” It also states that progress on these projects has been smooth. "The priority missions of building the aircraft carrier and nuclear-submarines have been carried out smoothly and with outstanding achievements," the document states, according to a translation provided by Taiwanese media outlets. The same Taiwanese reports go on to say that the document suggests that Chin

PLAN Carrier Liaoning ( Credits- Internet Image) Source- The National Interest Authors- Bryan McGrath & Mackezie Eaglen China’s recent release of its first strategic white paper signals its official emergence as a maritime—and therefore global—power. Little in the document should surprise those who have monitored China’s rise, though it remains to be seen whether China watchers will discern nuance and inscrutability instead of taking Beijing at its word. Simply put, China views the United States as Asia’s hegemon, and its strategy seeks to deprive the United States of this role.     In its quest to eject the United States from a position of power and influence in the region, China has embarked upon a naval building and modernization program. At first, this program seemed aimed at rendering U.S. wartime support to Taiwan moot after the 1996 Taiwan Straits crisis.  The effort included weapons and platforms designed specifically to target U.S maritime power projectio

Chinese Air Craft Carrier Liaoning-CV16 ( Image credits- Internet Pic) Source- Want China Times In response to a New York Times pieces by Gregg Easterbrook on March 9, China's nationalist tabloid the Global Times, wrote a commentary of its own, saying that China is capable of defeating the US Navy in the Western Pacific with anti-ship missiles built at low prices. In Easterbrook's article, he said that China currently possesses only one outdated, conventionally-powered aircraft carrier and is rumored to be constructing two others. However, neither of those two vessels are likely to be nuclear supercarriers according to the author. Also, Easterbrook questions whether those two domestic carriers have "blue water" or open ocean-going capabilities. He said that the US Navy is more powerful than all other navies in the world combined in terms of aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, naval aviation, surface firepower, assault ships, missiles and logistics

Liaoning CV-16 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The National Interest Author- Zachary Keck The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is building its second aircraft carrier, several senior Chinese military officials have confirmed, a Hong Kong daily is reporting. On Monday, Taiwan Focus News Channel cited the Chinese-language The Hong Kong Commercial Daily in reporting that China has begun work on its second aircraft carrier, which will have a more advanced launch system the one currently used on China’s only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. According to Taiwan Focus News Channel, the initial report cited Liu Xiaojiang, the former political commissioner of the PLA Navy, as saying that the “government's industrial and manufacturing agencies are now in charge of the ship's construction.” The report also cited Ding Haichun, who was promoted to the position of deputy political commissioner of the PLA Navy back in January, as confirming that China’s second a

Liaoning CV-16 ( Image credits- USNi) Source- Want China Times A People's Liberation Army Navy official has confirmed for the first time that China is building its second aircraft carrier, reports Duowei News, a US-based Chinese political news outlet. Ding Haichun, a deputy political commissar of the PLA Navy, acknowledged during an interview with Hong Kong media on March 8 that China's second aircraft carrier is currently under construction and will be more advanced than the country's first carrier, the Liaoning, which was retrofitted from the Soviet-era carrier Varyag and commissioned in September 2012. Once the industrial manufacturing department has completed construction, the carrier will be handed over to the PLA Navy to commence training, Ding said. Naval power and electrical engineering specialist Ma Weiming added that China's catapult launch technology has absolutely no problems and can compete with that of the United States. When ques

Chinese Carrier Liaoning ( Image credits- Internet photos/ Author- In the image) Source- The Diplomat Author- Greg Austin According to public reports, China is building two aircraft carriers, with plans to increase that to four, according to one report, and possibly a new class of helicopter carrier for amphibious assault. For many in China, this has been a necessary evolution for a country of such wealth and international power. For the government, it is part of a techno-nationalist campaign designed to show that the country is arriving at the highest level of international power. The idea is that China can do anything the other great powers do. It can land jet aircraft on a carrier, it can put a rover on the moon, and it can put a man in space. This is the decade of impressive and inspiring achievement we have seen from China. Yet the challenge China faces is that it is copying innovations first undertaken more than a few decades earlier (China was four decades late

PLAN Aircraft carrier Liaoning ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The Diplomat Author- Shannon Tiezzi A local government inadvertently confirmed that China is building a second aircraft carrier on Sunday, sparking a wave of media analysis of China’s maritime ambitions. According to Reuters, the government of Changzhou, a city in Jiangsu province, posted on its microblog that a Changzhou-based power cable manufacturer had been awarded a deal to supply products for China’s new carrier. The reports were also carried by a local newspaper before being scrubbed. China currently operates one aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, the pride of China’s navy (which last year was even the subject of musical paeans). Yet the Liaoning was not domestically produced – the carrier is a refitted version of Ukraine’s Varyag, as South China Morning Post described in great detail in a recent series. The goal all along has been for China to use the Liaoning as a training platform, a

Chinese Carrier Liaoning ( Image credits- In the image) Source- The Diplomat Author- Robert Farley Over the past few days, the fascinating story of China’s acquisition of the Ukrainian carrier Varyag has emerged in the South China Morning Post. We should take the story with grain of salt; as with many military procurement decisions, we likely won’t have the full story for a very long time. Nevertheless, the narrative illuminates the problems and conflicts associated with purchasing the carrier, getting it to China, and convincing the Chinese government that acquiring the ship was at all worthwhile. China’s acquisition of Varyag was contingent on a series of often improbable events. How would China’s carrier program have worked out differently if Ukraine has rejected the purchase, or the Turks had refused transit of the ship, or if the hulk had sunk along the way (a real possibility at the time)? One takeaway from the series, affirming a long-term impression of Chi

Ex Varyag ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author) Source- The Diplomat Author- James R. Homes Reports of Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning’s death — or debilitating wounds — are greatly exaggerated. The flattop suffered some sort of steam leak that prompted her crew to stop at sea and conduct repairs before resuming operations. The news comes from Robert Beckhusen of War Is Boring, who relays a Sina.com story that Liaoning suffered a “steam explosion” following “a leak in ‘the machine oven compartment to the water pipes.’” Beckhusen denies that PLA Navy leaders will decommission the flattop because of mechanical problems. (By raising the possibility, though, he seems to imply they might.) He does speculate that the accident will force the navy to relegate her to training duty. Would an engineering casualty represent a setback unseen in the annals of naval history? Hardly. All sea services have been there, done that, and will likely find themselves there again.