Media reports claim that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) may induct its first indigenously designed and developed Type 001A aircraft carrier Shandong ahead of schedule and as early as 2018, two Chinese military sources revealed to the South China Morning Post last week. The Type 001A was launched in April at the Dalian shipyard in Liaoning Province by China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. The new 65,000-ton warship is an improved variant of the PLAN’s only operational aircraft carrier, the 60,000-ton Type 001 Liaoning — a retrofitted Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov-class multirole aircraft carrier. Based on previous reports, the PLAN anticipated a 2020 induction date. China’s new carrier will be able to accommodate up to 24 Shenyang J-15 multirole fighter jets, a variant of the fourth-generation Sukhoi Su-33 twin-engines air superiority fighter, as well as up to ten rotary wing aircraft such as Changshe Z-18, Ka-31, or Harbin Z-9 helicopters. The Shandong will be equipped with a so-called ski-jump assisted Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) launch system, rather than more advanced catapult-assisted launch system. The new carrier is expected to serve in the PLAN’s North Sea Fleet or East Sea Fleet. Hu Wenming, General Manager of the Type 001A project, said on state-owned CCTV television on August 3, 2017, that “Steam turbines of [the carrier] will all start to formally enter the mooring test phase, which will be ahead of our schedule in overall progress.”Images of the carrier circulating on the internet show that equipment installation work on the Shandong has almost been completed.
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