China’s Liaoning carrier group ends Pacific navy drills ‘aimed at Taiwan independence forces’
- Japanese and US navies kept a close eye on the PLA Navy’s aircraft carrier and accompanying vessels during its high-intensity drills
- Video footage on Chinese social media showed pilots of carrier-based J-15 fighter jets conducting day and night flight drills
The Liaoning, the Chinese navy’s first aircraft carrier, is expected to arrive at its permanent Qingdao port in Shandong province on the weekend. The carrier strike group, which includes at least another seven surface warships and an unknown number of submarines, will pause for a major maintenance break and rest for crew.
Video footage of the exercise circulated on China’s WeChat social media platform showed pilots of carrier-based J-15 fighter jets conducting both day and night flight drills on the deck of the Liaoning.
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Social-media clip shows pilots training aboard Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning
Japan’s Defence Ministry said that besides the J-15s, Z-18F anti-submarine helicopters and Z-18J early-warning choppers also took part in the drills. China has not confirmed details of the exercises.
Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank in Beijing, said the video showed that all the pilots of the J-15s on the Liaoning deck took part in the high-intensity drill, which involved more sorties than the Japanese minister announced.
“I estimated the pilots flew about 170 sorties in a week, if all the 24 J-15s on the ship were flying just once a day,” Zhou said.
