How many aircraft carriers does China need? One analyst says at least 6
- Commentary says the country will need two for each of its existing three fleets with possibly another for future operations in the Indian Ocean
- Last month the country’s third, and most advanced, carrier was launched and another is thought to be in the pipeline
China needs six or seven aircraft carriers to watch over the South China Sea and possibly the Indian Ocean, according to a Chinese defence analyst.
But the Chinese military has been ambiguous about its future plans and said any further carriers would be considered “based on the demands of national security and the development of equipment technology”.
Wang Hongliang, associate researcher at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s National Strategic Research Centre, suggested in an article published last week that, assuming the country could afford it, each of the navy’s three fleets would need two aircraft carriers, and maybe one more for a future Indian Ocean fleet.
“If we are bold enough in predicting it, is it possible to maintain a permanent naval force in the Indian Ocean in the future to more effectively protect China’s most important trade route? Then this fleet, far from home ports, may need an aircraft carrier as well,” he wrote in The Paper.cn, a Shanghai-based news website.
Besides the Fujian, the PLA Navy has the Liaoning, a former Soviet Kuznetzov-class carrier bought from Ukraine, and the Shandong, a home-built hull modelled on the Liaoning with many modifications.
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Chinese navy practises aerial combat as it prepares its newest aircraft carrier for operations
