China has been strengthening and speeding up the training of pilots for carrier-borne fighter jets as part of the country’s efforts to holistically build its aircraft carrier system.
The pilots for carrier-borne fighter jets in China are selected and cultivated among soldiers in active service and new recruits according to CCTV.
Flying a carrier-borne fighter jet is highly demanding, just as the saying goes, “the aircraft deck is the most dangerous 4.5-acre piece of land in the world”.
This means pilots must be very careful and experienced after intense training to be able to take off and land on a small area of an aircraft carrier.
Pilots need ta make a nosedive at the speed of 200km/h and land the fighter jet precisely on a tiny area that is drifting with the tide on a runway of only 200 meters.
To make a firm stop at the end of the runway, the pilot is required to hook the jet to the arresting cables on the carrier deck at the moment of landing.
On November 23, 2012, China’s first aircraft carrier the Liaoning had its first successful fighter jet takeoff and landing.
The successful flight landing also marked the debut of the J-15 as China’s first-generation multi-purpose carrier-based fighter jet.
Today china’s People’s Liberation Army Navy(PLAN) operates two aircraft carriers, the first aircraft carrier is called Liaoning which is based on soviet era designs, and the second aircraft carrier is called Shandong which is the first aircraft carrier to be domestically produced and the third air carrier is being built called 003 which is said to be bigger and more advanced than the two previous aircraft carriers of Liaoning and Shandong.
Initially, China was expected to build 6 aircraft carriers but some reports indicate that the number will likely reduce even though Huang Qiang, the speaker of the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense announced to the public at a news conference that China had mastered all of the technologies for an aircraft carrier, and would build aircraft carriers in future when the time was deemed right.
According to a February 2011 report in The Daily Telegraph, the Chinese military had constructed a concrete aircraft flight deck to use for training carrier pilots and carrier operations personal.
The deck was constructed on top of a government building near Wuhan(Wuhan Technical College of Communication campus next to Huangjiahu).
All Chinese aircraft carriers are conventionally powered ski-jump carriers. The current aircraft carrier is called Shandong has a displacement of around 70000 tonnes which is smaller when compared to aircraft carriers operated by the US Navy.
The increase in tensions with the US has made it urgent for China to modernize its Navy. Currently, China’s Navy has 350 ships which is the largest Navy fleet in the world and the number is expected to reach 450 ships by 2030.
