China’s 1st aircraft carrier heads for Pacific drills

By Fuat Kabakci

BEIJING

China's first aircraft carrier and its accompanying naval formation have set off for the Western Pacific for blue water training, according to a navy spokesman.

State media reported Sunday that Liang Yang said the Liaoning aircraft carrier and its flotilla -- which includes several destroyers and frigates -- headed toward the Western Pacific on Saturday for an annual training session.

In recent weeks, it had conducted training -- including its first live-fire exercise earlier this month -- in the Yellow Sea, the Bohai Sea and East China Sea.

The Liaoning is a refitted Russian-made carrier delivered from Ukraine to China’s People's Liberation Army in September 2012.

In January, the national defense ministry announced that China is designing and building its second aircraft carrier, a 50,000-ton carrier that would be entirely of independent Chinese design and powered conventionally rather than by nuclear energy.

China has been modernizing its naval capacity at a time when the United States and its allies are expressing alarm at its maritime expansion, which they suspect is aimed at extending its military reach.