China’s navy flexed new muscles in the South China Sea with its first dual aircraft carrier drills

• China’s navy conducted its first dual-carrier drills this month in the South China Sea.
• Photos show its two operational aircraft carriers, Liaoning and Shandong, sailing together.
• Drills like this are often intended to send a message, as well as enhance combat readiness.

China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy conducted its first-ever dual carrier operation this month, flexing new muscles as it builds a fleet of aircraft carriers and an ever-larger naval force.

Photos from the recent exercise showed China’s two operational aircraft carriers, escort ships, and fighter jets in the South China Sea.

China announced the drills on Thursday, releasing photos showing the Liaoning and Shandong carrier groups.

The two carriers were spotted in early October sitting pier-side together in the South China Sea after several weeks of separate drills and activities, and earlier this month, the Liaoning participated in massive military drills aimed at intimidating Taiwan.

Recent training occurred in the Yellow Sea and East and South China Seas. The two carriers and the other warships worked to enhance combat-ready forces and readiness, China’s navy said.

In the photos, the carriers are accompanied by almost a dozen vessels and fighter jets conducting flight operations. The aircraft are Shenyang J-15s, China’s current carrier-based fighters.

In the images, there appear to be different variants of the jet on display. Beyond efforts to improve the J-15 fighter, which is a Flanker-style aircraft, China is also working on a next-generation carrier-based fighter jet as it moves on from the Soviet-style carrier design to more modern flattops.

The Liaoning and Shandong, China’s first two aircraft carriers, feature ski jumps for launching aircraft. The Liaoning was built from the stripped hulk of an unfinished Soviet-era Kuznetsov-class carrier that China purchased in the late 1990s. While it officially entered service in 2012, it wasn’t deemed combat-ready until 2016.

The Shandong is China’s first domestically produced aircraft carrier, although it’s still based on Liaoning’s design. The Shandong, however, features the ability to carry a larger air wing than Liaoning, specifically more of China’s carrier-based J-15 fighter jets. It was commissioned into the PLAN in 2019.

China’s newest aircraft carrier and the second domestically produced carrier, the Fujian, is a marked improvement over its two predecessors, featuring an advanced electromagnetic catapult launch system for aircraft, similar to the kind used on the US Navy’s new Ford-class carriers. This new vessel hasn’t entered active duty yet and has been undergoing sea trials.

Per the PLAN, the Liaoning and Shandong’s dual carrier drills included training for multiple real-combat scenarios involving their warship groups, including generating sorties.

In concert with its efforts to build a world-class military, China has aggressively pursued naval modernization efforts, bolstering its domestic shipbuilding capabilities and capacity for both commercial and military vessels.

Its naval buildup, characterized by notable increases in both quantity and quality, has been noted by the US as a point of concern as the Pentagon attempts to shift its focus towards deterring and countering growing Chinese military power in the Indo-Pacific region.

By 2030, the US Department of Defense expects the PLAN to have an overall battle force of 435 ships, with a substantial increase in “major surface combatants.”