Aircraft Carrier – China's First – to Commission Soon

China plans to put its first aircraft carrier into service later this year

Xu Hongmeng, deputy commander of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, said the PLA plans to put the carrier, which has undergone four sea trials into service this year.

The former Varyag, which is docked in Dalian Port, in Northeast China's Liaoning province, is currently equipped with life-size model planes.

China's first aircraft carrier, a retrofitted former Soviet vessel, set out on its maiden voyage on Aug 10 and returned to port five days later. It underwent three more sea trials in the Pacific.

Rear Admiral Cao Dongshen, a deputy at the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature explained that the refitted aircraft carrier will not be deployed as part of a single fixed fleet, but will keep traveling being deployed mainly for experiments, training and scientific research, Cao said on the sidelines of the annual national legislature session. Cao brushed aside a report that China is building overseas naval bases, because the country has a near-shore defense policy.

The vessel, an Admiral Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier, measuring 304.5 meters long and displacing 58,500 tons, was intended for the Soviet navy, but  construction was halted when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Engineers in Ukraine disarmed it and removed its engines before selling it to China in 1998.