Alex Lockie
China’s military build-up is extending to its border with India, according to a Chinese-language media report.
Kanwa Asian Defense, a news site specializing in military developments, reported Tuesday Beijing’s military has placed more missiles and fighter jets along the India border.
The weapons have been deployed in Tibet and in the western region of Xinjiang along with airborne early warning and control systems, according to the report.
Kanwa quoted sources in the Indian navy and air force who said Chinese troops have placed the Jian-11, the Jian-10 and the Kongjing-500 in rotational deployment.
The Shenyang J-11 is a twin-engine jet fighter that was first produced in China in 1998. It was built to compete with fourth-generation fighters such as the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and the Eurofighter Typhoon.
The Chengdu J-10 is a lightweight fighter jet and the KJ-500 can carry an airborne early warning system.
In the city of Korla in Xinjiang, China may have deployed a troop responsible for the launch of midrange ballistic missiles, and in Hotan, an oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, the country has been deploying the J-10 and the strategic bomber H-6K.
The large-scale military build-up is aimed at expanding a position of readiness in the case of a confrontation with the Indian military, the sources said.
Andrei Chang, the founder of Kanwa, said the military reinforcements are being deployed with a counteroffensive in mind.
The Soviet style of carrier, which Russia and China still use, has a different purpose than the US’s flat top carriers. Instead of being a truly global strike carrier, these carriers make more sense for coastal defense.
China’s sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.PLA
Almost two decades after buying the hull from Ukraine in 1998, China has finally declared its sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning http://www.businessinsider.com/interactive-3d-csis-aircraft-carrier-2016-4 , ready for combat.
China’s aircraft carrier, as well as the rest of its rapidly modernizing navy, http://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-has-modernized-their-navy-2016-60 puts Beijing in an elite club with the greatest naval powers in the world. The development has raised eyebrows in the Pacific and globally, as China ignores international law, builds and militarizes artificial islands http://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-has-modernized-their-navy-2016-6/#chinas-naval-mission-1 in the South China Sea, and threatens and bullies its neighbors http://www.businessinsider.com/china-formed-second-navy-south-china-sea-2016-9
In the slides below, see how China’s Liaoning stacks up to other carriers worldwide:
This is China’s only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. Like much of China’s military hardware, the Liaoning is a reworking of an older Russian-made model.
The Liaoning docked at Dalian Port, in Dalian, Liaoning province, in 2012.REUTERS/Stringer
The Soviet style of carrier, which Russia and China still use, has a different purpose than the US’s flat top carriers. Instead of being a truly global strike carrier, these carriers make more sense for coastal defense.
The Liaoning’s particulars and capabilities sound impressive.
Source: Jeff Head
Over the last four years, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy has had to build up carrier operations from nothing. It has never operated an aircraft carrier, so it faced a steep learning curve.
J-15 Flying Shark aircraft on the Liaoning’s deck.Global Times via Zhang Kai
The Liaoning launches planes off a “ski jump”-style deck because it lacks the catapults that US carriers have.
Two J-15 Flying Shark aircraft sit on the Liaoning’s ski-slope platform.Global Times via Zhang Kai
This means that the J-15 Flying Shark aircraft that take off from the Liaoning can’t carry as much fuel or as many bombs as the US’s carrier based planes can. This greatly limits their range and effectiveness in combat.
But while the planes must travel light, the Liaoning boasts a heavy arsenal of its own.
The Liaoning launches a Flying Leopard missile.Global Times via Zhang Kai
China has announced it’s building at least one other carrier. Here, satellite imagery shows the second carrier will have a modular design but still conform to the “ski jump” mold of the Liaoning.
A second carrier on par with the Liaoning would arguably make China one of the world’s largest aircraft-carrier powers.Stratfor / Digital Globe
Source: STRATFOR
The Admiral Kuznetsov, which the Liaoning is based on, was Russia’s sole aircraft carrier. The ships have the same size and speed, and they both feature the “ski jump” platform.
Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov.WorldwideAircraftCarriers
The Kuznetsov, currently carrying out its first combat deployment in the Mediterranean bolstering the Syrian regime, has a troubled past plagued with mechanical difficulties. Everywhere it sails, a tugboat accompanies it in case it breaks down, as was the case in 2012.
Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier.Mil.ru via Wikimedia Commons
China’s southern neighbor, India, operates two smaller aircraft carriers with a third in production, but they are more reliable. In 2014, the Liaoning experienced unexpected power failures while at sea.
India’s Vikramaditya aircraft carrier.WorldwideAircraftCarriers by Jeff Head
For the past few years, the Liaoning has been designated a training vessel.
Source: Business Insider
China’s eastern neighbor, Japan, has smaller “helicopter destroyers,” or flat deck carriers that sport helicopters and short- or vertical-takeoff aircraft as well as heavy armaments and missiles.
A Japanese Hyuga classleeve. It recently launched a larger class of helicopter carrier, the Izumo class. Soon, these carriers will support the F-35B marine variant, which experts expect will provide unprecedented dominance in air and sea.
But the US is the world’s undisputed king of carriers. The USS Abraham Lincoln, one of the US Navy’s 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, is larger and carries more planes than the Liaoning, and it features catapults to launch heavier planes.
Thomson Reuters
US carriers boast nuclear-powered cores, so they can sail around the globe without being refueled or relying on tankers.
Pound for pound, US carriers don’t carry as many weapons as their foreign counterparts, but they travel in strike groups, which include guided missile destroyers to defend them.
The USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group along with ships from Australia, Chile, Japan, Canada, and Korea during RIMPAC 2000.PH2 Gabriel Wilson
(Not pictured: submarines.)
Furthermore, the US is developing an even larger, more advanced class of aircraft carrier with an outsized power core to support weapons of the future, like railguns and lasers.
A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier (top) compared to a Ford-class (bottom).
Also, US carriers use a whole team of aircraft. Transport planes handle logistics; electronic warfare squadrons back up fighters; airborne warning and control planes — AWACS, like the E-2 Hawkeye below — transmit huge amounts of targeting data from the sky; helicopters hunt submarines and move personnel.
Other carriers boast fewer types of aircraft, and only the US operates carrier-based AWACS.U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class (AW) Jayme Pastoric.
To put things in perspective, this graphic shows the relative sizes of aircraft carriers from around the world.
Note that the USS Gerald R. Ford pictured in this graphic is slightly larger than the USS Nimitz aircraft carriers that now operate in the US Navy, but both vessels displace 102,000 tons.FOX 52 via Wikimedia Commons
And let’s not forget that the US has more aircraft carriers than the rest of the world combined.
India’s second aircraft carrier is not pictured .globalsecurity.org
