Aircraft Carrier Varyag May Join Chinese Navy Under Name of Liaoning

14.08.2012 Ex-Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag would possibly bear the name of Chinese province Liaoning, reports VPK News referring to forum of china-defense.com reposted an article fr om English-speaking Chinese newspaper Global Times. Expert of Chinese Naval Research Institute Li Jie speculates on what would be the name of former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag after commission into Chinese Navy and where she would be stationed. That article launched active public debates, writes Global Times.

The expert assumed that the carrier would be named after one of Chinese provinces and be stationed at different bases to improve her efficiency. Some analysts suppose the ship would be named in honor of an outstanding public or military figure, just like they do in the US Navy. Traditionally, China names large ships after provinces, and small ones after cities. Chinese defense ministry called Jie's guesses "speculations", since there is no consensus on this matter so far.

The aircraft carrier had finished ninth sea trial and returned to port of Dalian (Liaoning province) on July 30. Jie supposes that basic systems of the ship had successfully passed series of trials, and the carrier would join Chinese Navy in the nearest future (as an example, he says that American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was commissioned after 10 rounds of trial). On the carrier's deck, two life-sized airplanes were detected. According to the expert, although aircraft have not performed deck takeoff and landing tests, it "has little significance". In response, Li Daguang, a military expert at the PLA National Defense University said the ship could join the navy only after successful aircraft takeoff/landing tests, even though such trials have been already held on land-based deck.

As was earlier reported, the carrier would be put in service either early in Aug on occasion of the 85-th anniversary of People's Liberation Army or on Oct 1, the People's Republic of China National Day. Colonel Lin Bai, PLA General Armament Department told reporters that the carrier's trials were going on with progress and the Navy had achieved the desired results. The ship will be used for personnel training and scientific researches. Reportedly, the carrier is capable to accommodate about 30 aircraft; the crew would be somewhat 2,000 men.

According to one of the forum posters, it would be logical to name the ship after Liaoning province where Dalian port is located. That is wh ere the carrier was repaired, retrofitted, and holds trials. Earlier on, it was reported that the ship had already obtained unofficial name of Shi Lang in honor of respected Chinese admiral conquered Taiwan Island at the time of the Qing Empire.