China has begun on Sunday the maritime tests of its first nationally manufactured aircraft carrier, reports the Xinhua news agency.
The new aircraft carrier, known at the moment as the Type 001A project, sailed from Dalian, in the northeastern province of Liaoning. The 001A is scheduled to be delivered to the national Navy later this year, which will become the second carrier of the Asian giant.
Today the Chinese Navy has an aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. This is the old Soviet ship Varyag that the Asian country acquired Ukraine in the 1990s at a scrap price. The ship was commissioned on September 25, 2012 and declared ready for combat in November 2016.
The 001A has a design very similar to the Soviet carrier but with a larger size, and has been developed exclusively with Chinese technologies.
The new ship has a displacement of about 70,000 tons, 315 meters in length and 75 in beam. The 001A images indicate that it has a trampoline and, according to estimates, could transport between 28 and 36 aircraft.