The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning has published a new video that shows the Chinese navy’s sailors, carrier-based aircraft and the aircraft carrier battle group. At the end of the video they call out to China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier and say “Join Us and Fight Side by Side.”
Liaoning (LiáonÃng Jià n) is a Chinese a Type 001 aircraft carrier. The first aircraft carrier commissioned into the People’s Liberation Army Navy Surface Force, she is classified as a training ship, intended to allow the Navy to experiment, train and gain familiarity with aircraft carrier operations.
Originally laid down in 1985 for the Soviet Navy as the Kuznetsov-class aircraft cruiser Riga, she was launched on 4 December 1988 and renamed Varyag in 1990. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, construction was halted and the ship was put up for sale by Ukraine. The stripped hulk was purchased in 1998 and towed to the Dalian naval shipyard in northeast China.
The ship was rebuilt and commissioned into the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) as Liaoning on 25 September 2012. Its Chinese ship class designation is Type 001. In November 2016, the political commissar of Liaoning, Commodore Li Dongyou, stated that Liaoning was combat ready.
