China will have better aircraft carriers than India, Japan: Kanwa
If China can successfully carry out its Type 001A aircraft carrier program, the People's Liberation Army Navy will eventually have better carriers than its Indian and Japanese counterparts, according to Kanwa Defense Review, a Chinese-language military magazine based in Canada.
After comparing the capabilities of the Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier, and its Indian counterpart the INS Vikramaditya, Kanwa concluded that the PLA Navy does not have any advantage in real combat. While Chinese experts said that the PLA Navy's Type 052D guided-missile destroyers can offer the Liaoning better better air defense capability than Indian destroyers can offer the Vikramaditya. However, India has already acquired advanced air defense missile from Israel for its destroyers, the article said.
While the Chinese experts believe that China's J-15 carrier-based fighter is better than India's Russian-built MiG-29, Kanwa said the Chinese fighter is still under development. The MiG-29 has been used in various aerial operations, and China admits that the J-15 will not be fully ready before 2020. Moreover, it remains unclear whether China is capable to operate the J-31, its second stealth fighter still in development, from aircraft carriers.
The J-15 is still undergoing weapons tests aboard the Liaoning, including its ability to fire the PL-12 medium-range air-to-air missile, PL-8B short-range air-to-air missile and YJ-83 anti-ship missile. Unconfirmed reports also indicate that China is testing the electronic warfare and air-refueling versions of the J-15. It remains optimistic to say China will produce a total of 35 J-15 fighters in 2015 as many Chinese experts have claimed, the Kanwa report said.
Since neither the Liaoning and Vikramaditya operate a catapult for launching planes, the only option both vessels can select as an early warning aircraft is the Russian-built Ka-31 helicopter. Even if India successfully convinces the United States to sell it the E-2D early warning aircraft, the aircraft can only be operated from a land base, Kanwa said. If China's future carriers are built with ski-jump ramps, they will be no different from the Liaoning.
However, a senior official from the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, believed to be the location where construction of China's first domestically built carrier is underway, claimed that the Type 001A aircraft carrier will be better than both the Vikramaditya and Japan's Izumo-class helicopter destroyers.
