[News in War History] "Saving Female and Young Pilots" China's Aircraft Carrier Threatening Taiwan, Hidden Concerns

Shandong Ship Returns After Threat Training in Taiwan Strait
Huge Maintenance Costs... Operation Itself Is a Show of Force
China Accelerates Carrier-Based Aircraft Modernization... Tensions with US Likely to Intensify

Editor's Note[News in War History] is a content series created to provide multifaceted perspectives on the constantly evolving war and conflict news worldwide. Through 'News,' we first understand the current situation; through 'History,' we analyze the hidden meanings behind the news; and through 'Implication,' we offer insights into the near future. We visit you every Sunday and plan to publish a book after the 40th episode.

China has heightened military tensions across Northeast Asia by revealing training footage of its aircraft carrier group centered on the Shandong, which recently conducted exercises in the Taiwan Strait and the Western Pacific before returning to port. Especially around the time of the G7 summit held in Hiroshima, Japan, China pressed ahead with military drills simulating a blockade of Taiwan, prompting Taiwan and Japan to significantly strengthen their vigilance in adjacent areas.

Currently, China operates three aircraft carrier groups and has announced that it is simultaneously constructing two more aircraft carriers. It boasts that it will soon catch up to the scale of the U.S. carrier groups. However, assessments indicate that their actual combat power still falls far short of that of the U.S. carrier groups. This is because operating a carrier group requires not only the carriers and carrier-based aircraft but also personnel capable of fully utilizing these assets to conduct operations.

On the 10th of last month, the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong conducted carrier-based aircraft takeoff training off the southern coast of Okinawa, Japan, near Taiwan. [Image source= Japan Ministry of Defense Joint Staff Office website]

At present, China's carrier groups are reportedly still understaffed relative to their size. In particular, they have difficulty properly training pilots who can freely take off and land carrier-based aircraft. The unusual announcements about training female pilots and even recruiting 15- to 16-year-old boy pilots as carrier-based aviators are attributed to this personnel shortage.

In this segment, we will explore the controversies surrounding China's aircraft carrier forces, which pose the greatest threat in the Taiwan Strait yet whose combat capabilities are often underestimated, along with related historical context.

◆News: China "Shandong Completes One Month of Combat Readiness Training and Returns"

Takeoff training scene of the J-15 fighter jet, the carrier-based aircraft of the Chinese aircraft carrier. [Image source=Chinese Ministry of National Defense website]

First, let's look at the related news. According to China’s People’s Daily Online, the Southern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army announced on the 10th that the carrier group centered on the Shandong completed one month of combat readiness training in the Taiwan Strait and Western Pacific and returned to its home port at the Sanya base on Hainan Island. The Southern Theater Command boasted, "The Shandong conducted patrol operations around Taiwan Island as part of joint military exercises and deployed a carrier group to the Western Pacific for the first time."

Last month, the Shandong conducted carrier-based aircraft takeoff and landing training in the Taiwan Strait for the first time, leading the blockade operation of the Taiwan Strait. Notably, after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles on the 5th of last month, the level of military provocations increased. Since early this year, the Shandong has conducted exercises in the Western Pacific, advancing not only through the Taiwan Strait but also the Bashi Channel near the Philippines and near U.S. territory Guam, provoking the United States. This show of force can be interpreted as a strong backlash against U.S. arms support for Taiwan.

Recently, reports have emerged that China is constructing its fourth and fifth aircraft carriers following the already launched third carrier, the Fujian, and that one of these may be nuclear-powered. On the 10th of last month, Taiwan’s Liberty Times reported that the Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard, under the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), posted on its official Weibo account a conceptual drawing of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with the hull number '20.' This vessel is believed to be one of the fourth or fifth carriers currently under construction in China.

The launching ceremony of China's third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, in June last year. [Image source: Xinhua·Yonhap News]

Looking at the hull numbers of China's existing carriers, the first carrier Liaoning is numbered 16, the second carrier Shandong is 17, and the third carrier Fujian is 18. Considering this, '20' is presumed to be the fifth carrier. The Jiangnan Shipyard has reportedly opened public bidding for nuclear propulsion systems for warships and plans to begin construction before 2025.

Despite China's plans to build nuclear-powered carriers, experts still believe that China's carrier combat capabilities will lag far behind those of the United States. Collin Koh, a researcher at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told Newsweek, "China’s aircraft carrier development is taking a gradual approach, and while initial development is underway, it is also being used as a combat force. The Chinese military will try to learn from U.S. operational methods, but the gap is so large that gaining insights will be difficult."

A particular limitation cited for the Chinese military is the shortage of carrier-based aircraft pilots. In February, China announced it would accept female pilots for carrier-based aircraft, and last month it revealed plans to recruit about 4,500 boy pilots aged 15 to 16. This is analyzed as a response to the need for young trainees who can quickly adapt and learn new technologies, given that China’s domestically produced carriers are continuously evolving in takeoff methods, propulsion engines, and scale, and that the operational period of carriers is still short.

◆History 1: The Era of Aircraft Carriers and the Irony Begun by Post-World War I 'Naval Treaties'

The HMS Furious, commissioned in 1917 and known as the world's first aircraft carrier, of the United Kingdom. [Image source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command]

When did aircraft carriers, which China is now making a top priority in its oceanic rise, first come into existence? Many people associate aircraft carriers with the 1940s, recalling Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, but aircraft carriers actually began to be developed around the time of World War I.

The world’s first aircraft carrier officially deployed in combat was the British HMS Furious, commissioned in 1917, which conducted the first air raid on a German base in 1918. However, experiments with installing additional decks on cruisers and other ships to serve as runways for aircraft takeoffs had been ongoing since the 1910s.

According to the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, which preserves and studies U.S. Navy historical records, the first flight test from a runway installed on the deck of the U.S. Navy battleship Pennsylvania took place in 1911 and was successful. The U.S. Navy records this as the first page in the history of American aircraft carriers.

At that time, it is presumed that tests of mounting decks on general warship hulls and launching aircraft were conducted in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and Japan. In the early days of aviation technology, aircraft bodies were small, and engine power and fuel storage were limited, resulting in short flight ranges. Therefore, it was necessary to transport aircraft by ship to operational areas.

The Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi (赤城), which participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor. [Image source=Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Kure Museum]

After World War I ended, aircraft carriers began to be built at a tremendous pace worldwide. The operational success of HMS Furious drew significant attention from navies globally, but ironically, the real impetus for aircraft carrier construction was the 'naval disarmament treaties.' In particular, the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty in the early 1920s limited the number of battleships each country could build, leading many nations to convert battleships into aircraft carriers by adding flight decks.

As a result, by the time World War II broke out after the interwar period, many countries possessed aircraft carriers, but few were used effectively as such. The first large-scale operational effectiveness of aircraft carriers was demonstrated during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Unlike the European theater, which was dominated by land battles, the Pacific theater, with its maritime and island geography, saw aircraft carriers play a major role.

At that time, Japan became the country with the most advanced carrier forces due to the Pearl Harbor attack, but ultimately lost World War II. Especially near the end of the war, Japan lost many pilots in kamikaze (divine wind) suicide attacks, resulting in a complete loss of carrier power. Subsequently, the development and operational use of aircraft carriers centered mainly on the United States.

◆History 2: Enormous Construction and Maintenance Costs... Symbol of Superpowers

The world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise. [Image source: U.S. Navy]

During the Cold War, amid the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, aircraft carriers grew increasingly massive. From the 1950s, the U.S. Navy began operating supercarriers with full-load displacements of 80,000 to 100,000 tons. The construction costs were enormous, amounting to trillions of Korean won, and operational costs were also substantial. Moving a massive floating base with over 7,000 personnel required tremendous amounts of fuel.

Consequently, from the 1950s, the U.S. Navy researched installing small nuclear reactors, like those used in nuclear submarines, on aircraft carriers. This led to the construction of the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, in 1961. Equipped with eight small reactors, this nuclear carrier became a symbol of U.S. dominance.

The Enterprise played a crucial role in showcasing U.S. military power, circling the globe 40 times during events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, and the Afghanistan War. The U.S. nuclear carrier groups left a strong impression worldwide and were frequently deployed in response to provocations by adversary states.

However, the United Kingdom and European countries, where the concept of aircraft carriers originated, found it increasingly difficult to bear the enormous maintenance costs during and after the Cold War, leading to the decommissioning of many carriers. As a result, aside from the United States, which currently operates 11 carriers, China, with three carriers, holds the largest number of carriers. Only these two major powers (G2), with strong military and economic capabilities, effectively operate carrier groups.

◆Implication: Taiwan Strait to Enter Turbulence if China Succeeds in Modernizing Carrier-Based Aircraft

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

As explained earlier, most military experts still assess China’s carrier groups as being at a beginner level, far from matching U.S. capabilities. Having hardware such as aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft alone does not guarantee operational capability. China still faces challenges in developing nuclear-powered carriers, producing compatible carrier-based aircraft, and, most importantly, rapidly training sufficient pilots.

The problem is that the pace of development in the Chinese military is also tremendous. China, which has set a goal of modernizing its defense capabilities by the 100th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army in 2027, is accelerating naval power enhancement with enormous budgets and manpower. Some cautious forecasts suggest that from 2030 onward, China may possess some carrier groups capable of demonstrating real combat capabilities.

In that case, the power struggle between the U.S. and China in the Taiwan Strait region is expected to intensify. Although it will be difficult for China to develop forces capable of matching the entire U.S. carrier groups by then, the U.S. carrier groups are distributed across various global regions, making it difficult to concentrate all forces in the Taiwan Strait. Additionally, while the Taiwan Strait is China’s backyard, it is very far from the U.S. mainland, which could be a disadvantage. This is why neighboring countries in Asia, including South Korea, view China’s oceanic rise with apprehension.