By Prasun K. Sengupta
www.forceindia.net
March 2006

According to a detailed roadmap prepared by the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council in 1999, the People's Liberation Army's Navy (PLAN) will have gone through a complete force modernisation overhaul by the year 2050. The first phase of this roadmap was already achieved by 2000, during which period the PLAN gained control over the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea. The three seas are all located within the ‘first island chain' of the Pacific Ocean, including The Philippines and Japan's Ryukyu Islands. The second phase of the roadmap will be completed between 2020 and 2025, by which time the PLAN will have established control over waterways within the ‘second island chain' including the Japan Sea, the Philippines Sea and Indonesia Sea, covering Japan's Kurile and Hokkaido Islands, and Marianas and Palau Islands in the south Pacific. The third phase will be completed by 2050, during which time Mainland China will have established its ocean fleet operating in areas as far as Guam and The Maldives in the ‘third island chain'.

Naval Aviation

The PLAN's Shanghai Research Institute has been spearheading its plans for acquiring a fleet of aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships (LPD)
LPDs. In 1999 the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council had earmarked Yuan250 million for the design and construction of two LPDs, to be completed by 2009.

The PLAN's interest in aircraft carriers entered an active phase in 2005, and a PLAN delegation visited Russia 's MAKS 2005 aerospace exhibition in Zhukovsky to carefully study all the necessary technologies. A detailed technical presentation by the Sukhoi Aircraft Corp of the Su-33 and Su-33KUB shipborne combat aircraft was specially arranged for the visiting Chinese PLAN delegation, including a late-evening Su-33KUB demonstration flight during the exhibition. The Su27KUB was especially flown in to Zhukovsky for half-a-day from Saki , Ukraine, where it is currently being flight-tested. In early August, just prior to the MAKS exhibition, a PLAN delegation visited St Petersburg, where it listened to detailed technical presentations by representatives of the Nevskoye warship design bureau (PKB), the Russian designer of aircraft carriers, as well as to other companies cooperating with Nevskoye PKB. The visiting delegation also examined aircraft carrier-related equipment, including automatic landing systems and aircraft arresting devices. The delegation next visited the Ukrainian shipyard in Nikolayev, which has built all Soviet aircraft carriers to date. Sukhoi Aircraft Corp also submitted a three-stage proposal with various dates of delivery for the Su-33s and Su-33KUBs.

Going in parallel are efforts to make the 67,500-tonne Kuznetsov-class multi-role aircraft carrier Varyag, currently being refurbished in Dalian, seaworthy within a five-year period. By December, the PLAN had successfully installed an internal air conditioning system along with a reverse osmosis system for recycling sea water. These systems will later be integrated with a COGAG propulsion system that will be acquired from Ukraine 's Zorya Mashproekt Scientific and Production Enterprise.