Liaoning aircraft carrier, is the first aircraft carrier commissioned into the People\’s Liberation Army Navy Surface Force. It is classified as a training ship, intended to allow the Navy to experiment and gain familiarity with aircraft carrier operations. Originally built as a “heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser” for the Soviet Navy, the ship was laid down as the Riga and renamed the Varyag in 1990. A Chinese travel agency purchased the unfinished hull in 1998, and three years later the ship was towed from the Ukraine to China, where it underwent extensive modernization of its hull, radar, and electronics systems.
Facts:
Length: 999 feet
Beam: 246 feet
Displacement: 59,000 tons
Speed: 32 knots
Crew: 2,000
Aircraft carried: 30 Shenyang J-15 fighter jets
Aircraft carried: 24 Ka-31 helicopters
Cost (ex-R&D: $2 billion
credit: X_xinz