BEIJING — China’s first entirely home-built aircraft carrier has begun sea trials in a sign of the growing sophistication of the country’s domestic arms industry.
State media say the still-unnamed ship left dock in the northern port of Dalian early Sunday. The Liaoning provincial maritime safety bureau issued an order for shipping to avoid a section of ocean southeast of the city between Sunday and Friday.
China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, arrived as a mostly empty hull from Ukraine and was commissioned in 2012 along with its flight wing of Chinese J-15 fighter jets.
Both carriers are built on former Soviet Union models and run on oil, although media reports say China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier capable of remaining at sea for long durations.
The Associated Press