Recently, after more than 20 days and nights of actual combat training, the PLA Liaoning warship special mixed combat formation safely returned to a military port in the east from the West Pacific Sea area and the Philippine Sea exercise area. According to media reports, during the exercises conducted by our maritime formation in the western Pacific exercise area, it was repeatedly reconnoitred and monitored by US warships, Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force military aircraft, warships, and air self-defense force fighters.
However, under the condition that the Japanese ships were almost "close to their faces", our aircraft carrier formation still efficiently and orderly completed the take-off and landing training of carrier-based aircraft for many consecutive days and nights, and in the face of the monitoring and monitoring of the Japanese ships, it showed the results of a comprehensive offensive and defensive training at sea. "Anti-customer-oriented" brought a "shocking education" to the Japanese side. According to the scene footage released, our J-15 carrier-based aircraft has repeatedly conducted continuous take-off and landing training under the surveillance and observation of Japanese ships.
It is worth noting that from the official video released, we can see that for the first time, the aircraft carrier formation of our Liaoning warship "took a group photo in the same frame" with many Japanese ships, which is not only the first time that the Chinese aircraft carrier appears in the same picture as the foreign aircraft carrier, but also a good opportunity for the Chinese aircraft carrier to encounter the "close confrontation" exercise of the foreign aircraft carrier for the first time.
According to the analysis of the scene footage that has been revealed, after the Chinese ships were "closely followed" by the Japanese military aircraft warships, the Chinese side took off and landed a large number of J-15 carrier-based fighters to carry out aerial vigilance on the Japanese ships and military aircraft. Due to the relatively close distance between the two sides, it is bound to cause our J-15 carrier-based aircraft to fly over Japanese warships in the air many times, especially over the heads of Japanese quasi-aircraft carriers.
Some analysts believe that at present, through this continuous multi-day and night actual combat training, it should be seen that the Liaoning fleet of our navy already has the corresponding capabilities needed to effectively deal with the comprehensive operations of large-scale maritime aircraft carrier formations under complex meteorological conditions at sea and air. The formation has successively conducted continuous sea and air combat training in the East China Sea Area, the Outer Sea Area of Okinawa, the Western Pacific Sea Area, the Philippine Sea Area, and the Yellow Sea Area, and has maintained a high level of accompanying mobility and corresponding technical and tactical skills in a variety of complex sea conditions.
While sailing through multiple sea areas, the formation was also able to maintain tactical interspersed navigation while simultaneously implementing tactical anti-submarine, anti-ship, and air defense vigilance tasks, making full use of Japanese military aircraft and warships as reference objects and imaginary enemies, and effectively organizing and carrying out multi-course exercises on air targets, underwater anti-submarine targets, and strikes against enemy ships.
It is worth mentioning that the Japanese side dispatched its quasi-aircraft carrier to track our Liaoning warship throughout the whole process, and there was no fixed-wing carrier-based aircraft on board to conduct reconnaissance flights, and the Japanese side had to dispatch P-3C and P-1 anti-submarine patrol aircraft that took off and landed to conduct flight reconnaissance of our warships.
Compared with the current vigorous and morale-boosting Chinese Navy, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force has lagged behind significantly in the development of maritime power. Recently, foreign social media disclosed that China will serve a total of 170,000 tons of main battle ships in 2021, including 1 Type 094A ballistic missile nuclear submarine, 2 Type 075 amphibious assault ships, 3 Type 055 guided missile destroyers, 7 052D guided missile destroyers, and 9 Type 056A anti-submarine frigates.
This number and size is equivalent to one-third of the size of the capital ships of the Japanese Sea of Japan, in other words, the Chinese Navy can serve one-third of the Sea of Japan in one year, and one Japan Sea in three years.