Two Chinese test pilots were killed during development of the country’s first aircraft carrier fighter wing, state media said, in a rare admission of problems with the hugely popular naval program.
The admission came in a report by Xinhua news agency, saying Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had signed an order awarding honorary titles to all pilots in the first squadron to conduct take-off and landing tests aboard the Liaoning, China’s only aircraft carrier.
“Two test pilots of the squadron sacrificed their lives during the tests,” the report said.
No details were given.
The original Xinhua report ran on Aug. 28, but went largely overlooked at the time. It was picked up by US defense blogs and linked on Friday to the blog of the US Naval Institute.
Carrier flight operations are inherently risky and the loss of two pilots is far from unusual. However, China’s military still operates under a shroud of secrecy and no deadly accidents relating to the carrier had been reported at the time.
China announced it had begun flight tests on the Liaoning in late 2012, spurring a wave of patriotic pride in the country’s growing capabilities. State television ran hours of footage of planes landing and taking off, while Internet users across the country posted photographs of themselves recreating the carrier flight crews’ “all-clear” signal to the pilot.
Chinese carrier pilots fly the J-15 fighter-bomber, a copy of Russia’s Sukhoi Su-33.
China spent a decade refurbishing a derelict Soviet-era carrier bought from Ukraine before commissioning it as the Liaoning in 2012. It is part of a major expansion of the Chinese navy that includes sophisticated new surface ships and submarines. The ship is slower and smaller than US aircraft carriers and does not carry as many aircraft.
The Liaoning is still conducting sea trials and Chinese defense officials have not said when, or even if, it will receive its full complement of aircraft.
On Dec. 5 last year a Chinese ship accompanying the Liaoning was involved in a near collision with a US Navy cruiser, the USS Cowpens, when it was operating in international waters in the South China Sea. US Navy officials said the Cowpens maneuvered to avoid the collision, but it marked the two nations’ most serious sea confrontation in years.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS