China's Naval Aviation and its Prospective Role in Blue Water Capabilities of the PLA Navy

Abstract

The PLA Navy's aviation branch, officially known as the PLA Navy Air Force (PLAN AF), comprises 25,000 personnel and more than 800 aircraft. It provides the PLA Navy with its own air capability independent of the PLA Air Force. But the Force remains largely land-based. However, the much speculated upon aircraft carrier program will impart a new dimension to the Chinese naval aviation. With the current level of national technological capability and available maritime infrastructure, the PLA Navy will, at best, be able to project power with its carriers within the South and East China Sea only, in the 2020 timeframe. It will find it increasingly hard to project power-using aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean Region without full-fledged military bases to support logistics and ship and aircraft maintenance/repairs. Thus the credible Chinese power projection capability in the Indian Ocean still appears to be at least two decades away. But the international community must take due cognizance of this inevitability now and commence preparations to face this forthcoming challenge.