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The Varyag, the Soviet aircraft carrier now in the possession of the Chinese regime, before refitting. (US Navy via Wikimedia Commons)
The Chinese regime will test its first aircraft carrier in sea trials, possibly as early as the coming summer, said the U.S. chief of military forces in the Pacific, according to media reports.
“Based on the feedback from our partners and allies in the Pacific, I think the change in perception by the region will be significant,” Adm. Robert Willard, the head of US Pacific Command, said in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to The Associated Press.
Photos published to state-run Xinhua news showed the carrier.
Willard said that the impact would be mostly symbolic as it requires significant training, exercises, and testing before it would be operational, according to the news agency.
The aircraft carrier, which is from the Soviet era, was sold to China by Ukraine.
“We do expect that they will achieve what they are asserting, which is that perhaps this year it may go to sea,” Willard told Bloomberg in an interview. “That’s a long way from developing an aircraft carrier capability.”
Despite the aircraft carrier being seen as mostly symbolic, Willard said that “they have developed a ballistic missile capability” with most of those missiles “aimed in the direction of Taiwan. That is very formidable,” he told Bloomberg.