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| Chinese Navy Aircraft Carrier Liaoning |
Konstantin Sivkov, a Russian defense analyst, said in his piece written for Moscow-based Military Parade that even as China speeds up the development of its first domestic aircraft carrier, it would still be unable to defeat the United States in a future carrier battle.
Sivkov said that China had successfully changed the equipment aboard the Liaoning, the nation's first aircraft carrier introduced from Ukraine, to use domestic products. A Type 382 Sea Eagle S/C air-search radar which allows Liaoning to track 10 targets in the air simultaneously can be seen aboard the ship. It is also fitted with a set of four active electronically scanned array radar panels which give the Liaoning a very similar air defense capability to the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, according to Sivkov.
However, the Russian expert also said that China's air defense missiles can only intercept between four and five US anti-ship missiles during the first round of the fight. Under US electronic attack, the capability of Chinese air defense systems would drop to between 30% and 70%. In this scenario, the Liaoning would be able to intercept probably no more than three American anti-ship missiles in a confrontation.
Read the full story at Want China Times