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Just as China’s first homemade aircraft carrier, currently known as Type 001A, was sent out for full-scale sea trials this week, Chinese media began tossing around the idea that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) needs four more.

At the moment, China only has one fully operational aircraft carrier: the Liaoning, which was rebuilt using an unfinished Russian Soviet-era aircraft carrier named Varyag. China built a second aircraft carrier, the Type 001A, on their own, and it is now undergoing tests. The new carrier might be delivered to the PLA-Navy by the end of the year and commissioned sometime within the next two years, the Asia Times reported.

According to the Times, Chinese media outlets are suggesting that the PLA needs a total of six carriers in order to form convoys and strike groups to advance China’s interests in the region. The outlet also indicated that additional carriers would help China to get a handle on “emergencies on several fronts” in a “worst-case scenario.”

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