Who left skidmarks on the flight deck of China’s new aircraft carrier?

This is interesting: as far as anyone knows, the Chinese have not conducted fixed-wing flight operations from the deck of their brand new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. We’ve seen photos of Z-8 helicopters parked on and hovering over the flight deck, as well as pictures showing what are assumed to be mock-ups of the Shenyang ...

CCTV via China Defense
CCTV via China Defense
CCTV via China Defense

This is interesting: as far as anyone knows, the Chinese have not conducted fixed-wing flight operations from the deck of their brand new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. We’ve seen photos of Z-8 helicopters parked on and hovering over the flight deck, as well as pictures showing what are assumed to be mock-ups of the Shenyang J-15, a Chinese-made version of the Russian-designed Sukhoi Su-33 carrier fighter.

However, pictures that emerged on Chinese Internet forums of the ship’s commissioning ceremony very deliberately show what might be aircraft tire skidmarks on Liaoning‘s flight deck just in front of the ship’s arrestor cables (other pictures from the commissioning show a jet that resembles one of the J-15 mock ups sitting inside her hangar deck). If you look very closely at the photo above you can see the skidmarks between the cables and bleachers set up for the ceremony, see the image below this post for a close-up view.

Now, who knows, maybe the Liaoning‘s crew took a tow-truck for a spin and stomped on the brakes as they crossed the cables to give the appearance that someone has done at least a touch-and-go on the ship. Or, maybe someone has actually done a touch-and-go during one of Liaoning‘s many sea trials over the last year.

Killer Apps has asked around to see if anyone knows anything about flight ops on the Liaoning, or China’s “starter carrier,” as Naval War College professor Andrew Erickson has called her.

(Interesting side note: the ship’s hull, which was built by the USSR in Ukraine, used to be known as Varyag. Roughly translated, that’s Russian for Viking. The founders of what would eventually become modern Russia, the Kievan Rus, traced their roots to Vikings, according to legend.)

John Reed is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy. He comes to FP after editing Military.com’s publication Defense Tech and working as the associate editor of DoDBuzz. Between 2007 and 2010, he covered major trends in military aviation and the defense industry around the world for Defense News and Inside the Air Force. Before moving to Washington in August 2007, Reed worked in corporate sales and business development for a Swedish IT firm, The Meltwater Group in Mountain View CA, and Philadelphia, PA. Prior to that, he worked as a reporter at the Tracy Press and the Scotts Valley Press-Banner newspapers in California. His first story as a professional reporter involved chasing escaped emus around California’s central valley with Mexican cowboys armed with lassos and local police armed with shotguns. Luckily for the giant birds, the cowboys caught them first and the emus were ok. A New England native, Reed graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a dual degree in international affairs and history.

More from Foreign Policy

Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.
Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.

Russians Are Unraveling Before Our Eyes

A wave of fresh humiliations has the Kremlin struggling to control the narrative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.

A BRICS Currency Could Shake the Dollar’s Dominance

De-dollarization’s moment might finally be here.

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat

Is Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’ Factual or Farcical?

A former U.S. ambassador, an Iran expert, a Libya expert, and a former U.K. Conservative Party advisor weigh in.

An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.
An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.

The Battle for Eurasia

China, Russia, and their autocratic friends are leading another epic clash over the world’s largest landmass.