The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s aircraft carrier Shandong conducts realistic combat-oriented exercises in the South China Sea in the early autumn of 2022. Photo: Screenshot from the WeChat account of the PLA South Sea Fleet

Having obtained its combat training certificate last year, China's second aircraft carrier, the Shandong, is expected to hold far sea exercises beyond the first island chain soon, making up for the absence of the country's first carrier, the Liaoning, which started regular maintenance last month, experts said on Friday.

In a series of tests held last year, the Shandong proved it had achieved planned operational capability on schedule, and obtained the certificate for combat training, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Thursday.

As the first fully domestically built aircraft carrier, the Shandong entered service with the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy on December 17, 2019. Since then, it has carried out several exercises in the South China Sea, but has yet to conduct drills beyond the first island chain, according to information that was made public.

The Shandong could embark on its first far sea exercise soon and sail to the Pacific Ocean, or it could also sail to the Indian Ocean, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Friday.

The second aircraft carrier's readiness to sail to distant seas comes at a time when the country's first carrier has become temporarily unavailable due to regular maintenance.

On February 28, the Liaoning returned to the Dalian Shipyard in Northeast China's Liaoning Province and started its scheduled maintenance, news website wenweipo.com reported at the time.

The maintenance, which likely features the cleaning and repairing of the engines and pipelines among others, could last over half a year, wenweipo.com said, citing analysts.

The Liaoning, which was commissioned in September 2012, had maintenance in the shipyard in May 2018 that saw a series of improvements including the recoating of its flight deck, the optimization of the flight operations bridge and the upgrading of electric devices, wenweipo.com reported.

At a time when the Liaoning is under maintenance, the Shandong is ready to take up the role of conducting far sea exercises, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Friday.

It is a must that a carrier receives maintenance after a certain period of use, and that is why the PLA Navy needs more carriers, so that it always has active carriers at its disposal, the expert said.

When the Liaoning is again ready for action, the two carriers will finally be able to form a long-expected dual carrier group in exercises.

Liang Huadong, head of the Shandong's steering crew, said in the CCTV report that "it took us only a few years to prepare the carrier and hold training. In the near future, we will sail together with the Liaoning carrier group and will go into the deep blue waters of the far sea."

A dual carrier group is more powerful than two separate carrier groups operating alone, and such a group will further contribute to safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interests, experts said.

China's third aircraft carrier, the electromagnetic catapult-equipped Fujian, was launched in June 2022, and it is expected to conduct its maiden voyage this year.

Based on the Shandong's experiences, China's future carriers including the Fujian will make new breakthroughs, CCTV quoted Jiang Wei, chief of the Shandong's general office, as saying.