Based on the latest satellite photos of the aircraft carrier of China’s Shandong ship in the port, the air deflector around the take-off position and the flight deck on the landing strip were suspected to have been severely damaged, causing heated discussions in overseas social media.
The Twitter account “AlexLuck9” posted some satellite photos of Shandong carrier on June 28, which were taken on May 9th. The tweet stated that the air deflector around the take-off position and the flight deck on the landing strip were severely damaged.
Immediately, the satellite photos sparked heated discussion on overseas social media, and many internet users made comments.
Some overseas netizens said, “The photos show that the flight deck of the Shandong ship is seriously damaged, and it can even be seen from the cracked part that the deck seems to have only a thin layer, which may seriously affect the combat function of the ship.”
Some netizens said, “Maybe the steel is not up to standard and cannot adapt to the afterburning of the J-15 carrier aircraft during take-off and landing for a long time.”
Regarding the above speculation, many Chinese military fans said that “satellite photos happened to be taken when the crew was cleaning the flight deck before they were mistaken for deck damage.”
Some Chinese netizens reposted photos of the Shandong carrier recently celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of CPC, confirming that the deck had just been cleaned and was intact.
The Shandong ship entered service on December 17, 2019, and has been conducting sea training many times. On December 17, 2020, the Shandong ship rushed to a certain sea area of the Bohai Sea for training. In this training, the J-15 carrier-based aircraft took off and landed on the Shandong ship’s deck at high frequency for consecutive days, completing training tasks such as the largest sorties dispatch and recovery.
And the Chinese Navy’s official Weibo “People’s Navy” released the latest pictures on June 6 showing that aircraft took off from Shandong and Liaoning carriers respectively.