Liaoning carrier strike group completes long-range realistic combat training and returns to Qingdao

The Chinese Navy’s Liaoning aircraft carrier formation completed its farsea combat training on June 22 and safely returned to its home port in Qingdao. According to reports, this training lasted more than 40 days and covered sea and air areas including the South China Sea and the western Pacific, with a focus on testing the combat employment capabilities of the aircraft carrier strike group under farsea conditions. During the training, the formation conducted drills centered on early warning and detection, system confrontation, carrierbased aircraft tactical flights, search and rescue, air superiority and air defense, antisurface strikes, and integrated rescue. It also carried out multiple rounds of shipaircraft offensive and defensive confrontation and livefire training to improve coordinated combat and mission execution capabilities. The report also noted that the Liaoning formation conducted joint exercises in a certain area of the western Pacific with an amphibious assault ship formation, further strengthening its multiservice coordination capability. During this period, the formation remained alert to the Japanese side’s closerange tracking, surveillance, and interference by ships and aircraft, and carried out responses such as combat takeoffs and formation adjustments.