Liaoning Carrier Strike Group Completes Distant-Sea Combat-Realistic Training

辽宁舰编队完成远海实战化训练

PLA Daily (解放军报) 23 June 2026

Summary

The Liaoning carrier strike group returned to Qingdao on June 22 after more than 40 days of distant-sea training across the South China Sea and Western Pacific, conducting shore-sea joint system-of-systems confrontation drills, carrier-based aircraft tactical flight, live weapons employment, and a joint exercise with an amphibious assault ship formation. The article documents two concrete institutional priorities: the integration of carrier and amphibious forces into a combined distant-sea system-of-systems formation, and the codification of combat-realistic training standards—setting conditions, scenarios, and cases drawn from actual operational requirements—as the benchmark for strike group readiness. The explicit reporting of Japanese shadowing and harassment, and the Liaoning's response via combat scrambles and formation changes, extends the public record of how the PLA frames and legitimizes carrier operations in contested airspace as a normalized operational condition rather than an exceptional event.

The article reports a joint exercise between the Liaoning carrier strike group and an amphibious assault ship formation in the Western Pacific—an operationally significant pairing that signals rehearsal of combined carrier-amphibious power projection—and includes an explicit PLA accusation that Japanese vessels and aircraft conducted 'dangerous conduct' during the deployment, a rhetorical escalation beyond routine shadowing acknowledgments.

Translation

PLA Daily, Qingdao, June 22 — Reporters Qian Xiaohu and special correspondent Zhang Maoxuan report: On June 22, the Navy's Liaoning carrier strike group successfully completed distant-sea combat-realistic training (远海实战化训练) and returned safely to its home port of Qingdao. Over more than 40 days of training, the strike group operated in maritime and airspace areas including the South China Sea and the Western Pacific, conducting in-depth operational application verification and substantially enhancing the carrier strike group's capacity to fulfill its mission tasks.

Since departing port, the strike group adhered to the principle of studying, researching, and training throughout every leg of the voyage, continuously shifting among multiple training maritime and airspace areas. It rigorously constructed an early-warning and detection system, and carefully planned and organized training in multiple subjects including shore-sea joint system-of-systems confrontation (岸海联合体系对抗), carrier-based aircraft tactical flight, and strike group search and rescue. The group trained command, studied tactics and methods of warfare (战法), assessed baseline capabilities, and strengthened overall capacity, continuously honing and elevating the strike group's combat-realistic training standard.

During training, the strike group adhered to combat-realistic training (实战实训), grounded in the requirements of distant-sea combat operations: setting realistic conditions, entering realistic scenarios, and drilling realistic cases. It planned and organized exercises in air superiority and air defense, anti-surface strike, support and cover, distant-sea comprehensive rescue, and live weapons employment. It conducted multi-wave ship-aircraft attack-defense confrontations spanning day and night, and continuously deepened intensive and refined training of primary combat modules (主战模块专攻精练), effectively testing the carrier strike group's distant-sea system-of-systems operational employment.

In a maritime area in the Western Pacific, the Liaoning carrier strike group conducted joint exercises with an amphibious assault ship formation. Both sides carefully planned and organized system-of-systems integration training (体系融合训练), fully tempering the operational effectiveness of the carrier strike group acting in coordination with the amphibious assault ship formation in distant-sea combat-realistic operations.

During the training period, Japanese vessels and aircraft repeatedly conducted close-range shadowing, surveillance, harassment, and provocations. The Liaoning carrier strike group maintained a high state of alert throughout, continuously organized combat scrambles of carrier-based aircraft, flexibly varied its combat formations, and professionally and steadily handled and responded to the dangerous conduct of the Japanese side.

Throughout the mission, the strike group's officers and soldiers fought through wind and waves, held their posts, and fought continuously, throwing themselves into frontline training tasks with high fighting spirit and full enthusiasm, ensuring the mission was completed successfully and smoothly.

Original Chinese

解放军报青岛6月22日电记者钱晓虎、特约记者张懋瑄报道：6月22日，海军辽宁舰编队圆满完成远海实战化训练，安全顺利返回青岛母港。40余天的训练中，编队赴南海、西太平洋等海空域，深入开展实战运用验证，有力提升了航母编队履行使命任务能力。编队出航以来，坚持走一路、研一路、练一路，连续转战多个训练海空域，严密构建预警探测体系，精心筹划组织岸海联合体系对抗、舰载机战术飞行、编队搜救等多项科目训练，练指挥、研战法、摸底数、强能力，不断打磨提升编队实战化训练水平。训练中，编队坚持实战实训，立足远海实战要求，设实情、进实景、练实案，筹划组织制空防空、对海打击、支援掩护、远海综合救援、实际使用武器等演练，跨昼夜开展多批次舰机攻防对抗，持续深化主战模块专攻精练，有效检验了航母编队远海体系作战运用。在西太平洋某海域，辽宁舰编队与两栖攻击舰编队开展联合演练，双方精心筹划组织体系融合训练，充分锤炼了航母编队联动两栖攻击舰编队远海实战行动效能。训练期间，日方舰艇、飞机多次近距离跟踪监视、滋扰挑衅。辽宁舰编队全程保持高度戒备状态，连续组织舰载机战斗起飞，灵活变换战斗队形，专业稳妥处置应对日方危险行径。任务全程，编队官兵战风斗浪、坚守岗位、连续奋战，以昂扬的斗志、饱满的热情投入一线练兵任务中，确保了任务圆满顺利完成。