China is increasing its military budget by 14.9 percent which brings their spending to 480.7 billion yuan ($70.2 billion dollars approx).
U.S. claims that real spending is much higher than this announced budget.
China is upgrading its nuclear arsenal and has confirmed plans to build its first aircraft carrier. Still unclear in Richard Spencer's article if that funding is in this budget. (I'm making a guess that it is. Because it goes right along with naval flight training that Chinese pilots have been doing).
If China does build a aircraft, it is presumed to be along the lines of the Russian Admiral Kuznetzov. That ship is 300 meters long by 73 meters wide. Unlike U.S. aircraft carriers, the Kuznetzov has only two conventional steam engines for power. American carriers are almost all nuclear power now. Capable of carrying 2600 people. The ship carries (16) Yak-41 Freestyle and (12) SU-33 Flanker-D jet fighters. Helicopters carried are (4) Ka-27LD Helix, (18) Ka-27PLO and (2) Ka-27S helicopters.
Weapons carried include anti-submarine missiles and "Shipwreck" anti-ship missiles.
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Ref. Telegraph.co.uk article "China to increase defence spending by 15 percent" by Richard Spencer in Beijing 03/04/2009. ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4936931/China-to-increase-defence-spending-by-15-per-cent.html).
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