Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

Liaoning, hull number 16, is the Chinese Type 001 aircraft carrier and the first carrier commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force. It began as the Soviet Kuznetsov-class carrier Riga, laid down in 1985 at Mykolaiv and launched in 1988, and was renamed Varyag in 1990. Construction stopped when the Soviet Union collapsed with the ship about 68 percent complete, and Ukraine put it up for sale. A Macau company bought the hulk at auction in 1998 for 20 million dollars under the cover story of a floating hotel and casino, and after a long and troubled tow through the Black Sea and the Turkish Straits it reached the Dalian naval shipyard in 2002. It was rebuilt there and commissioned as Liaoning on 25 September 2012. Originally classed as a training ship so the navy could learn carrier operations, it was announced for a combat role in 2019. Unlike its Soviet design it never received the anti-ship cruise missiles, carrying only air defence weapons, so it must use its aircraft for surface attack.