Chinese leaders chose not to spoil the jolly mood in Qingdao by talking about aircraft carriers.
Today, ten years later, the affordability of aircraft carriers is again becoming an issue.
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More than 30 ships were sunk, most of them Japanese including their last four aircraft carriers.
Admirals are enthusiasts for aircraft carriers and air marshals favour the latest combat aircraft.
Chinese aircraft carriers are the cornerstone of a multidecade effort by Beijing to modernize its forces.
It requires expeditionary capabilities transport aircraft, field hospitals, aircraft carriers, deep-strike bombers and, arguably, a nuclear deterrent.
So why, I asked, does China need to develop aircraft carriers and stealth jet-fighters?
JSF, particularly for the two new aircraft carriers that it is developing jointly with France.
All were shocked to learn that the United States has a total of just 11 aircraft carriers.
He leaned on the military, saving untold millions by using World War II-era aircraft carriers and battleships.
Aircraft carriers are the capital ships of the modern Navy, a potent symbol of American military power.
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The navy frets that it could lose the two new aircraft carriers it has been counting on.
The possession, or not, of aircraft carriers more than any other weapon says a lot about a country's self-image.
When it came to foreign representation, a couple of countries sent aircraft carriers and others a destroyer.
By 5 April the first battle ships, including two aircraft carriers, hurriedly set sail for the South Atlantic.
The Navy model will operate from aircraft carriers, while the Air Force version will be based on land.
But as sometimes happens in proxy wars, aircraft carriers don't win the hearts and minds of the people.
Some experts say this weapon system could be a game-changer by creating "no-go zones" for U.S. aircraft carriers.
Does it build a blue-water navy, does it build aircraft carriers, expand its naval presence around the world?
The MoD said the "new, much larger" Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers would start to enter service in 2017.
This one would have involved striking American aircraft carriers with suicide vessels filled with the deadly explosive C-4.
It backed off only when America sent two aircraft carriers to extend a protective arm to the island.
More recently, they tested a maneuvering ballistic missile warhead capable of hitting U.S. aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific.
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This is the pot of money that pays salaries as well as buys aircraft carriers and builds national parks.
According to press reports, these include reductions to fewer than 500 ships and perhaps nine or ten aircraft carriers.
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That includes fighter jets and bombers spread out across air bases in the Middle East and nearby aircraft carriers.
Aircraft carriers provide four-and-a-half acres of survivable, sovereign U.S. territory wherever they deploy.
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My experience with aircraft carriers goes back to 1976 on USS Franklin D.
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Perhaps most tellingly, no nation is pursuing aircraft carriers more assiduously than China.
The current fleet includes 11 aircraft carriers, with six assigned to the Pacific.
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