Just days after announcing the first successful takeoff and landing aboard its refitted Soviet aircraft carrier the Varyag, Focus Taiwan reports China will launch its own carrier next year.
Made completely in China and commissioned between 2015 and 2016 it will be the first of two domestically made carriers, with the second launched two years after the first.
Focus Taiwan picks up the report from an unnamed Hong Kong magazine, that says China plans to build a "superb first-class Navy over 20 to 30 years."
Over the next 10 years it says China will build three carrier fleets, and in the second decade will begin producing nuclear-powered carriers.
The launch of its first nuclear powered carrier is slated to occur no later than 2020.
Rumors of these two domestically made carriers have been in the wind for years, but this is the first time a date has been associated with the construction.
Please follow Military & Defense on Twitter and Facebook.