Chinese Naval Base in Africa Set to Support Aircraft Carriers

By Dilip -

A recently completed pier at the Chinese naval base near the entrance to the Red Sea is large enough to support an aircraft carrier, the top U.S. commander for Africa told lawmakers on Tuesday. Referring to the Chines naval base in Djibouti, U.S. Africa Commander Army Gen. Stephen Townsend told the House Armed Services Committee that the People’s Liberation Army was expanding its existing naval installation adjacent to a Chinese-owned commercial deep-water port and also seeking other military basing options elsewhere on the continent.

“Their first overseas military base, their only one, is in Africa, and they have just expanded that by adding a significant pier that can even support their aircraft carriers in the future. Around the continent they are looking for other basing opportunities,” Townsend told the HASC.

The base, formally opened in 2017, was developed to support the Chinese anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden but has expanded to include capabilities to serve as a logistical resupply hub for the PLAN’s blue-water capital ships like its new large deck Type-075 amphibious warship or domestically-designed Type 002 aircraft carrier, according to analysts. As recently as October, commercial satellite imagery showed construction on a pier system at the military base at Djibouti….

https://news.usni.org/2021/04/20/africom-chinese-naval-base-in-africa-set-to-support-aircraft-carriers

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