China recruits women to fly carrier-based warplanes as navy faces pilot shortage
- The country will also allow university graduates with STEM backgrounds to enter naval aviation pipeline as part of new recruitment drive
- Successful candidates to head to aviation academy for three or four years of training
According to the notice, candidates must be recent graduates holding a bachelor’s degree in science, technology or engineering. They should not be over 24 years old and must have a clean political and criminal record.
After two screening rounds in March and April, successful candidates will head to China’s Naval Aviation University in Yantai, Shandong province, for three to four years of theoretical and flight training.
Training at the Naval Aviation University is required for all carrier-based pilots. Previously, the institution only recruited from high schools, typically those that provide specialised training in cooperation with the Chinese navy.
While the Chinese military has trained women to fly fighter jets such as the J-10, it did not previously recruit them to pilot carrier-based craft.
Chinese navy struggles to find pilots for aircraft carriers
Ni Lexiong, a professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said the relaxation of requirements was a sign China wanted to train more talent for its quickly modernising naval force.
“The Chinese navy is in need of young and talented personnel who understand how to operate sophisticated radar, fighter and warship systems that have been upgraded amid the modernisation processes,” Ni said.
Brad Martin, a retired US Navy officer and senior policy researcher at the US think tank Rand Corporation, said China’s carrier aviation had progressed rapidly, but it still had a long way to go before being a reliable source of combat capability.
He said observation of fleet exercises over the past two years revealed the carriers were launching relatively few sorties, and the operations were carried out with “lightly loaded aircraft”.
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“The operations appear to have been mishap-free, but this is largely due to a very cautious approach to training. What the operations indicate is that Chinese carrier aviators are still in the process of learning how to operate the systems as opposed to using the aircraft in a combat environment.”
“China has really only begun operating such systems in the last generation. While China has the benefit of US experience for lessons learned, it still lacks significant experience of its own,” Martin said.