Dual Aircraft Carrier Battle Group Operations: Technical Evolution and Future Outlook

I. Why Dual-Carrier Drills Matter: Technical Significance and Strategic Value

In modern naval warfare, an aircraft carrier serves as a mobile airfield and the core of a battle group, but its true combat effectiveness depends on the coordinated performance of the entire formation. Dual-carrier drills are not merely the presence of two carriers in the same sea area; they test integrated long-range maritime combat capabilities through formation restructuring, joint carrier-based aircraft operations, and integrated air defense and anti-submarine coordination.

Compared with a single-carrier group, a dual-carrier formation offers three major advantages: significantly increased aircraft sortie rates to support larger-scale air strikes; built-in redundancy where the two ships serve as backups for each other in deck operations and damage control; and expanded flexibility in defensive positioning, markedly enhancing layered defense depth. For these reasons, dual-carrier drills are widely regarded as a key milestone in a navy’s transition to mature blue-water operations.

Since the commissioning of the Liaoning in 2012, the Chinese navy has progressively built a comprehensive carrier operational system. Dual-carrier drills reported in October 2024 and reportedly planned for June 2025 mark the evolution from a single-carrier-centric to a dual-carrier-driven operational framework (specific dates and details subject to official announcements).

II. Four Phases of Development

The growth of China’s carrier capability follows a clear, incremental path that can be divided into four stages:

Phase One: Single-Carrier Basic Training (2012–2018)

The Liaoning was commissioned on September 25, 2012, initially undertaking scientific research trials and carrier-based aircraft takeoff and landing validation. In late 2016 and early 2017, the Liaoning battle group conducted its first live-weapon exercise and transited the Miyako Strait into the western Pacific. The core objective of this phase was to overcome carrier-based aircraft launch and recovery bottlenecks and establish formation operational procedures, gradually transitioning the Liaoning from a test ship to a combat vessel.

Phase Two: Domestic Carrier Commissioned, Dual-Carrier Era Begins (2019–2022)

The Shandong was commissioned in 2019, giving the Chinese navy two operational carriers. However, possessing two carriers does not automatically mean coordinated employment. During this phase, the two ships trained independently, focusing on developing full carrier air wing operational capability. In April–May 2023, the Shandong battle group conducted exercises in the western Pacific, demonstrating that single-carrier blue-water combat capability had largely matured, laying the technical groundwork for subsequent dual-carrier coordination.

Phase Three: Dual-Carrier Joint Drills (October 2024)

In late October 2024, the Liaoning and the Shandong conducted their first dual-carrier battle group drill in the South China Sea. The exercise showcased a “full-deck attack” tactic: the Liaoning executed the first wave of strikes while the Shandong handled the second wave and fleet air defense. The division of roles enabled coordinated air, surface, and subsurface mission allocation. Military analysts noted this drill marked the formal transition to a dual-carrier-driven approach.

Phase Four: Dual-Carrier System-vs-System Drills (Reportedly Planned for June 2025)

According to reports, the Liaoning and Shandong battle groups are scheduled to rendezvous in distant waters in June 2025, operating across multiple maritime zones and publicly conducting opposed combat drills for the first time. Unlike the initial joint exercise, the two carriers will assume red and blue force roles, using realistic opposition to test command and control, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic attack and defense, and firepower delivery (subject to official announcements). This mode of treating one’s own forces as the adversary is a critical step from achieving coordination to achieving combat-capable opposition.

III. Dual-Carrier Battle Group Composition: Force Configuration

Based on official imagery released to the public, the dual-carrier drill formation includes, in addition to the two carriers, the following escort forces:

Escort Vessel Roster

• 3 × Type 055 destroyers (approx. 10,000+ tons each): Core regional air defense and surface strike platforms, equipped with dual-band radar and large-caliber universal vertical launch systems.
• 5 × Type 052D destroyers: Responsible for medium- and short-range air defense, anti-submarine警戒, and formation escort, forming a high-low mix with the Type 055 in a tiered defense layout.
• 1 × Type 054A frigate: Handles short-range anti-submarine warfare and auxiliary escort duties, covering gaps in destroyer operations under complex sea conditions.
• 2 × Type 901 comprehensive supply ships: Provide fuel, ammunition, and provisions to extend sustained blue-water operational endurance.

Based on publicly available data, the total displacement of the formation is estimated in the 200,000–300,000 ton range (exact figures subject to official disclosure). The escort fleet collectively carries several hundred vertical launch cells (precise numbers subject to official disclosure), constructing comprehensive close-, medium-, and long-range firepower interception networks.

Aviation Force Configuration

Drill imagery showed 12 J-15 fighters flying in formation low over both carriers. Public footage suggests approximately 18 J-15s were parked on the Shandong’s flight deck and 2 on the Liaoning, reflecting different sortie generation states and deck management strategies between the two vessels.

This configuration highlights two technical characteristics: integrated offense and defense, with the carriers as strike cores and escort ships as mobile defensive barriers; and sustained operations, with supply ships enabling extended deployment far from shore-based support.

IV. Key Challenges in Dual-Carrier Coordinated Operations

A dual-carrier formation is not a simple summation of two vessels; it involves multiple layers of technical difficulty:

1. How to Balance Unified and Distributed Command and Control?

Two carriers involve two independent command information systems and carrier-based aircraft dispatch frameworks. The drills employed a mission-type organization model, where each carrier undertakes command responsibilities for different waves while a formation-level command post manages the overall picture, balancing centralized control with distributed execution.

2. How to Achieve Precision Carrier-Based Aircraft Scheduling?

Flight deck space is finite; launch, recovery, refueling, and weapons loading must be precisely sequenced. In a full-deck attack, both carriers must conduct multiple launch and recovery waves within the same operational window, placing extreme demands on deck scheduling algorithms, weapons elevator efficiency, and pilot proficiency. The 12-fighter low-altitude flyover is itself a demonstration of formation airspace identification, route planning, and flight control capability.

3. How to Conduct Electronic Warfare in Complex Electromagnetic Environments?

In system-vs-system drills, both formations must execute electronic suppression, deception jamming, and other offensive and defensive measures within contested electromagnetic environments, while simultaneously fusing and sharing multi-platform sensor data in real time via data links. This requires highly digitized and automated command capabilities, and serves as the core differentiator between system-level confrontation and mere formation-level cooperation.

Reference Performance Indicators for Dual-Carrier Coordination

Metric	Reference Threshold	Notes
Formation command information latency	Within several seconds	Affects multi-ship coordination decision-making efficiency
Data link bandwidth requirement	High-speed broadband	Supports multi-platform sensor fusion
Flight deck turnaround time	Within minutes	Determines continuous sortie generation rate
Electronic countermeasure response speed	Real-time / near-real-time	Determines initiative in electronic offense and defense

(These are reference-level indicators; actual parameters vary by equipment model and mission.)

V. Evolution Toward Multi-Carrier Formations: Trends and Challenges

The Fujian, expected to be commissioned around 2025 (subject to official announcements), is China’s first electromagnetic catapult-equipped carrier, offering generational advantages in launch methods and sortie efficiency. Future drill formats are likely to expand in several directions:

• Mixed-format drills: Validating the compatibility of electromagnetic catapult and ski-jump launch modes within a unified formation, and exploring coordinated employment of fixed-wing early warning aircraft and electronic warfare aircraft.
• Three-carrier joint drills: Testing the upper limits of multi-carrier scheduling coordination and accumulating experience for larger-scale joint maritime operations.
• Normalized system-vs-system confrontation: Institutionalizing the opposed-force model, with red and blue sides each composed of dual-carrier formations.

Beyond technical challenges, multi-carrier formations must also address logistics chain extension, communications reliability in distant waters, and political-diplomatic coordination among multiple formations.

From a technical trajectory standpoint, the Chinese navy is progressing steadily along the path of single-carrier operations → dual-carrier operations → dual-carrier system confrontation → multi-carrier joint operations. This path reflects a graduated capability development strategy and, more fundamentally, a deep understanding of the mechanisms of modern naval victory: carrier combat power resides not in the vessel itself alone, but in the coordination efficiency and resilience of the entire carrier-centric operational system.

(This article synthesizes publicly available reporting. Specific exercise details are subject to official announcements by the Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China.)