BEIJING – China’s first domestically manufactured aircraft carrier startedsea trials Sunday, state media said, a landmark in Beijing’s ambitiousplans to modernise its navy as the Asian giant presses its claims indisputed regional waters.

The carrier, known only as “Type 001A”, set out for the trials from a portin northeastern China at around 6.45 am (2245 GMT Saturday), according tostate broadcaster CCTV.

Footage aired by CCTV showed the imposing ship accompanied by severalsmaller military craft leaving a wharf and heading out to sea under greyskies.

It is the first time the carrier’s engine, propulsion and navigationsystems will be tested at sea, state media said, a year after the vesselfirst took to the water at its official launch.

Expected to be commissioned by 2020, the ship will give China a secondaircraft carrier to beef up its navy as it asserts its claims in thedisputed South China Sea and seeks to deter any independence movements inTaiwan.

China’s sole operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, is a repurposedSoviet ship bought from Ukraine, which went into service in 2012.

Neither the Liaoning or the new ship are nuclear-powered, but both cancarry around 40 planes and have similar “ski jump” ramps, an old launchsystem that forces aircraft to carry fewer weapons in order to hold morefuel for take-off.

The possession of a homegrown aircraft carrier places China among the fewmilitary powers with such vessels, including the United States, Russia andBritain.

But it would still be no match in size or range to the nuclear-poweredvessels of the United States Navy, which has 11 carriers.

However, Beijing has embarked on an extensive project to build a “bluewater” navy and modernise its two million-strong military, the world’slargest.

The Type 001A carrier will displace 55,000 tonnes and use conventionalpropulsion, according to the defence ministry.

Chinese state media have been speculating that a third home-made aircraftcarrier was in the works, but the defence ministry has yet to confirm this.

China’s defense budget rose 8.1 percent to 1.1 trillion yuan ($175 billion)in 2018, but it is still only about one-quarter that of the United States.