At least there aren't planes on deck (yet): Satellite captures first picture of China’s aircraft carrier which it claimed is just for ‘research’

A satellite photo captured China's first ever aircraft carrier on the Chinese coast's Yellow Sea Thursday by a commercial U.S. satellite company.

The aircraft carrier has generated intense international interest because of the open-ended possibilities the country may have for it as a future military power.

Little on the ship had been said by China after purchasing it from Ukraine in 1998, spending years refurbishing it from one with no engines, weaponry or navigation systems, to one seen sailing last week.



Caught: The Chinese aircraft carrier Varyag was seen sailing the Yellow Sea approximately 100 kilometers south-southeast of the port of Dalian, China by a commercial satellite image last week

A DigitalGlobe analyst says they found the image Tuesday while searching through their satellite's photos.

Stephen Wood, director of DigitalGlobe's analysis center, said he's confident the ship is the Chinese carrier because of the location and date of the photo. The carrier was on a sea trial at the time.

China has said the carrier is intended for research and training, which has led to speculation that it plans to build future copies.

The former Soviet Union was the first to start building the carrier, which it called the Varyag, but never finished it.



Intentions: China has said the carrier is intended for research and training purposes but it could be operating for their Navy by the end of next year according to the U.S.

GROWING MILITARY EFFORT

Since January of 2011, China: Sent its first aircraft carrier, the Varyag, on a maiden trial



Is developing an anti-ship ballistic missile

Tested the latest model of its next-generation fighter jet Past two years:

China publicly announced around 50 separate naval exercises in the seas off its coast -- usually after the event In November of 2007:

Dozen of warships of the South China Sea Fleet were deployed in competitive training to improve combat capability of the fleet In January of 2007:

China demonstrated its satellite-killing capacity by firing a ballistic missile that destroyed an obsolete Chinese weather satellite



When the Soviet Union collapsed, it ended up in the hands of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic who then sold it to China.

China initially said little about its plans for the carrier but has been more open in recent years, said Bonnie S. Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

'It wasn't until the Chinese actually announced they were sending it out on a trial run they admitted, `Yes, we are actually launching a carrier,'' she said.



China publicly announced two sea trials for the carrier that occurred this year, she said.

The carrier's progress is in line with the U.S. military's expectations, said Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Defense Department spokeswoman.



A Defense Department report to Congress this year said the carrier could become operationally available to the Chinese navy by the end of next year but without aircraft.



'From that point, it will take several additional years before the carrier has an operationally viable air group,' Hull-Ryde said in an email.

She declined to comment on the DigitalGlobe photo, saying it was an intelligence matter.



DigitalGlobe, based in Longmont, Colo., sells satellite imagery and analysis to clients that include the U.S. military, emergency response agencies and private companies. DigitalGlobe has three orbiting satellites and a fourth is under construction.