* Admiral Wu says first carrier mainly for training

* Carrier commander Zhang says 36 planes operate from ship

* Chinese sailors on visit with U.S. counterparts

By David Alexander

(Reuters) –    The Chinese navy is using its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, for training and testing and will decide on an operational carrier for the fleet after a few years of evaluation, Admiral Wu Shengli said on Thursday.

The navy chief of the People’s Liberation Army, on a military-to-military visit with his U.S. counterpart, told reporters at the Washington Navy Yard that Chinese sailors would carry out “very heavy” training over the next two or three years as they assess the carrier.

“After the training and experimentation we will have a final evaluation on the development of the aircraft carrier for the PLA navy,” said Shengli, whose delegation included the commander of the Liaoning and the first pilot to land on its flight deck.

The Chinese carrier was built on the shell of a Soviet-era vessel that China purchased from Ukraine. China revamped the ship, which was formally commissioned in September 2012. Flight operations began two months later.

The launch of the first Chinese carrier is been seen as a symbol of Beijing’s ambition for greater global influence and another sign of its rapid military buildup. U.S. officials have downplayed the importance, noting that it takes years to learn to effectively integrate carriers into fleet operations.

Senior Captain Zhang Zheng, the commander of the Liaoning, said the carrier was smaller than U.S. aircraft carriers and had a “ski jump”-style ramp at the end of its longest runway.

“We have around 36 airplanes operating on board our ship,” he told reporters. “And we are still practicing and doing tests and experiments for the equipment and systems.”

Wu, Zhang and Captain Dai Ming Meng, the pilot who first landed on the carrier, visited several American ships in California earlier this week, including the carrier USS Carl Vinson, where they met with their counterparts.

“We talked in great detail in San Diego with our aviation people and Admiral Wu’s aviation people,” said Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, who hosted Wu. “It was great and inspiring to see two professionals talk about a common challenge – aviation from an aircraft carrier.”

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