PLA Navy to recruit college grads for pilot training

The People's Liberation Army Navy announced on Monday that it will recruit university graduates of the class of 2023 for its naval aviation forces, marking the first attempt to attract well-educated youngsters and develop them into carrier-based pilots.

According to the announcement, the Navy has been embarking on new missions for several years and continues to accelerate its strategic transformation, resulting in an urgent need for talented people.

"To speed up the building of a team of carrier-based naval aviators capable of fulfilling important tasks, starting in 2023 the Navy will select fresh graduates from nonmilitary universities. We invite young men and women who are enthusiastic about national defense, love the air and sea, and have the necessary qualities to take part in the selection. Those future pilots will play their part in building a world-class navy and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," the Navy said.

The announcement stipulates that eligible candidates should be fresh, unmarried graduates from first-tier universities who majored in science, technology and engineering.

They should be loyal to the Party, the motherland, the Chinese people and the cause of socialism. The applicants and their family members must not have any record of criminal or disciplinary punishments.

Essential qualities also include an age younger than 24, a height ranging from 165 to 185 centimeters, good vision and suitable nutritional condition — male applicants should weigh at least 52 kilograms and females at least 48 kg.

Ideal candidates should be fond of a military career and flying. They are also supposed to have a host of characteristics such as optimism and courage.

Interested graduates can download the application form from the website of the Navy's aviator recruitment office. They should submit the form, a reference letter signed by their department head and the result of medical examinations to the office before the end of March.

Those who pass the initial selection will be notified to go through physical, psychological and political background checks. Those that pass this round of procedures will be given flight tests to see whether they are fit for military aviation.

Once all processes finish around July, applicants with the best performance will be admitted to the Naval Aviation University in Yantai, Shandong province, one of the Navy's top training establishments, to take three to four years of theoretical training and flight courses before qualifying for actual deployment, according to the Navy.

Wu Peixin, a military affairs observer in Beijing, said the Navy now relies on two approaches when it comes to making carrier-based aviators: picking experienced military pilots to receive training on carrier-borne operations, and selecting middle-school graduates to learn flying from scratch.

"Recruiting university graduates is a good way to attract talented youngsters to the naval aviation forces and improve the overall level of human resources in the Navy," he said. "The right candidates can become competent pilots within a comparatively shorter period of time. Their deployment will shorten the time needed by the aircraft carrier units to become fully ready for combat operations."