By Fuat Kabakci

BEIJING

China's first aircraft carrier and its accompanying naval formation have set off for the Western Pacific for blue water training, according to a navy spokesman.

State media reported Sunday that Liang Yang said the Liaoning aircraft carrier and its flotilla -- which includes several destroyers and frigates -- headed toward the Western Pacific on Saturday for an annual training session.

In recent weeks, it had conducted training -- including its first live-fire exercise earlier this month -- in the Yellow Sea, the Bohai Sea and East China Sea.

The Liaoning is a refitted Russian-made carrier delivered from Ukraine to China’s People's Liberation Army in September 2012.

In January, the national defense ministry announced that China is designing and building its second aircraft carrier, a 50,000-ton carrier that would be entirely of independent Chinese design and powered conventionally rather than by nuclear energy.

China has been modernizing its naval capacity at a time when the United States and its allies are expressing alarm at its maritime expansion, which they suspect is aimed at extending its military reach.