J-15s loaded onto Liaoning aircraft carrier
The People’s Liberation Army has begun loading operational J-15 carrier-based fighter jets onto the Liaoning, China’s first and only aircraft carrier, reports the Beijing-based Sina Military Network.
Recently leaked photos reveal that four J-15s, developed by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation and the 601 Institute, have been moved onto the Liaoning, which sources indicate will eventually be able to carry up to 24 fighter jets of similar size.
Unconfirmed reports state that the Liaoning conducted its first naval drills for 2015 between April 10 and April 18 in northeast China’s Bohai Bay. The drills were said to have involved a significant amount of carrier-based aircraft training, including take-off and landing exercises, to help pilots gain experience on aircraft carriers.
Though there is currently no confirmed publicly information about the specifications of the J-15, reports suggest that the fighter is based on the Su-33, an all-weather carrier-based twin-engine air superiority fighter designed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi.
If so, this means the Liaoning’s 180-meter long hangar and use of elevator platforms can store six rows of J-15s and will theoretically only need to move a maximum of two aircraft to get any jet out of the hangar.
Sina Military reports that the J-15 is equipped with two domestically made WS10A engines, which provide a maximum speed of Mach 2.4 — or nearly 3,000 kilometers per hour — and are more powerful than the Su-33’s AL-31F engines. Russian media, however, claims that WS10A engines only have a life span of 200 hours, which is about a fifth of that of the AL-31F.
The J-15 will reportedly be able to carry four PL-8 and PL-12 air-to-air missiles, which would make it much less offensively powerful than the Russian-made MiG-29K deployed by the Indian Navy. The reason is because the J-15s performance is hampered by an old avionics system, which if upgraded would make it as superior as America’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Sina Military said.
