J-15 carrier-borne fighter thread
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
I doubt the PLAN fighters will often need that much of an extra range to take off with drop tanks instead of extra ordinance. IMO, buddy refueling & perhaps s would be enough; if they'll need to bomb Afghanistan or C. Africa from the mid-Indian Ocean, IL-78s & Y-20 tankers could be based in Pakistan or Africa itself to refuel them.
/ NAFs been relying on land based tankers .
/ NAFs been relying on land based tankers .
There are two potential in-flight refueling scenarios I can see for carrier aircraft operating outside the range of land based tankers:
1. Refueling near the carrier for such purposes as lengthening the time an outgoing strike might orbit the carrier waiting to assemble, or enabling an returning strike to hold near the carrier to allow another strike on deck to launch, or to allow the carrier tactical maneuvering freedom.
2. Refueling enroute to strike target for such purposes as making long range strikes against targets deep inland, or strike at an enemy carrier from beyond the range of the target carrier’s counter strike, or to strike at an enemy surface force equipped with very long range anti-ship missiles.
A tank we based on KJ-200 airframe might be adaptable to 1, but will be ill suited to 2.
@huitong updated his site for the J-15T with this image … but are you sure it is a „T“?
At least I cannot see the catapult-gear and any other details are also barely visible to to being too blurry. The only detail I see is the wt-pylon, which looks slimmer and more like modified for the PL-10.
At least I cannot see the catapult-gear and any other details are also barely visible to to being too blurry. The only detail I see is the wt-pylon, which looks slimmer and more like modified for the PL-10.
There is an additional data probe (right side) that is not present at least on production J-15.
The nose pitot tube is missing too. If this is indeed a new variant (with AESA+PL10/15), it shouldn't have been developed for the 001/002 STOBAR where 3 batches of J-15s already produced, but for the 003 CATOBAR, which is expected to be launched within a year. The only logical explanation is to call it J-15T. Of course more photos from different angles are needed to confirm this.
Why have we rarely seen pictures and news about J-15 electronic warfare fighters recently? The J-15 "Growler".