PLAN Aircraft Carrier programme...(Closed)

tphuang said:

so what I remember reading is that there will be more involved exercises later this year. Although it would be hard to believe that they can carry 24 J-15s. The image with the 4 J-15s might be from this most recent exercise.

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I believe it probably is.

I do expect that they will conduct more exercises later this year too...and hopefully with six or eight J-15s deployed.

We shall see.

I do believe that the Liaoning is capable of handling an air wing of 24 J-15s. They would certainly not all be in the hanger at once. But US carriers cannot put a full load of aircraft in their hangers at once either...and yet they used to regularly sail with more aircraft aboard as a part of their typical air wing than what could fit into the hanger.

Here's n interesting new image showing the Liaoning-teststand at Wuhan with the modified tower + AESA array.

Deino said:

Here's n interesting new image showing the Liaoning-teststand at Wuhan with the modified tower + AESA array.

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So, there we see one enhancement we are likely to see on 001A.

I expect we may see them retrofit it back to Liaoning as well some day.

Very nice pics...thanks!

A screen capture from a recent video. Most footages from that video were recycled, with exception of this one.

Engineer said:

A screen capture from a recent video. Most footages from that video were recycled, with exception of this one.

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So I guess the "prototype" J-15s are decommissioned now? Also, be great if we could see what kind of armament the planes are carrying when they're taking off. That'd put the "reduced payload" argument to rest.

jkliz said:

So I guess the "prototype" J-15s are decommissioned now?

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No...not at all.

It just means that the PLAN is moving towards using production aircraft on the carrier. And understandably so.

Most of those prototypes have a long life of testing ahead of them.

Some of them may even be upgraded to whatever the latest production fit is, painted in active PLAN colors, and commissioned as active aircraft. But most will be used for continued testing.

Deino said:

Here's n interesting new image showing the Liaoning-teststand at Wuhan with the modified tower + AESA array.

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Still using Sino Top Plate? No next gen 3D search radars on the horizon for PLAN ships?

Blackstone said:

Still using Sino Top Plate? No next gen 3D search radars on the horizon for PLAN ships?

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I haven't seen anything that's close to replace them yet. But at some point, I would imagine they need something that can combine the functionalities of Sea Eagle and JY-27

I think there is probably a sea eagle replacement in the magic lantern integrated mast at wuhan, probably a rotating array within the top faceted bulb with some other integrated arrays and antennae on the lower parts of the mast.
If I was a betting man I'd put money on 054A's successor fielding this mast.

Original place for 12 SS-N-19, on the Varyag, was used for what on the Liaoning ?