New Chinese, Ship-Based, Heavy Fighter Readied For Flight Tests

New Chinese, Ship-Based, Heavy Fighter Readied For Flight Tests: "Beijing is revealing pictures of its indigenously built J-15 Flying Shark design that is intended to populate the decks of its first aircraft carrier.

It comes equipped with large surface area wings (for extra lift at low speeds) that fold (for a small footprint on a crowded aircraft carrier deck), reinforced landing gear (for high, sink-rate landings), a tailhook (for arrested landing on short carrier decks) and a light blue paint scheme to signal its role in the People's Liberation Army’s Navy. Small canards on the nose also are to help lower the landing speed and the tail cone has been shortened to avoid ramp strikes.

The heavy shipborne fighter will be yet another piece in the foundation of a ship-based force that can project power at sea, far from China’s shore defenses. They are expected to be first based on the former Russian Varyag aircraft carrier. The first pictures were taken at Shenyang Aircraft Industry Corp.’s No. 112 factory. The aircraft is considered roughly in the single-seat F/A-18C Hornet class of aircraft. U.S. industry has already moved on 4.5 generation designs such as the F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets and the EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft.

The design, based on the Sukhoi Su-33 features exterior missile rails and a wide-angle holographic heads-up display similar to those on the company’s J-11 fighter. There are competing claims about the aircraft’s capability. Russian’s Ria Novosti news service called in inferior to the Su-33, but Chinese officials say the Su-33’s avionics are obsolete, so they have installed locally made sensors, displays and weaponry. The aircraft is based structurally on the Su-33 with avionics – including an advanced anti-ship radar – from the J-11B program. Deployment of the aircraft is expected no earlier than 2016.

Analyst and aircraft watchers in China say the maiden flight of the aircraft was made Aug. 31, 2009. The first takeoff from a simulated ski-jump was conducted on May 6, 2010. The program began after a Su-33 prototype was acquired from Ukraine in 2001. China offered to buy Su-33s from Russia as recently as 2009 .

A Ukrainian court convicted a Russian man in Feb. of conspiring to give the Chinese details of a Crimean air base that had been used to train Su-33 pilots to take off from a carrier’s ski-jump ramp, says the New York Times. In Huludao, a navy installation on China’s northeast coast, workers are said to have built a rough clone of the Crimea test center, complete with a ski ramp for short takeoffs.

Taiwan intelligence officials say the aircraft carrier – thought by analysts to be slated for training role – could make its first voyage by the end of the year. The warship has been docked in China's eastern Dalian harbour where it has undergone extensive refurbishing work since 2002.

Credit: Zhang Xinliang"