Fighters At Sea

Atul Chandra

The Indian Navy needs to urgently decide on its future carrier-borne fighter aircraft and induct and operationalise the fleet before the end of the decade if it is to address the growing asymmetry between the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which has stated plans to operate six aircraft carriers in the future.

French Navy Rafale-M aircraft being launched from the aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle

The PLAN will also induct and operationalise an advanced carrier borne fighter aircraft before the end of the decade. The aircraft, referred to as the Shenyang J-35, is thought to be a navalised derivative of the FC-31. According to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), which is the manufacturer of the FC-31, the single-seat, twin-engine multi-role fighter jet is 17.3 meters long with a wingspan of 11.5 meters. When the J-35 enters service on PLAN aircraft carriers, the stealthy aircraft will provide a quantum leap in capability over its existing Shenyang J-15s. Publicly available images of the J-35, show the new Chinese fighter having a surprising similarity with the US F-35 fifth generation fighter jet.

China launched its third aircraft carrier in June and it will have a displacement of more than 80,000 tonne and be fitted with electromagnetic catapults. The Fujian will also likely be the first of the three PLAN carriers to deploy the J-35. The use of electromagnetic catapults will allow the new aircraft carrier, which is named Fujian (Hull 18) to also launch a carrier-based early warning aircraft (thought to be a derivative of the KJ-600 early warning aircraft) and a carrier-based advanced jet trainer (likely the JL-10). Surprisingly, despite China’s success in development of Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), many of them armed; there does not appear to be a publicly announced maritime carrier borne version of these platforms.

The PLAN’s existing aircraft carriers, CNS Liaoning (Hull 16) and CNS Shandong, (Hull 17) can carry 24 and 36 Shenyang J-15 carrier-borne fighters. Both the carriers feature Ski-Jump designs, which limit their ability to launch larger and heavier aircraft. The Shenyang J-15 is an unlicenced Chinese copy of the Sukhoi Su-33 and is presently the PLAN’s only carrier borne fighter type. PLAN Shenyang J-15s landed and took-off from CNS Liaoning for the first time in November 2012 and the aircraft carrier is now being used to train PLAN fighter pilots flying J-15s in advanced carrier borne operations. Recent reports in the Chinese media have also indicated that new-build J-15s are being fitted with domestically developed engines. The new engines for the J-15 are thought to be the indigenously developed WS-10 ‘Taihang’ turbofan engine and will replace the Russian Al-31F engines now fitted on the J-15. The PLAN is also slated to upgrade its J-15s to further enhance their combat capability. The PLAN also operates Su-30MKK from land bases.

The PLAN’s new Type-075 amphibious assault ship Hainan also recently completed its full-time training assessments, marking a major milestone for China's first independently-built amphibious assault ship. “Right now, we have completed the full-time training assessment, getting closer towards high seas. Next, we will continue improving the level of the joint real combat training, with emphasizes on force-on-force training and technological training, giving full play to the operational effectiveness of ship Hainan in integrated operations,” said Captain Zhang Meiyu, commander of the Hainan. The Hainan carries ship-borne helicopters