Key Points and Summary: China’s J-15 “Flying Shark,” its first operational carrier-based fighter, was developed by reverse-engineering an unfinished Su-33 (the carrier version of the Su-27) prototype acquired from Ukraine in the early 2000s.
-After successfully copying the airframe, the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation has developed multiple variants for the PLAN. These include the initial J-15 for ski-jump carriers like the Liaoning, a J-15S twin-seat trainer, a J-15D electronic warfare version, and the newer J-15B/T.
-The J-15B is a significant upgrade with an AESA radar and a strengthened airframe for catapult launches from China’s more advanced Fujian aircraft carrier.
Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark: The PLAN’s First Shot at a Carrier Fighter
L’aéroporte Le Bourget, Paris – In the early 1990s, at about the time the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Air Force (PLAAF) was negotiating the purchase of Sukhoi Su-27SK fighter aircraft from Russia, other Chinese agents were involved in a secondary mission.
The secondary mission was to sell fighters from newly independent Russia to the PRC. The sale finally concluded in 1991.
This acquisition was the first in a long series of steps, making this aircraft the workhorse of the PLAAF. Still, that extensive history was only made possible by this secondary mission: Determining which entities in Russia and Ukraine they would have to engage with to learn enough about the design, structure, electronics, and radar systems of the Su-27.
The PRC required the enterprises and suppliers of the other elements necessary for the PRC to be able to reverse-engineer and copy the aircraft that would soon become a partnership with the PLAAF.
In 2003, slightly more than a decade after the initial Su-27SK procurement, the reverse-engineered copy of the Sukhoi fighter, now called the J-11B, made its first flight. Serial production of that aircraft and the two-seat J-11BH finally began in 2006.
The process of copying the Su-27SK and establishing the production line was carried out by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) in northern China. The aircraft are primarily flown and operated by the PLAAF.
This largely successful project then prompted the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s air wing (PLAN AF) to also turn to Shenyang for a solution to its requirement for a fighter that could operate off of an aircraft carrier.
The Su-33 and the J-15
In the latter half of the 1980s, the Soviet Union developed carrier-capable versions of both the Su-27 and the MiG-29. The Sukhoi model—dubbed Su-27K in prototype form and Su-33 in its series-production version—was initially chosen as the aircraft to operate off the Russian Navy’s Admiral Kuznetsov carrier.
The PLAN had previously purchased the half-finished sister ship of the Kuznetsov, originally named the Varyag, but re-christened the CV 16 Liaoning after a re-fit of the vessel at the Dalian shipyards. Shenyang was charged with learning how to copy the Su-33 to provide that vessel with an aircraft for its air wing complement.
One of the non-flying Su-27K prototypes used for ground testing was left at a test facility in Ukraine. The Chinese acquired this one aircraft following the break-up of the USSR. The reverse engineering of that prototype led to the development of the Shenyang J-15, which has become the primary carrier aircraft for the PLAN AF.
Unlike the Komsomolsk-na-Amure Russian production facility, which originally manufactured only one version of the Su-33, the Shenyang plant has developed several variants of the J-15. The PLAN requires distinct configurations to carry out different and sometimes specialized missions.
More than 60 single-seat J-15s were built over the first phase of the program. These aircraft are operational with at least three units aboard both aircraft carriers and at the PLAN Naval Aviation University. There are also rumors that the Russian-made AL-31F engines are being removed from the early batch production models and replaced with the indigenous Chinese WS-10H engine, but this has not been officially confirmed.
Variants
The Chinese production line built 24 of the J-15s in two batches up until April 2017. Production was then gapped until 2019, when batches three and four were built up, with production running through to the middle of 2022. A J-15S twin-seat training version was developed in 2012 but did not enter service until July 2022, and even then, China built the model in limited numbers.
At the November 2024 Air Show China in Zhuhai, the PLAN AF showcased another new development of the aircraft, specifically the J-15D dedicated Electronic Warfare (EW) aircraft. The airframe is based on the J-15S, as the electronic warfare (EW) mission requires a two-person aircrew. However, photos taken of the aircraft show a number of both external EW pods as well as numerous antennas that provide passive detection inputs to internal systems.
The original J-15 model was designed to launch from the ski-ramp flight deck, specifically for the CV-16 Liaoning and CV-17 Shandong. However, a consistent problem with this design was that the J-15 could not take off fully loaded with both fuel and weapons. It needed the extra speed of a catapult, which is what the Type 003 CV 18 Fujian is supposed to be equipped with.
For operations aboard the Fujian, Shenyang has developed a J-15T CATOBAR variant of the aircraft, which was tested in July 2006. The central design modification was the addition of increased structural support for the front landing gear, allowing for a catapult launch with an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS).
This aircraft was reported to have been in production since February 2021 with the designation J-15B in active service. The aircraft is also no longer equipped with a previous-generation mechanically steered array (MSA) radar but is instead fitted with the same Active Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) radar as the J-16D.
The J-15B is expected to be operated aboard the Fujian and will serve as the primary aircraft for the fleet until the J-35A, another Shenyang aircraft, comes online in substantial numbers.
About the Author:
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs and Director of the Asia Research Centre with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments, and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
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