Shenyang FC-31 demonstrators / J-35 naval fighter / J-35A land-based version

[Scott Kenny]

At present, there is some gossip, according to some more credible military fans, the J35 has been ejection-take-off and landing test on the Fujian ship. If this news is true, we may be able to see the official video in a few months.

I mean, I want to see it, but I also know that developing the skills to operate planes off a carrier has one hell of a steep learning curve. They're going to lose a lot of people in the process. Ramp strikes, dudes sucked into intakes, dudes blown off the flight deck by jet wash, dudes dodging broken arrestor wires...

 

[Blitzo]

I mean, I want to see it, but I also know that developing the skills to operate planes off a carrier has one hell of a steep learning curve. They're going to lose a lot of people in the process. Ramp strikes, dudes sucked into intakes, dudes blown off the flight deck by jet wash, dudes dodging broken arrestor wires...

The reason why J-35 taking off and landing from CV-18 is "notable" in a general historical sense is that if it had recently happened, it would be the first time a 5th gen aircraft was launched from a carrier at sea, from a EM catapult. (F-35C has yet to be launched from Ford afaik)

Everything else you described is just generic carrier aviation and deck handling stuff, which they've been doing with their two STOBAR carriers for the last decade, with substantial cross transferable skills to the CATOBAR CV-18.
By now they're well beyond developing the skills to operate planes off a carrier, and more about implementing the skills and knowledge in an effective warfighting strategy as new capabilities are rapidly introduced.

 

[Scott Kenny]

The reason why J-35 taking off and landing from CV-18 is "notable" in a general historical sense is that if it had recently happened, it would be the first time a 5th gen aircraft was launched from a carrier at sea, from a EM catapult. (F-35C has yet to be launched from Ford afaik)

Ah, gotcha!

Everything else you described is just generic carrier aviation and deck handling stuff, which they've been doing with their two STOBAR carriers for the last decade, with substantial cross transferable skills to the CATOBAR CV-18.
By now they're well beyond developing the skills to operate planes off a carrier, and more about implementing the skills and knowledge in an effective warfighting strategy as new capabilities are rapidly introduced.

Okay, so now maybe the E6-equivalents might have a clue how to not get people killed, and their O3/O4 bosses might have a clue. That still doesn't save them from people who haven't handled planes on ships being in charge and making stupid orders.

I'd expect the Chinese to get at least as competent as the French and British are at operating planes off carriers in about 20 more years, so that everyone all the way up has been handling planes on ships their entire career.

 

[Blitzo]

Ah, gotcha!



Okay, so now maybe the E6-equivalents might have a clue how to not get people killed, and their O3/O4 bosses might have a clue. That still doesn't save them from people who haven't handled planes on ships being in charge and making stupid orders.

I'd expect the Chinese to get at least as competent as the French and British are at operating planes off carriers in about 20 more years, so that everyone all the way up has been handling planes on ships their entire career.

Oh they certainly wouldn't be at USN levels of carrier deck handling/ops proficiency, and there will be issues that are going to naturally emerge as part of operating their carriers under increasingly higher tempo and complex scenarios.

But I do think by now they would've gone through a few iterations of TTPs, and the steepest part of the learning curve should be behind them, considering where they started from.

 

[SUPER=BUG]

Ah, gotcha!



Okay, so now maybe the E6-equivalents might have a clue how to not get people killed, and their O3/O4 bosses might have a clue. That still doesn't save them from people who haven't handled planes on ships being in charge and making stupid orders.

I'd expect the Chinese to get at least as competent as the French and British are at operating planes off carriers in about 20 more years, so that everyone all the way up has been handling planes on ships their entire career.

Hahahaha, yes, there are still a lot of new things to learn from the Chinese aircraft carrier formation, but this is just the beginning, and it is good to achieve a breakthrough from zero to one every time. There is no need to think about the future of the Chinese army, we all know what has happened in the past 20 years. This year is an important year, and if possible, we may see a video of the Fujian ejection aircraft around September 3. At that time, something was needed to symbolize the development of the navy, and I personally thought it would be appropriate to release a video of the Fujian fleet flying fighter planes. Perhaps then the J35 Navy version will be announced for service.