J-15, nicknamed " Flying Shark ", is the first generation of carrier-based fighter aircraft equipped by the Chinese Navy aviation force. On October 12, 2012, the training on the 16-Liaoning aircraft carrier was achieved for the first time, including resumption of the ship and blocking the landing.
After the 10th anniversary of the successful landing of the J-15, CCTV-7 National Defense Military Channel unveiled the mysterious production line of the J-15 carrier-based fighter in the form of a special program, allowing the "Flying Shark" to leave the factory process to be fully revealed in front of domestic and foreign audiences.
J-15, as an carrier-based fighter , is developed by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, which has the longest history of scientific research, production, testing and test flight among the enterprises affiliated to China Aviation Industry Corporation.
During the development of the J-15, the researchers of Shenfei referred to the prototype T-10K-3 of the Su-33 carrier-based fighter, as well as the domestic J-11 heavy air-powered fighter. After hardships, they finally successfully developed a single-seater twin-engine J-15 carrier-based fighter.
Now, the newly-departed J-15 has been replaced with the domestic turbofan-10C engine, replacing the Russian-made AL-31F engine , which was originally nicknamed "third uncle" by Chinese netizens. One obvious flaw in the
AL-31F engine is that its working life is short. During the use of the Chinese military, even after overhaul, it only has 1,500 hours at most, and its working time and economic benefits are poor. Compared with the Russian-made AL-31F, the domestic turbofan-10C engine is still inferior to the US and European engines in terms of working life, but has a practical working life of thousands of hours, but it has far surpassed the Russian-made "Three Uncle Husband" engine.
It is reported that at present, the domestically produced turbofan-10C aircraft engine, this domestically produced "heart" has been equipped with the main fighter jets of J-20, J-16, and J-10C "Three Musketeers in the Air", and other models of J-11 series, J-15 and other models of fighter . It is also equipped with a turbofan-10C engine.
This move means that in the field of aviation engines, domestic fighter jets will no longer be subject to restrictions from other countries. There is no doubt that it will save the country a lot of foreign exchange . A Russian-made AL-31F will cost at least US$5 million. A solid and good foundation has been laid for promoting the large-scale mass production of domestic military aircraft.
At the same time, the large-scale use of the turbofan-10C engine, including the external sales of fourth-generation and a half-generation fighter jets, including J-10Ch, will also be unimpeded in the future. There is no "bottleneck" when the fighter jets are exported due to the use of engines from other countries, which is conducive to the full entry of domestic high-performance fighter jets into the international military trade market.
J-15 is a carrier-based fighter. It has a long working life compared to the Russian-made AL-31F. It is conducive to carrying more fuel and airborne weapons and equipment, and skipping and taking off from the current 16 "Liaoning" and 17 "Shandong" aircraft carriers.
The J-15T catapulted carrier-based fighter, which is also equipped with the "heart" of domestic aviation, will also help take off on the electromagnetic catapult on the 18th aircraft carrier in the future. At that time, it will form the main carrier-based fighter of the Chinese Navy aircraft carrier with the J-35 with stealth performance, and improve the comprehensive combat capability of the Chinese Navy aircraft carrier troops.
