Liaoning Ship's New Combat Training: Can the J-35 Achieve Ski-Jump Carrier Takeoff and Landing?

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy's Liaoning aircraft carrier group recently traveled to the western Pacific Ocean to conduct realistic combat training exercises, featuring multi-subject high-intensity drills that comprehensively test the group's integrated combat capabilities and showcase a new long-range operational capability.

This offshore training focused on four core subjects: long-range tactical flight, live-fire shooting, support and cover, and comprehensive rescue, honing the carrier group's capabilities in long-range operations, emergency response, and system offense and defense. There is significant attention on whether the new generation stealth carrier-based fighter J-35 can adapt to the ski-jump takeoff and landing of the Liaoning aircraft carrier.

Four Core Subjects of Real Combat Training, Comprehensive Upgrade of Liaoning's Combat Power

This western Pacific exercise was benchmarked against real battlefield environments, discarding basic and procedural training, and conducted comprehensive capability assessments based on combat standards. Each training content closely aligned with real combat needs, systematically refining the carrier group's overall hard power.

Liaoning Sets Out

Long-range Tactical Flight, Cultivating All-weather Hardcore Carrier-based Pilots

Long-range tactical flight was the primary focus of this exercise, thoroughly breaking through the traditional model of takeoff and landing at fixed land airports, closely aligning with the real combat characteristics of carrier operations.

The unfamiliar offshore environment is complex, with changing weather conditions. After launching carrier-based aircraft, the carrier will quickly maneuver to a new combat position without a fixed return route. Carrier-based pilots need to rely on onboard equipment to independently determine their position and temporarily adjust tactical plans, accurately locating the mother ship in the vast ocean for landing, which places extremely high demands on flying skills, psychological quality, and on-the-spot tactical adaptability.

Military Expert Li Yaqiang: Long-range tactical flight is a purely combat-oriented tactical application subject, requiring pilots to possess all-weather operational capabilities and to complete various combat tasks to high standards under extreme conditions of day-night alternation and complex weather. This dynamic maritime and dynamic ship-finding combat training is key to cultivating high-quality carrier-based pilots capable of fighting tough battles.

Ready for Action

Multi-dimensional Live-fire Shooting, Building Integrated Offense and Defense Combat Capability

The live-fire shooting subject of this exercise balanced both offensive strikes and all-domain defense attributes, establishing a multi-dimensional integrated combat system for air and sea. Carrier-based aircraft, the carrier itself, and escort vessels efficiently coordinated and could flexibly switch between offensive and defensive modes based on battlefield conditions, with rich combat styles and strong tactical adaptability.

The exercise content included live-fire air-to-air and air-to-sea strikes by carrier-based aircraft, close-in defense artillery and missile self-defense by the carrier, as well as long-range anti-ship strikes, precision strikes against land targets, and area defense by the escorting destroyers, with all combat units closely cooperating to form a complete offense and defense combat loop.

Military Expert Li Yaqiang: The escort vessels of the carrier group are the core defensive force of the fleet and an important weapon for victory. This live-fire exercise covered diverse combat scenarios, from long-range precision strikes against land targets to all-domain defense by the group, comprehensively testing the carrier group's firepower output capabilities and systematic collaborative combat levels.

Both a Strong Shield and a Sharp Blade

All-domain Support and Cover, Expanding Long-range Strategic Assurance Missions

As the Chinese Navy accelerates its routine deployment in distant seas, the combat mission of the carrier group has long surpassed the traditional scope of group self-defense. This support and cover subject focused on honing the group's all-domain support and strategic assurance capabilities in unfamiliar offshore waters.

The exercise simulated multiple real combat scenarios, including providing aerial fire support for land combat forces and offering full escort protection for ocean-going merchant fleets and troop transport groups, effectively responding to potential battlefield risks such as maritime interception and sudden conflicts, and safeguarding the safety of our maritime transportation lines and rights in distant operations.

Realistic Comprehensive Rescue, Strengthening Core Support for Sustained Operations

Emergency rescue capability on the battlefield is an important core indicator of a unit's sustained operational capability and was a key assessment focus of this exercise.

The exercise focused on handling various emergencies during wartime, covering key scenarios such as ejection and parachuting of carrier-based pilots, search and rescue of personnel who fell into unfamiliar waters, and emergency rescue by vessels. Throughout the training, rescue helicopters maintained a constant airborne standby to ensure that when emergencies occurred, rescue forces could quickly arrive and provide precise assistance, maximizing the protection of personnel's lives and stabilizing the group's sustained operational capability.

Military Expert: J-35 Can Adapt to Ski-jump Carrier Takeoff and Landing

After years of development, the Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers have formed a mature and stable systematic combat capability, but the current main carrier-based aircraft are still primarily third-generation models. This exercise sends a key strategic signal that the new generation stealth carrier-based fighter J-35 and the catapult-type J-15T can perfectly adapt to the ski-jump takeoff and landing mode of the carrier.

Military Expert Fu Qianshao: China's J-35 is also a catapult-type carrier-based fighter, and it has excellent stealth performance and strong battlefield situational awareness capabilities. This stealth fighter represents the highest level of carrier-based stealth fighters worldwide. In the future, the catapult-type J-15T will also become one of the main carrier-based fighters for the Shandong and Liaoning carriers. The catapult-type J-15 has already been strengthened accordingly, so using catapult-based carrier aircraft for ski-jump takeoff on the Shandong and Liaoning is completely feasible. Moreover, the J-15T's powerplant may have been upgraded, providing greater engine thrust, thus enhancing its ski-jump takeoff capability. Since the J-15T or J-15TD, these new types of carrier-based fighters can perform both ski-jump and catapult takeoffs, the J-35, a medium-sized stealth carrier-based fighter, can also achieve this. Taking off using the ski-jump method and landing using the arrestor method is completely feasible.

No Problem with Ski-jump Takeoff!

Qualitative Change in Combat Power: Multi-type Aircraft Achieve Flexible Deployment Across Carriers

The J-35 and J-15T adapting to the ski-jump carrier combat system is not just a simple model iteration upgrade, but a significant breakthrough in the Chinese Navy's carrier combat system, leading to two core leaps in combat power.

Iterative Ascension

After the Liaoning and Shandong carriers complete the replacement of the fourth-generation stealth carrier-based fighter J-35, they will completely bid farewell to the third-generation combat system. Relying on core advantages such as stealth penetration, beyond-visual-range strikes, and intelligent situational awareness, the comprehensive combat capabilities of the two ski-jump carriers will double, forming a significant tactical advantage in long-range confrontations and firmly grasping battlefield initiative.

Military Expert Fu Qianshao: The Liaoning and Shandong carriers were commissioned relatively early, and after a long period of training, we have formed combat capabilities based on third-generation carrier-based fighters. Now, if they are equipped with fourth-generation carrier-based aircraft with stealth capabilities, their comprehensive combat capabilities will double, which is extremely significant. In the future, these carrier-based aircraft, which can perform both catapult and ski-jump takeoffs, will be able to flexibly switch between several carriers. When both carriers are deployed, one will be a ski-jump carrier and the other a catapult carrier. A carrier-based aircraft could take off from a ski-jump carrier, land on a catapult carrier, and then take off again using the catapult from that carrier before returning to the ski-jump carrier, greatly enhancing operational flexibility. The J-35, as a medium-sized stealth carrier-based fighter, can be flexibly deployed across China's three active aircraft carriers, significantly enhancing our aircraft carriers' comprehensive combat capabilities.

Reporter | Yang Jun Tian, Wang Ji Yun