China Expands J-15 Fighter Training to Prepare Fujian Aircraft Carrier for High-Tempo Operations.

China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy has shown J-15-family fighters conducting land-based full-cycle takeoff and landing training, expanding the pool of pilots and ground crews needed to sustain high-tempo carrier operations. The imagery, released by the PLA Navy on July 14, 2026, highlights the service’s effort to build the personnel and procedures required for a larger and more capable carrier air arm.

The exercise used a runway section painted to replicate a carrier landing area while crews positioned and serviced the aircraft through a complete operating cycle. Whether the jets were baseline J-15s or newer J-15Ts is less important than the operational goal: preparing Fujian’s more complex air group for sustained deployment and combat readiness.

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Chinese J-15 carrier-based fighters conduct land-based takeoff and landing drills designed to expand pilot qualification, deck-handling proficiency, and sortie-generation capacity for the Liaoning, Shandong, and Fujian aircraft carriers (Picture source: Chinese MoD).

The training appears consistent with field carrier landing practice conducted at a shore installation, probably under the PLA Naval Aviation University, although the PLA Navy did not disclose the location. China’s principal carrier aviation test and training base is at Huangdicun, near Huludao in Liaoning Province, where satellite imagery has shown ski-jump ramps, arresting gear, carrier-deck markings and land-based catapult tracks. A shore facility allows pilots to repeat approach patterns, touchdown-point control, arrested landings, touch-and-go landings, and “bolters,” in which the aircraft fails to engage an arresting wire and must immediately climb away. It also permits landing signal officers, maintenance teams, aircraft handlers and refuelling crews to practise complete sortie cycles without occupying one of China’s three carriers or consuming limited sea-training time. The exercise therefore addresses a personnel and process problem: safely generating repeated sorties, not simply teaching a pilot to land once.

The J-15 remains the numerical core of Chinese carrier aviation. Developed by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation from the aerodynamic configuration of the Soviet Su-33, it is approximately 21.9 metres long, has a wingspan of about 14.7 metres when unfolded, and an estimated maximum takeoff weight near 33 tonnes. Published estimates indicate roughly nine tonnes of internal fuel, 12 external stations, and a maximum external load near 6.5 tonnes, although China has not released an authoritative performance manual. The aircraft has folding wings, canards, strengthened landing gear, an arresting hook, and an internal 30 mm cannon with approximately 150 rounds. Baseline J-15s have generally been observed with PL-8B infrared-guided short-range missiles and PL-12 active-radar-guided medium-range missiles. These weapons support fleet air defence, interception of maritime patrol aircraft and escort of strike formations, but the older fighters’ sensors and weapons are less capable than those fitted to the J-15T.

The J-15T adds a strengthened twin-wheel nose landing gear, catapult launch bar, revised cockpit, Chinese WS-10-series engines, and a redesigned radome believed to contain an active electronically scanned array radar. It is associated with the PL-10 imaging-infrared missile and PL-15 active-radar-guided beyond-visual-range missile, giving the pilot better off-boresight engagement capability at close range and a longer air-to-air engagement envelope than the PL-8/PL-12 combination. The J-15 family can also employ YJ-83K anti-ship missiles, anti-radiation weapons, and guided bombs. Particularly relevant imagery published on July 9, 2026, showed a J-15T launching from Fujian with four YJ-83Ks, compared with one or two missiles commonly seen on ski-jump-launched J-15s. Each YJ-83K weighs about 725 kilograms, carries an approximately 165-kilogram warhead and has a reported range around 180 kilometres, placing the four-missile load near 2.9 tonnes before air-to-air weapons or external fuel are added.

That load illustrates why China is training for two different launch systems. Liaoning and Shandong use short takeoff but arrested recovery, requiring the J-15 to accelerate under its own power and leave the deck over a ski-jump. Aircraft launched from the shorter bow positions face a direct trade-off between fuel and weapons, particularly in hot weather, low wind, or reduced carrier speed. Fujian, commissioned on November 5, 2025, displaces more than 80,000 tonnes and uses three electromagnetic catapults, enabling a J-15T to launch closer to its structural weight limit. Catapult launch does not automatically provide a longer combat radius; it allows commanders to choose between more fuel, more weapons, or a combination of both.

Fujian also requires a broader set of carrier qualifications because its intended air group extends beyond the J-15T. The Pentagon’s 2025 report assessed that China plans to integrate the J-35 low-observable fighter, J-15D electronic-warfare aircraft, KJ-600 airborne early-warning aircraft, Z-20 helicopters and several unmanned aerial vehicles. The KJ-600 is operationally important because a fixed-wing radar aircraft can fly higher and remain on station longer than a helicopter, extending detection range and providing airborne control for fighter interceptions. The J-15D is intended to carry external jamming pods and support suppression of hostile radars. Operating these aircraft together requires coordinated launch sequencing, deck parking, fuel allocation, weapons handling, and recovery planning.

The training increase also reflects higher operational demand. During Western Pacific deployments observed between May 25 and June 16, 2025, Japanese forces counted approximately 550 fighter and helicopter takeoffs and landings from Liaoning and another 230 from Shandong during the reported period. China had already conducted its first dual-carrier exercise with both ships in October 2024, moving through the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea. These figures do not establish a wartime sortie rate, since they combine fighters and helicopters and do not reveal mission duration or aircraft serviceability, but they show that the PLA Navy is accumulating deck cycles at a much larger scale than during Liaoning’s initial training years.

The operational objective is to maintain carrier air cover and surveillance beyond the range of land-based Chinese fighters, particularly east of Taiwan, around the Philippine Sea and along approaches to the Second Island Chain. In a Taiwan conflict, a carrier would remain exposed to submarines, long-range anti-ship missiles, and allied aircraft, and would probably supplement rather than replace land-based air power. Its practical value would depend on sortie generation, airborne early warning, tanker support, ammunition stocks, maintenance capacity, and integration with Type 055 cruisers, Type 052D destroyers, and fleet replenishment ships. The July 2026 land-based exercise should therefore be assessed as evidence of force expansion and procedural standardisation, not proof that China has already achieved mature, high-tempo carrier combat operations.

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Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.