In the '80s, the ambitious Soviet Navy finally overcame its internal constraints and began building large aircraft carriers (although internally they were still called heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers). In order to equip the aircraft carrier with carrier-based aircraft, the Soviet Navy launched three corresponding carrier-based models based on Su-27, MiG-29 and Su-25 fighters, and completed the landing test. According to the test results, the Su-27K (i.e., the Su-27 carrier-based version) was the first to be recognized, and after the verification of several prototypes, it is ready to enter the mass production stage. However, in the years that followed, the "Sea Guard" did not perform well on the aircraft carriers of the Soviet Navy, and another "Sea Guard" that came out in China finally shined, and the wonder of the world is really unpredictable.
The Su-33 was once the hope of the Soviet Navy.
In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the nascent Russian Navy planned and drove a 60,000-ton glide aircraft carrier back to China, which became the "Kuznetsov". In order to avoid the vacancy of this aircraft carrier, the Russian Navy squeezed out funds with great difficulty, and placed an order to purchase 24 Su-33s (the official number obtained by the Su-27K), and all of them were equipped on the "Kuznetsov". The carrier-based aircraft of only one aviation regiment can only be said to barely meet the training and equipment needs, but in view of the fact that the "Kuznetsov" basically did not go to sea at that time, this number was also sufficient. In fact, at that time, the Russian Navy also had a consideration, that is, the Su-33 production line was bound to not run for a long time, and in order to avoid inorganic availability later, these 24 aircraft were actually the result of adding a spare number. From the perspective of the future, this consideration is indeed very forward-looking, the production of Su-33 in Russia has not resumed after these 24, "Kuznetsov" received all 24 Su-33s from 1996, and did not usher in a successor until 2015, by which time there were only a handful of Su-33s that could be used.
The Su-33 on board the aircraft carrier "Kuznetsov
There was once an opportunity to restart the production of the Su-33, which was placed in front of the Russian Navy, but it did not cherish it, but took the opportunity to open its mouth, so that the opportunity no longer exists, which is the little-known Su-33 military purchase case of the Chinese Navy. At the beginning of this century, after the development strategy of the aircraft carrier "Varyag" was clearly repaired, in view of the lack of experience in the development of carrier-based aircraft, China contacted the Russian side, hoping to purchase a batch of Su-33s, and the technical level was closer to the Su-30MKK. At that time, the cooperation between the two countries in the field of arms and trade has always been relatively harmonious, and the Su-30MKK has also performed well, so the Navy was looking forward to the project at the beginning. Then, the Russian side set very harsh conditions, in addition to the Chinese side responsible for the research and development costs, the unit price is significantly higher than the Su-30MKK, and the Chinese side has to bear the entire cost of restarting the production line.
The Su-30MKK is doing really well.
At that time, although the domestic navy funding had increased, it was still not easy to bear this large amount (the Su-30MK2 obtained by the HNA was actually the air force to pay for the aid), so after several contacts found that the Russian side refused to let go, the navy rose up with the idea of developing a domestic model. In order to solve the problem of experience, China painstakingly got a prototype of the Su-33 (that is, the famous T-10K-3, T-10 is the code name of the prototype of the Su-27) from Ukraine. On the basis of it, the 601 Institute established the project to develop the later unknown "J-11C", and successfully made its first flight in 2009, and later when it entered service, the new model received the official number of J-15, and the "Sea Guard" became a "flying shark" when it entered the country.
The J-15 that landed for the first time in 2012
According to official information, the number of J-15s equipped with the Liaoning is the same as that of the Su-33 carried by the "Kuznetsov", which is 24, but this does not include the supporting J-15 fleet trained on the shore. Later, after the Shandong ship was put into service, the number of J-15 was further expanded, and it is generally believed that the total number has now exceeded 70, and there are two powerful modifications of "J-15D" and "J-15T". The so-called "J-15D", in fact, is still a modification of electronic warfare speculated by the outside world, and its positioning is consistent with that of the J-16D, and it is a carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft with a similar role to the US military's E A-18G. The "J-15T" is the legendary catapult J-15 prepared for the Fujian ship, and before the J-35 solves all the problems and is officially mass-produced and put into service, the "J-15T" will always be the main force of the Fujian ship's carrier-based aircraft team. In fact, it was speculated that there would be a "J-15B", that is, a third-generation and a half-generation modification of the J-15, with similar performance to the J-16 (to be precise, closer to the dying J-11D), but it has not appeared for so many years, perhaps the Navy intends to complete the upgrade of the sliding J-15 when the "J-15T" is in service.
Now the scale of armament of the J-15 is considerable.
Whether it is the "J-15D" or the "J-15T", or even the upgraded sliding J-15 with three and a half generations of technical level, they all represent the strong development potential of the "Flying Shark" in the future. This heavy carrier-based aircraft, which was born halfway, will uphold the mission of the Soviet Union to develop the Su-27K and compete with the US aircraft carrier aircraft for air supremacy on the sea. In contrast, although the Russian Navy has been equipped with the Su-33 for an early period, it has neither a complete training mechanism nor a development resource, and the Russian Navy is not able to improve the Su-33 at all. The follow-up was only to take advantage of the opportunity of the Indian Navy's procurement of the MiG-29K to equip the "Kuznetsov" with a batch of self-use versions of the MiG-29K, which was difficult to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of the Su-33.
The J-15 still has a lot of development in the future.
In the military operation in Syria in previous years, the Su-33 and MiG-29K carried by the "Kuznetsov" took off from the aircraft carrier to bomb ground targets, but they also quickly lost one Su-33 and one MiG-29K due to the problem of blocking cables. In the end, all carrier-based fighters were transferred to the shore, and "Kuznetsov" actually became a transport ship for transporting fighters. In the spring of this year, when the Shandong went to sea for training, it set a new world record for the takeoff and landing of a glide aircraft carrier with more than 620 takeoffs and landings in 16 days, which far exceeded the embarrassing performance of the "Kuznetsov" in constantly crashing planes after a few takeoffs and landings. The Soviet Navy, which was bent on fighting the U.S. Navy, no longer exists, and the nascent Russian Navy is no longer useful, but the Chinese Navy, which has benefited greatly from the Soviet Navy's legacy, has virtually taken over the banner, and the "Flying Shark" is one of the brightest stars among them.