The PLAN’s J-15 fighter jet takes off from Liaoning in this undated 2012 photo. Xinhua News Agency Photo
The People’s Liberation Army Navy has conducted a second round of jet tests aboard its aircraft carrier with its J-15 carrier-based fighter on Wednesday, according to a report from the Xinhua news agency.
Wednesday’s test of the J-15 aboard Liaoning, follow a November round of flights of the J-15 in which the aircraft successfully landed and launched from the 50,000 ton former Soviet carrier.
Liaoning embarked last week from homeport Qingdao on a round of, “scientific experiments and sea training,” according to PLAN officials — the first blue water cruise for the carrier since February.
The Chinese are being trained in carrier aviation —the most complicated military aviation operations — by a cadre of Brazilian carrier pilots.
The flagship of the Brazilian fleet is a 1960s era former French carrier a third the size of a U.S. Nimitz-class carrier.
For now, the Chinese still have a very limited capability that only demonstrates the very basics of naval aviation.
The PLAN has stated it will use Liaoning as a test ground for carrier operations and plan its own domestic carrier program in the near future.
