Posted on 04/25/2011 9:18:00 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Chinese State Media, in a Show of Openness, Print Jet Photos
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: April 25, 2011
BEIJING — The J-15 Flying Shark is China’s newest attack jet, a sinuous fighter with the folding wings, shortened tail cone and bulked-up landing gear it needs to serve on China’s first aircraft carrier, which is expected to start sea trials soon. It is indisputable evidence of China’s growing mastery of military technology.
Also military technology of Russia and Ukraine, albeit not entirely with their consent.
Barely two weeks after splashing photographs of the aircraft carrier on the Internet, China’s state media on Monday published the first close-up pictures of the J-15. The day before, Web sites that focus on China’s military had run the same photograph, snapped outside the Shenyang plant in northeast China where the plane is being developed.
Like the aircraft carrier it will call home, the jet faces years of tests and refinement before it will formally enter service, military analysts say. The photographs nevertheless suggest that the People’s Liberation Army, long notoriously secretive, is lifting some veils.
“The recent spate of releases of photographs of airplanes under development is a sign of relaxed control of military information in China,” Lan Yun, an editor at the Beijing-based Modern Ships magazine, said in an interview. “It could be seen as a sign of more transparency of the Chinese military.”
Mr. Lan and Andrei Chang, the Hong Kong-based editor of Kanwa Asian Defense Review, said that the photograph indicated that the aircraft had passed factory tests and was now bound for flight testing.
Internet posts by analysts and Chinese aviation enthusiasts point to a fighter crammed with the best technology China can produce: holographic “heads-up” instrument displays, advanced anti-
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
>”It is indisputable evidence of China’s growing mastery of military technology. “
You mean THIEVERY of technology..
The reason the Warsaw Pact, and other communist franchises, have always been so secret about their military capabilities is because they always feared they were behind the West, and mostly were.
Now, China has the confidence to loudly proclaim their ability to ‘power project’. That’s an indicator.
They no longer feel the need to hide their accomplishments since they (feel they) are keeping pace with ALL of their potential competitors.
In the last few months they’ve heavily advertised their stealth fighter, their aircraft carrier, and their anti-ship missiles.
This is the kid on the block who wants to show off the latest toys and make the neighbor kids all want to like him.
K.
...or maybe the prgram manager of the PLAN jet program wants to protect his funding, and the press releases are meant for internal consumption.
China? Looking internally? Naah, never happen...
Now THAT is an interesting perspective. One I hadn’t thought of. No doubt the different program managers there fight for their share of Yuan...
I just can’t believe that the State media, and military, would allow that kind of release. Option A is your theory, which means that the government is losing control of its own elements. Option B is my theory that this is a state-approved release to influence.
Time will tell.
FReegards,
K.
This bird may look passing familiar to the engineers and designers at the Sukhoi Design Bureau. Chinese technology? I think not.
Isn’t their carrier a ski-jumper? And isn’t this a rather large aircraft for that type of launch?
The Russians have been operating SU-33s off the Kuznetsov, which is more or less identical to the Varyag, for almost 20 years. So that is not a deterring factor, though the ramp will limit payload/range.
It’s also possible that the new Chinese jet could be lighter than the SU-33 given its newer avionics and likely use of composites in construction.
Seems like a bad copy of SU-33 Naval Flanker.
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