Chinese Navy 2020: the surface combatant fleet of the near future

Introduction:

The Chinese Navy is currently enjoying the fruits of a long planned modernization programme which began in the late 1990s.

J-16D electronic warfare/strike aircraft

Background:

On the 19th December 2015, Chinese military watching forums began to circulate with rumours that an electronic warfare variant of the J-16 multirole strike aircraft had conducted its maiden flight, and barely a…

PL-10 SR Air to Air Missile

Background:

The Chinese Air Force’s current standard Short Range Air to Air Missile is the PL-8, a license production version of the Israeli Python 3 missile. Upgrades to the PL-8 have kept it relatively competitive since its initial entry into…

Chinese Navy catapult and J-15A

So, for my first proper entry after the last six month hiatus, I will be talking about recent rumours of a successful test of the J-15A catapult compatible fighter from an Electromagnetic (EM) catapult. This is thought to likely have occurred at the Huangdicun facility.

J-20 weapons suite

Background:

When clear pictures confirmed the existence of the J-20 in early 2011, questions began to circulate challenging just “how stealthy” the J-20 actually was, with much of this scepticism originally directed from English language defence media and…

Aircraft carrier Liaoning and its implications for future Chinese power projection

Background:

By now, military analysts and pundits of all stripes and prejudices have become relatively familiar with CV-16 Liaoning, the Chinese Navy’s…

055 class hull and deck configuration

Introduction:

Over the last few months, a number of pictures from Jiangnan Changxing shipyard have surfaced, seemingly depicting a number of large hull modules which are consistent with what would be expected for a large surface…

Third Chinese Navy carrier rumoured to begin construction this year

Fresh off the press…

It has been well accepted that the first domestic carrier (001A) will be a ski jump (STOBAR) carrier similar to CV-16 Liaoning. However in the last few…

10 major PLA developments in 2015

Happy new year!

Now that 2016 is upon us, it is a good time to look back on 2015 and briefly assess some of the biggest and/or most important developments in 2015 that we managed to see from the Chinese military.

J-20 first LRIP airframe maiden flight (serial number 2101)

It’s finally happened

After weeks of waiting since the initial blurry pictures of airframe 2101 was sighted at CAC in late December, the first Low Rate Initial Production J-20 has made…