China Aviation Industry Shenyang Aircraft Industry Group (referred to as AVIC Shenyang or Aviation Industry Shenfei) released the latest article, in which a picture is believed to be an improved version of the J-15, and the aircraft has been upgraded in places like wingtip pylons, nose IRST, radome and leading edges.
On December 14, the official WeChat account of Aviation Industry Shenfei released an article titled “Year-end Attack | Thank You for Your Courage to Go!” in which the picture shows that the biggest improvement in the appearance of the improved J-15 is the wingtip pylons, which have been upgraded from the original inverted L-shape to a one-line type.
The wingtip pylons of the improved J-15 are the same as that of the J-16, which is used to carry the more advanced PL-10 combat missiles. The PL-10 is China’s most advanced fighting missile, and its chief engineer Liang Xiaogeng once said in a media interview that the PL-10, which uses infrared imaging guidance, has a strong anti-stealth fighter capability, and even the most advanced stealth fighters can hardly escape the lock of the missile due to the use of the focal plane array guidance method.
The radome of the improved J-15 is obviously in a different position, which means that the nose radar has been upgraded and might have been replaced with an advanced phased array radar. With the active phased-array radar installed, the J-15 can theoretically play the range advantage of the PL-15, which has an advantage over most air-to-air missiles according to the 145km range of the export version of the PL-15E.
In addition, for the new batch of improved J-15 carrier aircraft, in addition to the cancellation of the nose airspeed tube and the replacement of the active phased array radar, many details of the fuselage have also changed, such as the cancellation of the airspeed tube on the right side of the cockpit, the replacement of new wingtip pylons, and the internal avionics system should also have been significantly upgraded.
The J-15 is a single-seat, twin-engine naval fighter developed by China. On May 24, 2018, the Liaoning aircraft carrier conducted night takeoff and landing training for the J-15 naval fighter, which has the ability to take off and land around the clock.
On July 27, 2020, the official Weibo account of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy publicly reported that the J-15 naval fighter successfully completed its first air partner refueling at night.