Think about this. If the US want to include India in her grand "Indo-Pacific Strategy" (and have successfully persuaded India to join this effort), Indian navy as it is today will be of little help to the US vision. Or worse, India could be the weak link of that grand strategy, becoming an liability in the sense that Chinese navy could focus on India and thus drag the US in. In this case, the US would have to put in more effort and resources in order to protect India. This will defeat the purpose of such grand strategy, because one of the main reason to form this strategy is to decrease the load on the US, and draw in allies to share responsibilities.Frankly speaking USN has no respect for Liaoning and shandong, they dont believe those can match CV Rooseveltt and Reagan.
Now, what if the force multipler FC31 or j35 onboard Liaoning. 20 j35 onboard Liaoning will definitely make USN think 2nd and 3rd times when it match against super horneted based US carrier.
I think that will change the psychological factor.
To me, j35, will be the force multiplier outthere even on a carrier like Liaoning. Unlike j20 which hiding inland , doesnt have that much an impact.
Therefore, if the US is really serious about drawing India into the "Indo-Pacific Strategy", it will have to help India to significantly upgrade its naval technology and military shipbuilding capability. And this will greatly hurt Russia's military export to India, which is one of Russia's biggest and most important arm market. A weakened arms trade relationship between Russia and India will also weaken Russia and India's strategic partnership and cooperation. This will push China and Russia closer. Therefore India might not be that willing to take US assistance and aid. Or, worse for the US, India might even secretly share technology given by the US with Russia in order to strengthen their relations, which the US will not be happy to see happen.