A lot of things are not making sense.
Building carriers with no naval trainers in the pipeline.
Hardly enough J-15s to fill CV-16 let alone CV-17.
Nothing specific about J-15 replacement except for rumours.
Does the PLAN need more fighters? ------ Absolutely YES! No question about it!
Does the PLAN need more fighters now? ------ YES! No doubt about it!
I agree that the PLAN needs to get more fighters for their carriers. And I agree that they need those fighters yesterday. However, I just don't understand why people think it makes no sense that they don't have enough fighters now.
It makes perfect sense that something is out of sync. They are in the middle of a major weapons development phase. This phase (PLA, PLAN and PLAAF) involves hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of people (maybe even more). Many programs, especially the mega-programs like the carriers and carriers fighters, do not sync. Anyone who has managed big programs know that it's difficult to coordinate multiple programs. To this day, I have not heard any company/organization, big or small, is able to sync their parallel projects so that one can tie with another smoothly. So it should not be surprising to anyone that the PLAN is having some kind of a gap between their carriers and carriers fighters. In fact, it would be weird if everything goes smoothly (especially that this is their first time doing these things)... We would be suspecting some kind of cover-ups...
Those who have managed big projects should know that, when this kind of mishap happens, you need to improvise. In fact, when managing big projects, you spend most of your time improvising, running from one end to another and trying to patch stuff together. And the PLAN is improvising when their carrier project and their fighter project cannot sync. Do you have a better idea for how they should improvise?
Should they stop the carrier project and wait for the fighters to come on line?
Should they skip steps and cut corners in their fighters project to speed it up?
Should they scratch their existing carrier design and make a new one at the last minute to fit the new fighters?
Should they continue with their old fighters manufacturing, while knowing that they can easily spend a short period of time and correct a major weakness in their fighters?
Keep in mind that a carrier is a moving air field that is supposed to serve many vastly different plane types, including fighters, bombers and AWACS. What if they completely change their fighter design? Will that affect how their carriers function? Absolutely not! The carriers will be there and serve many many different kinds of planes long after any current planes retire. Many USN carriers have served multiple generations of fighters simultaneously on their decks. And many of the current USN carriers are expected to serve unimaginable plane types in the future. So what's the problem with the PLAN carriers waiting a bit for their J-15's.
Even going smoothly, it might take up to a decade to complete and commission a carrier. It would make no sense whatsoever to change/compromise a carrier project that is going smoothly. You don't want to compromise your mega project for the sake of syncing with a smaller project... Thats most likely why they are pushing ahead with their carriers. Any alternatives would, in fact, make no sense.
