J-15 carrier fighter thread

sunnymaxi

Major
Registered Member
The nozzles seem to protrude beyond the imaginary horizontal stabs line, so probably AL-31s sadly.
fine.. it is a solely PLAN decision to use AL-31 engines. its maybe due to J-15 when you have already 80+ jets with AL-31 engine. then you go with the flow.

J-35/kJ-600 will operate in sea environment with domestic engines. so when both platforms will be operational, PLAN might face same logistic/cost issues. means different engines. AL-31 is costly to maintain.
 

Andy1974

Senior Member
Registered Member
If J-35’s will use WS-19 then the engine of the same generation to that would be the WS-15.

Is WS-15 the intended engine?

If the PLAN intend to use WS-15 on the J-15B eventually then it makes sense to use AL-31 to start with, instead of WS-10.

WS-15 on J-15 makes sense because you probably want your most powerful, compatible, engine for a carriers short runway.

WS-15 plus WS-19 would presumably be an easier combination to maintain that WS-10 plus WS-19.

As there probably won’t be all that many J-15B to begin with it might be possible to equip the entire fleet with not too many WS-15s overall.
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
If J-35’s will use WS-19 then the engine of the same generation to that would be the WS-15.

Is WS-15 the intended engine?

If the PLAN intend to use WS-15 on the J-15B eventually then it makes sense to use AL-31 to start with, instead of WS-10.

WS-15 on J-15 makes sense because you probably want your most powerful, compatible, engine for a carriers short runway.

WS-15 plus WS-19 would presumably be an easier combination to maintain that WS-10 plus WS-19.

As there probably won’t be all that many J-15B to begin with it might be possible to equip the entire fleet with not too many WS-15s overall.

If you're asking whether there's any possibility of J-15B using WS-15 as its intended engine, no that can safely be dismissed at this moment in time.
 

by78

General
Another - unfortunately quite blurry - image of a J-15B (J-15T ??).

(Image via @齐天的孙猴子 from Weibo)

View attachment 138297

One more.

54117848564_4147d88990_o.jpg
 

9615

New Member
Registered Member
Woops, accidentally banged on the model of J35A.

I bet it's J15T for the catapult variant, "T" being the abbreviation for catapult in Chinese.

They still use AL31 for the new J15T, which surprises me. That means later on if they want to switch to WS10 based J15T, many compatibility tests have to be run again.
 

Maikeru

Major
Registered Member
Woops, accidentally banged on the model of J35A.

I bet it's J15T for the catapult variant, "T" being the abbreviation for catapult in Chinese.

They still use AL31 for the new J15T, which surprises me. That means later on if they want to switch to WS10 based J15T, many compatibility tests have to be run again.
I wonder if AL31s are being imported new from Russia or is this just a matter of using up existing stock?
 
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