I posted this info on the J-15 thread too, but thought, since it speaks to the real power and capabilities of the Liaoning itself, that the info should also be on this thread.
Since the Liaoning has been qualifying weapons loadout on the J-15, we no longer have to speculate about certain weapon fits that the J-15 can or cannot carry. We now have pictures of the Chinese doing it.
Now, we do not know what fuel load they had when they did this, so it is difficult to talk about maxuimum take-off weights and the like. But, we should presume that the "weapons," though probably inert, were actual training rounds and therefore accurate portrayals of the real thing in order to satisfy the weight, aerodynamic, and weight distribution calculations necessary to truly simulate the real thing.
So, let's look at a few of these pictures and loadouts:
Here's a couple of J-15s carrying two, wing-tip short range air to air missiles (Note: The second one is a special for Air Froce Brat 'cause I kow he would like that "top gun" look...hehehe! Notice the Liaoning off of his left shoulder, below.)
(Later) Oops! On closer examination, I see a longer range air to air missile poking out of the first picture on the centerline below the fueselage, so I have to presume there are two there...so that first pic really belongs in this next section.
Now let's look at a couple of pics with the J-15 carrying four air to air missiles. Both of these are two wing-tip short range air to air missiles and two, centerline mounted, longer range air to air missiles. Mounted below the fuselage.
Finally, the largest loadout I have seen to date (if anyone has pics of larger loadouts taking off from, and landing on the Liaoning for J-15s, please let us know). These are J-15s with two wing-tip air to air missiles, and two wing pylon mounted air to surface missiles, which took off and landed on the Liaoning during some of the qualification testing we have seen.
There's probably been a lot more we have not seen...but we are getting a feel for the types of loadouts they are testing.
Believe me, when it comes to basic capability of the carrier group, any other carrier group, or any naval task force, would have to have great respect for the potential of a group of say, sixteen J-15s aircraft approaching with twelve of them carrying two LR ASMs each, and four of them fitted for air defense carrying four to six AAMs of various types. Such a group of aircraft could cause very serious harm to any task force if it were able to get through.
