I know we have hardly hard any news on the Liaoning in recent months, but how combat ready would everyone rate her at present?
We are not talking about fighting a high intensity way against a adversary with advance weaponry. But jow feasible do people think it would be for the Liaoning to be deployed against an enemy with no air force and effectively no air defences to conduct high altitude bombing operations only?
As far as I can see, it should be perfectly feasible to send the Liaoning on such a minimal risk combat mission at very short notice, provided the J15s are integrated with PGMs. If they only have air to air weapons integrated so far, its going to be a non-starter, but assuming the J15s are PGM capable, I think the Liaoning could be deployed at fairly short notice if China chooses to do so.
The pilots chosen for J15 conversion are all some of the best pilots the PLA have, with plenty of experience and hours under their belt flying Flankers before they even saw a J15, so they should have minimal problems flying their J15s and using them to conduct strike operations.
What does everyone else think?