Video of the day: J-15 refueled by Y-20A, birds from the Liaoning

It is a rather ordinary People’s Daily YouTube video (link), the editors serve up the usual montage of carrier aviation: J‑15s launching, trapping, taxiing, folding wings, and doing all the familiar deck‑ballet that appears in every PLAN promotional package of the Liaoning as of late. Intercut with that is the standard amphibious‑warfare highlight reel built around 075 LHD Anhui (Hull 33) showing helicopters lifting off, LCACs roaring out of the well deck, and the obligatory “joint operations” graphics that have become a staple of PLA media.

On the surface (pun intended), it’s all routine. The kind of content you can watch on mute and still know exactly what’s happening.

But buried inside this otherwise predictable production is one detail that actually stands out, at least for me: a J‑15 taking fuel from a Y‑20A tanker.

The PLANAF has had buddy‑store refueling between J‑15s for years.  it is a useful stopgap, but it never solved the fundamental range limitations of a carrier‑based strike fighter operating from a ski‑jump deck.   The Y‑20A, however, is a different story. Plugging a J‑15 into a proper tanker will expand the aircraft’s operational envelope beyond the tight radius imposed by the internal fuel capacity itself.

The Y-20A is from the PLAAF 38th Regiment, 13th Transport Division, under the PLA Central Theater Command Air Force, making it technically speaking,  a joint PLAN/PLAAF drill. 

 

http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2014/01/j-15s-buddy-centerline-refueling-store.html
 

J-15's buddy centerline refueling store

Here is one potential solution to the challenge of limited takeoff weight and range of Short take-off but arrested-recovery (STOBAR) carrier borne aircraft -- Give them a “hard point mounted fuel pod with a hose-and-drogue system” (a.k.a buddy store) This arrangement  allows carrier borne aircraft to increase their combat range as well as their take-off weight without the need of a dedicated tanker support.


Judging from the following public release photos of China’s Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark, such a buddy store is available to the Chinese Naval Aviators, assuming that they have mastered the mid-air refueling techniques of course. Given the fact that the J15 is based on the Russian SU-33, the Shangyang buddy store bears resemblance to the UPAZ-1A Sakhalin centerline refueling store series currently available in the international arms market.

SU-33's UPAZ-1A at play