With its reinforced landing gear, strengthened tailhook section, and other navalized modifications, there's really no mistaking the JL-10T's intended role. This is a trainer built with carrier operations in mind.
For years, one of the biggest questions surrounding PLAN naval aviation wasn't what fighter would fly from the next carrier, but how the navy intended to train enough pilots to keep pace with a rapidly expanding carrier force. After all, steel can be built faster than experience.
The emergence of the JL-10T offers an interesting glimpse into how the PLAN appears to be tackling that problem.
China will soon have a dedicated progression path for carrier aviators, before JL-10T:
JL-8 / JL-10 advanced training → JL-9G carrier approach training → J-15S/J-15T carrier conversion
In many ways, this mirrors a broader trend seen across Chinese military aviation. While outside observers often obsess over radar ranges, catapult performance, missile loadouts, and deck counts, the PLA seems equally focused on ensuring that pilots themselves don't become the bottleneck.
Building a carrier is hard.
Building an air wing is harder.
Building enough qualified air wings to sustain multiple carrier strike groups operating simultaneously is harder still.
Today, a PLAN carrier pilot's progression likely looks something like this before JL-10T
- Basic flight training
- JL-8 / JL-10 advanced jet training
- JL-9G shore-based carrier approach training
- J-15 conversion unit
- Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) at Huangdicun
- Carrier qualification aboard Liaoning or Shandong
One of the more interesting aspects of the Chinese system is that, unlike the U.S. Navy, the PLAN has not traditionally had a direct equivalent to the T-45 Goshawk routinely performing arrested landings as a dedicated carrier trainer. Instead, pilots appear to progress from the JL-9G and shore-based carrier practice into the two-seat J-15S/J-15T conversion pipeline before earning carrier qualifications.
The JL-10T may help close that gap, but perhaps more importantly, it provides additional training capacity at a time when China's carrier fleet is expanding rapidly.
What's particularly interesting is that the JL-10T may not be the PLAN's only answer.
Recent sightings of the JL-10 Twin-Tail suggest a familiar PLA aviation approach: a dual-track development strategy. We've seen this pattern before. Rather than betting everything on a single aircraft or training solution, the PLA often develops parallel programs, either as competitors or as complementary systems. Sometimes one emerges as the primary platform. Sometimes both enter service and split responsibilities.
At this stage, it isn't clear whether the JL-10T and the JL-10 Twin-Tail are competing solutions, a primary-and-backup arrangement, or two aircraft intended to supplement one another. What is clear is that the PLAN appears unwilling to leave pilot production dependent on a single pipeline.
That makes a lot of sense when viewed through the lens of long-term carrier operations. New carriers can be launched, catapults can be installed, and J-15s can roll off the production line, but none of that matters if the cockpit is empty.
While everyone on Youtube is counting VLS cells, catapults, stealth fighters, and carrier tonnage, the PLAN appears to be investing heavily in the least glamorous but arguably most valuable component of carrier aviation: the pilot.
The arrival of the JL-10T, alongside the appearance of the JL-10 Twin-Tail program, suggests that Beijing is not just building carriers and aircraft. It's building redundancy into the training ecosystem itself.
Because in naval aviation, the most difficult hardware to manufacture has always been the one sitting in the cockpit.
And a carrier without enough qualified pilots is just a very expensive helicopter pad.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
China’s new Hongdu carrier-based advanced twin‑engine jet trainer
First look: China’s new carrier-based advanced twin‑engine jet trainer by has completed its initial test flight. Previously, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) relied on the JL‑9G, a single‑engine trainer adapted from the Guizhou JL‑9/JJ‑7 airframe. However, as many observers have noted, all of China’s current carrier‑based combat aircraft are twin‑engine designs, making the older single‑engine JL‑9G a less suitable candidate for lead‑in fighter trainer (LIFT) roles.
http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/CHINA_209163/Features_209191/16377828.html
Source
Global Times
Editor
Li Weichao
Time
2025-03-30 21:51:40
A JL-9 trainer aircraft attached to a regiment affiliated with the Naval Aviation University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) lands after a combat exercise in the spring of 2025. Photo: Screenshot from the Sina Weibo account of China Bugle, an official media account affiliated with the PLA news media center
An upgraded version of China's JL-9 naval trainer jet was featured in a recent official report, revealing newly added wingtip split rudders. A Chinese military affairs expert said on Sunday that the technology will enhance carrier pilot training and could be applied to future stealth aircraft.
A regiment affiliated with the Naval Aviation University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently organized pilots to conduct an aerial maneuvering exercise under combat scenarios, China Bugle, an official media account affiliated with the PLA News Media Center, reported on Saturday evening.
By putting a red team and a blue team against each other in close-range combat training, the exercise tested the pilots' comprehensive combat capabilities in complex battlefield conditions.
The video report showed JL-9 trainer jets in action, with one deploying wingtip split rudders during landing.
Public reports indicate that wingtip split rudders are a new feature to an upgraded version of the JL-9 that made its maiden test flight in May 2020.
Compared to the original JL-9, the upgraded version of the aircraft removed the drogue parachute installation located at the vertical tail, and added wingtip split rudders, aiming to improve stability and low-speed performance, eastday.com, a Shanghai-based news website, reported at the time.
The JL-9 trainer aircraft is used to train pilots for aircraft carrier-based fighter jets, which do not use drogue parachutes, so it is normal for the trainer to remove this design. The new split rudders act as air brakes, helping pilots practice carrier landings more effectively, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Using split rudders instead of drogue parachutes can also help lowering the weight of the aircraft, improving overall performance, Song said.
The appearance of the upgraded JL-9 in an official report is an indication that the aircraft has technically matured, Song said.
Beyond the JL-9, Song noted that wingtip air brake and split rudder technologies have potential in future stealth aircraft. To achieve better stealth, next-generation aircraft tend remove vertical wings, so they need to use other types of stabilizers to control the aircraft, and this is when alternative control surfaces like wingtip rudders become relevant.
