China announced Sunday that it had landed a fighter jet on the
deck of an aircraft carrier for the first time, but it may be
years before the ship is fully operational. China's "first
generation multi-purpose carrier-borne fighter jet," known as
the J-15, successfully completed its first landing on the
Liaoning, an aircraft carrier China built using an abandoned
Soviet hull, according to China's official news agency Xinhua.
The J-15's capabilities are comparable to the Russian Su-33 jet
and the U.S. F-18, Xinhua reported. The Chinese-designed jet can
"carry multi-type anti-ship, air-to-air and air-to-ground
missiles, as well as precision-guided bombs, the report said.
The U.S. military, in its latest annual assessment of China's
military capability, predicted "it will still take several
additional years for China to achieve a minimal level of combat
capability for its aircraft carriers." The Liaoning will be able
to carry 30 J-15 fighter planes and will have a crew of 2,000,
according to a People's Daily Onli