The The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAA released a video of the Shenyang J-16 fighter jet. It will partner with J-20 to strengthen the combat capability of PLA Air Force. The J-16 is a tandem-seat, twinjet, all-weather, multirole strike fighter designed and manufactured by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, China. This is a multi-role fighter/bomber variant based on the J-11BS with longer range and upgraded avionics, a concept similar to Sukhoi 27/35The first few photos of J-16 were published on Chinese internet websites around June 2012. The J-16 has a slightly different vertical stabilizer compared to J-11 fighter or J-15 naval fighter. It is also equipped with missile pylons for Chinese PL-8 air-to-air missiles, another difference compared to earlier J-11 variants.
The J-16 is able to carry a full range of indigenous Chinese equipment including super and subsonic anti-ship missiles, air to air missiles, satellite guided bombs, cruise missiles and electronic countermeasure (ECM) jammers. It has been speculated that the J-16’s WS-10 engines lack sufficient power for the aircraft, given their design faults and the greater weight of the airframe compared to other Chinese Su-27 variants, and that an engine upgrade will be needed to allow the new plane to meet its design potential.
