Recent photos show Beijing's progress in developing stealth fighter jets and early warning aircraft for its new aircraft carriers.
The first fixed-wing early-warning plane capable of operating on the carriers in China was shown in a video on Chinese social media.
August 2020 is when the first flight of the KJ-600 took place. The latest online pictures showed a plane with green and white paint and a pitot tube, which is used to measure air speed.
The aircraft is believed to have active electronically scanned array radars and is intended to match the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye.
The People's Liberation Army Air Force has two aircraft. Helicopters are used for the Chinese navy's airborne early warning system.
The carrier strike group's situational awareness could greatly improve once the KJ-600 enters service.
It can be used to guide missiles fired from destroyers on from the land in over-the-horizon attacks.
The PLA Navy's two active Kuznetsov-class carriers, the Liaoning and theShandong, can't be operated on the ski-jump deck, but the twin turboprop engine-driven KJ-600 is very likely to be used on the next-gen carriers.
The third aircraft carrier in China, Fujian, has three catapults. The catapult- capable variant of the J-15 was released last year.
A photo that was believed to show the next ship-based stealth fighter was leaked last week. There is a twin-jet single-seat FC-31 fighter on the ground.
It's possible that it's the third prototype and that the navy will call it J-35.
The FC-31 is China's second stealth fighter after the J-20 and is positioned for an overseas market. The first flight was in 2012 but prototypes have changed since then and are thought to be adapted for the carriers.
The first high-resolution picture of the J-35 showed a resemblance to the F-35, and it appears to be fitted with home-made engines.
The J-15D electronic-attack variant of the "Flying Shark" was seen for the first time in official publicity footage of the carrier's training in March. The J-15D is designed to detect, track, interfere and suppress enemy radar and other electronic communication in order to protect the ship-borne fighter fleets.
The J-15D began testing. China is the second country to have ships-based electronic warfare planes.
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