The emergence of high-confidence imagery showing a Chinese Shenyang J-15 carrier-borne fighter equipped with two YJ-15 supersonic anti-ship missiles marks a watershed moment in the evolution of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). For the first time, visual evidence suggests that one of China’s most advanced long-range, high-speed maritime strike weapons has been integrated onto a frontline carrier aircraft, dramatically expanding Beijing’s ability to project power across the Indo-Pacific’s most contested sea lanes.
The images, which rapidly circulated across defense-watcher communities and military intelligence channels, show the gray-camouflaged J-15—known as the “Flying Shark”—in a combat-relevant configuration with two large ramjet-powered missiles mounted beneath its wings. For analysts, this is not merely another weapons test photograph. It is a strong indication that the YJ-15 has reached a level of operational maturity sufficient for carrier aviation deployment, signaling a major shift in Chinese naval doctrine.
For decades, the PLAN was structured primarily as a coastal defense force, focused on protecting China’s immediate maritime approaches. Over the past 15 years, that posture has changed fundamentally. The combination of aircraft carriers, large surface combatants, nuclear submarines, and a rapidly expanding missile arsenal has pushed the Chinese navy toward sustained blue-water operations.
The J-15/YJ-15 pairing underscores how far that transition has gone. By arming a carrier-borne fighter with long-range supersonic anti-ship missiles, the PLAN is moving beyond a carrier concept centered on fleet air defense and limited strike missions. Instead, it is embracing a model in which carriers act as mobile strike hubs capable of imposing sea control and sea denial hundreds of kilometers from China’s shores.
More critically, this combination transforms the Chinese carrier air wing into a credible threat to high-value surface combatants, including destroyers, cruisers, and even aircraft carriers. With estimated engagement ranges exceeding 500 kilometers, the YJ-15 allows a J-15 operating from a carrier to strike well beyond the defensive umbrella of many naval task forces.
Chinese military commentators were quick to emphasize the significance of the imagery. One widely cited observer described the missiles as “top weapons against enemies from the sea,” citing their range, speed, and destructive power. While such statements are often dismissed as rhetoric, the visual confirmation of carrier-borne deployment gives them new credibility.
The timing also matters. The YJ-15 was publicly showcased during Beijing’s September 3, 2025 military parade, where it appeared alongside the YJ-17, YJ-19, and YJ-20 in what state media described as an “anti-ship missile formation” designed to “achieve victories through speed.” That presentation highlighted China’s preference for kinetic energy and reaction-time compression rather than stealth-centric strike concepts.
Now, with the missile apparently operational on a carrier aircraft, that parade messaging has moved from symbolism to practical capability.
From a financial perspective, the implications are stark. Analysts estimate that each YJ-15 missile costs several million US dollars—expensive, but modest when compared to the value of its potential targets. A modern U.S. aircraft carrier, for example, costs more than US$13 billion, not including its air wing and escort vessels.
This cost-exchange ratio lies at the heart of China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategy. By fielding large numbers of relatively affordable, high-performance missiles, Beijing seeks to impose disproportionate risk on adversary fleets. A salvo of YJ-15s, launched from multiple platforms, could overwhelm even advanced air-defense systems through sheer speed, numbers, and complexity.
The addition of carrier-based launch platforms adds a new layer of asymmetry. Unlike fixed land-based missile batteries, carriers are mobile, difficult to track continuously, and capable of repositioning rapidly in response to evolving tactical conditions.
The Shenyang J-15 has served as the backbone of China’s carrier aviation force since the commissioning of the Liaoning. Derived originally from the Russian Su-33 design, the aircraft has evolved significantly over time, transitioning from a technology demonstrator to a domestically sustained multirole fighter tailored to China’s maritime ambitions.
Originally optimized for ski-jump operations aboard the Liaoning and Shandong carriers, the J-15 has undergone steady improvements. Structural reinforcements, upgraded avionics, and the adoption of indigenous WS-10 engines have enhanced thrust, reliability, and payload capacity. These changes have increased sortie generation rates and improved performance in demanding maritime environments.
With a combat radius exceeding 1,200 kilometers and a maximum external payload of around 12,000 kilograms, the J-15 has the physical capacity to carry large, high-energy weapons like the YJ-15 while retaining air-to-air missiles for self-protection. That balance is critical for survivability in contested airspace.
The emergence of the J-15T variant further expands this capability envelope. Optimized for catapult-assisted takeoff operations aboard China’s newest carrier, the Fujian, the J-15T can launch at heavier weights than ski-jump-based aircraft. This enables increased fuel loads and fully loaded strike configurations that were previously constrained by takeoff physics.
From an operational standpoint, the ability of a carrier-based fighter to launch supersonic or hypersonic anti-ship missiles dramatically compresses enemy reaction timelines. Naval air-defense systems rely on early detection, tracking, and engagement at long ranges. High-speed weapons shrink these windows, forcing defenders to make decisions in seconds rather than minutes.
The latest imagery suggests that China has solved—or is close to solving—the aerodynamic, structural, and fire-control challenges associated with integrating large ramjet-powered missiles onto a carrier aircraft. These challenges include managing asymmetric loads, ensuring safe separation during launch, and maintaining flight stability across the carrier operating envelope.
Doctrinally, this integration reflects a shift within the PLAN from a defensive carrier role toward an offensive model emphasizing distributed maritime strike and coordinated saturation attacks. In such a model, carriers do not operate in isolation but as nodes within a wider strike network that includes bombers, destroyers, submarines, and land-based missile forces.
The YJ-15 represents the latest evolution of China’s long-running anti-ship missile development program, building on earlier systems such as the YJ-83 and YJ-12. Visually, it is identifiable by its elongated fuselage, pointed nose cone, and distinctive four-inlet axisymmetric air intake, a configuration associated with ramjet propulsion.
Most assessments suggest that the missile cruises at speeds between Mach 3 and Mach 4, with the potential to exceed Mach 5 during its terminal phase. Such performance dramatically reduces the effectiveness of shipborne air-defense systems, including advanced interceptors integrated into combat systems like Aegis.
Range estimates typically fall between 500 and 800 kilometers, allowing launch platforms to remain outside the engagement zones of many naval surface-to-air missiles. Physically, the YJ-15 is believed to be around 6.5 meters long, with a diameter of roughly 0.5 meters and a launch weight of about 1,500 kilograms.
The warhead—estimated at around 200 kilograms—is likely designed to mission-kill large surface combatants through a combination of kinetic energy and explosive force. Guidance is thought to combine inertial navigation, active radar homing, and possible satellite mid-course updates, enabling engagement of moving targets in complex electronic warfare environments.
A sea-skimming terminal profile further complicates interception by exploiting radar horizon limitations, placing extreme demands on close-in defense systems such as CIWS.
While the latest imagery confirms integration on the J-15, analysts widely believe the YJ-15 is intended for deployment across a broad range of PLA platforms. Chinese and foreign observers have suggested compatibility with H-6K, H-6J, and H-6N bombers, as well as PLAAF J-16 multirole fighters.
The J-16, in particular, offers significant strike potential due to its large payload capacity, enabling it to carry multiple YJ-15s for coordinated attacks. Even lighter fighters such as the J-10 and legacy J-11 variants are believed to be potential launch platforms.
This cross-platform approach reflects a deliberate strategy to maximize flexibility and redundancy. By distributing YJ-15 launch capability across air, sea, and potentially submarine platforms, China creates a multidimensional threat environment designed to overwhelm adversary sensors, command systems, and interceptors.
The deployment of YJ-15-armed J-15 fighters has profound implications for regional security, particularly in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
In the South China Sea, carrier-borne supersonic strikes would allow the PLAN to threaten foreign naval forces operating in support of regional claimants without relying solely on land-based missile systems. The missile’s reach could impose sea denial over vast areas, complicating freedom-of-navigation operations and raising the risk threshold for external intervention.
Across the Taiwan Strait, the YJ-15’s range effectively blankets the entire maritime domain, enabling rapid saturation strikes against naval assets attempting to reinforce or evacuate the island in a high-end contingency. By integrating such weapons into carrier aviation, China adds mobility, unpredictability, and persistence to its deterrence posture.
As maritime security analyst Dmitry Filipoff has previously observed, China’s anti-ship missile arsenal is already formidable. Carrier-based deployment only amplifies that advantage.
When compared with global counterparts, the YJ-15 occupies a distinct niche. Western systems like the AGM-158C LRASM emphasize stealth and autonomous targeting at subsonic speeds, while the YJ-15 relies on extreme velocity and saturation to defeat defenses. Russia’s Kinzhal offers hypersonic performance but lacks the deployment flexibility and production scale associated with China’s industrial base. India’s BrahMos shares the supersonic ramjet concept but has not yet demonstrated comparable carrier-borne integration at scale.
Analysts estimate that China could field hundreds of YJ-15 missiles by the end of the decade, reinforcing its advantage in mass-fire maritime strike operations. While challenges remain—particularly in ensuring reliable guidance under heavy electronic warfare—the pace of progress suggests these hurdles are being addressed.
The imagery of a J-15 armed with YJ-15 missiles therefore represents more than a technical achievement. It signals a doctrinal shift toward speed, scale, and distributed lethality—one that is reshaping the maritime security landscape of the Indo-Pacific and forcing regional and extra-regional navies to rethink long-standing assumptions about carrier survivability and sea control.
