The Su-33 Flanker, a robust single-seat, multi-role fighter jet designed for carrier operations, represents one of the Russian military's more capable combat aircraft.
Russia's Sukhoi Su-33 was essentially developed as a carrier variant to serve on the Admiral Kuznetsov, and it is far more than just an upgraded Su-27 Flanker fighter jet.
Cheaters never prosper, says Russia.
Remember that Russian carrier-based jet that China copied without permission? Those airplanes are crashing, and Russia doesn t seem too broken up about it.
This article first appeared earlier and is being reposted due to reader interest.
Though Russia and China are now friends, even holding joint exercises, Russia s Sputnik News recently trotted out an article titled Chinese Navy Short on Carrier-Based Fighters, Only Has Problem-Ridden J-15.
The J-15 is an unlicensed copy of Russia s Su-33 carrier jet, which is a 1980s derivative of the Su-27K land-based fighter. China had acquired a T-10K-3, an Su-33 prototype, from Ukraine and then reverse-engineered it.
bought a single su-33 from the ukrainians, then reverse engineered it, they stripped it apart, got the plans and rebuilt it and now they have a knockoff version that is a carrier suitable airplane for that ship. jon: if you were running things at the pentagon or at the navy, what would your response be, is there anything we could or should do about this. i think we are doing what which is prudent, and that is, we re staging more of our forces on the west coast of the united states and we re starting to pay more attention to china. the apologists now have to take a back seat to what chinese ambitions are, because when you start looking at the weapons that they have developed over the last ten years, it s very clear that their shift is not strictly toward modernization but to gaining an offensive capability whereas before china was more concerned with policing its own internal issues and