BAD COPY: China’s Carrier Fighter Is a Reverse-Engineered Russian Sukhoi — And It’s Ridden With Problems
With China’s first indigenously designed aircraft carrier, the as-yet-unnamed Type 001A, set to join the country’s first carrier, the Liaoning, in active service in the coming months, the People’s Liberation Army-Navy is confronting an interesting problem: it doesn’t have enough fighter jets to fill both ships. The Liaoning can carry 40 aircraft, but operating with a short…