Chinese Navy’s Rare J-11BSH Long Range Fighters Train For Maritime Operations

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has published new images showing its rare J-11BSH long-range twin seat fighter aircraft conducting a flight training exercise under the Southern Theatre Command. The Command is responsible for operations in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, with the PLA remaining in a state of civil war with the Republic of China Armed Forces based on Taiwan Island in the former, while safeguarding territory amid often heated maritime disputes in the latter. As a leading hotspot or potential conflict, this has led the regiments operating under the Southern Theatre Command to often be prioritised for receiving new equipment, with the Command also being responsible for protecting many of China’s economic heartlands including cities such as Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, as well as strategic facilities such as the primary base of the Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet on Hainan Island.

The J-11B is a much improved derivative of the Soviet Su-27 Flanker heavyweight fighter, and entered service in 2009 with new engines, a much higher use of composite materials, and more modern avionics. While the baseline J-11B saw production concluded in 2018, the J-11BS twin seat variant continued production in the following years, and can serves as both a trainer and as a command and control aircraft. J-11s operated by the Navy are lightly modified, and are designated J-11BH, with the twin seat naval variant designated J-11BSH. The Su-27 entered service as the longest ranged fighter type in the USSR, comfortably exceeding the endurance of any U.S. Air Force or allied fighter, with the J-11B combining this range with enhanced avionics that have made it optimal for extended maritime operations. 

The PLA Navy Southern Theatre Command was the first to receive new enhanced variants of the J-11B, the J-11BGH, in 2021, which was developed by integrating ‘4+ generation’ avionics, including a modern active electronically scanned array radar, onto the J-11BH. These upgrades revolutionised the aircraft’s combat potential, and allowed it to integrate new armaments developed for the J-20 fifth generation fighter, most notably the PL-15 radar guided and PL-10 infrared guided air-to-air missiles which have throughout the last decade been considered leading contenders for the titles of the most capable in the world. The J-11B’s development played a key role in bringing China’s fighter industry forward in the 2000s, and while far from world leading, it served as a key stepping stone allowing the country to produce and operationalise some of the world’s most capable ‘4+ generation’ and fifth generation fighter types from the mid-2010s, after bridging key technological gaps with the United States. 

Although the J-11B has been largely overshadowed by newer fighter types, it continues to play a very significant role in service, with the aircraft’s modernisation indicating that they are intended to continue to operate for many years to come. China today fields more heavyweight long range fighters than Russia and NATO combined, with the J-11’s large production run at well over 300 fighters having played a key role in this. The J-11B was succeeded in production at the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation’s facilities by the J-16, which is a further heavily enhanced variant of the Su-27 that integrates a wide range of technologies developed for the J-20 fifth generation fighter.

The J-16 has been produced on a significantly larger scale still, with numbers in service approaching 450 fighters, although the aircraft are operated exclusively by the Air Force with none yet serving in the Navy. The Shenyang Aircraft Corporation is currently developing one of the world’s first sixth generation fighters, which was first seen in flight testing in December 2024, with its first fifth generation fighter, the J-35, having been confirmed in 2025 to have entered service in both the Navy and the Air Force. With China set to lead the world by over half a decade in fielding sixth generation fighters, and expanding its fifth generation fleet far faster than any other country, the J-11B is today operating in a service with capabilities and an international standing that are unrecognisable from those when it first entered service in the early 2010s.