Challenges in the dark

Captain Lu Zhaohui, a senior J-15 pilot at the naval aviation base, said night operations are a major part of modern naval warfare, which requires the carrier-borne fighter jet force to be capable of conducting operations in low visibility and difficult weather conditions over dark seas.

"Landing a plane on a carrier in the dark is the hardest and riskiest of all nighttime operations and much more difficult than landing during the daytime," he said. "We have overcome a lot of difficulties to enable our pilots to perform night landings. The first was that we didn't know how to arrange the lights on the carrier's deck or how bright they should be."

During the approach on a typical night landing, the pilots have no points of reference other than signal lights placed along the runway of the carrier's recovery area. The brightness of the lights is adjustable and subject to conditions such as distance and altitude, according to Lu.

In addition, members of the deck crew also use lights when handling operations on the flight deck.

"If the lights are too bright, they can cause the pilots to experience momentary blindness during takeoff or landing, which is very dangerous. If the lights are too dim, the pilots may not see them, and that could lead to accidents," he said, noting that every navy that operates aircraft carriers has experienced the same problems.

Lu, his fellow pilots and a number of deck crew commanders carried out countless experiments and tests which allowed them to devise a number of lighting protocols to fit different times and weather conditions, he added.

Captain Xu Ying, commander of the J-15 unit, noted that it is extremely difficult and dangerous to land a plane on a narrow, seaborne runway at night, since the lack of reference points can impair the pilots' sense of direction. Moreover, their ability to react and make judgments is substantially reduced when flying in total darkness above the ocean.

"We learn to depend on landing-assistance instruments on the aircraft and the carrier, and on instructions from signal officers," he said. "Our aviators need to undertake repeated training procedures in night operations to gain more experience."

Li Jie, a well-known naval researcher in Beijing, said, "As soon as a sufficient number of the carrier-borne fighter pilots are qualified to carry out round-the-clock operations, the carrier will come closer to full combat capability."