ChinaMilitary Aviation

PLA Navy’s J-15 Reportedly Seen Carrying YJ-15 Anti-Ship Missile for the First Time

Published on: February 9, 2026 at 8:46 PM
Parth Satam Parth Satam
PLA Navy J-15 YJ-15 anti-ship missile
The image that appeared on Chinese social media on Feb. 5, 2026, showing a J-15 carrying two YJ-15 anti-ship missiles while flying overhead. (Image credit: Telegram/X/Weibo)

The YJ-15 was among the new anti-ship missiles that were revealed during the Sept. 3, 2025, parade in Beijing.

China’s YJ-15 supersonic Anti-Ship Cruise Missile (ASCM), that was among four new major ship-killing missiles revealed during the Sep. 3, 2025, parade in Beijing, was possibly spotted for the first time carried by a J-15T carrier-borne jet. The image, which emerged on Feb. 7, 2025, appears to show two of the missiles under the jet’s wings. 

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The YJ-15 was among the new anti-ship missiles that were revealed during the Sept. 3, 2025, parade in Beijing.YJ-15China’s growing missile arsenal

This marks another addition to China’s growing arsenal of standoff surface-strike missiles, like the YJ-21E and the CH-AS-X-13, that can be launched from its J-10C and H-6K bombers on land and maritime targets in a high-end war in the western Pacific with peer rival the United States.

The emergence of the new weapon in addition to the YJ-18A ASCM that arms frontline PLAN destroyers like the Type 55 and Type 52D, with the former shown firing the YJ-20, another one of the missiles displayed in the parade, late in December 2025. Experts have described it as an hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile.

YJ-15

At a first glance, the YJ-15 bears a striking resemblance to the Russian Kh-31 missile – which also has an anti-radiation version usually carried by the Su-35S for operations in Ukraine. The weapon also appears to be a progression of the existing YJ-12 air-, ship- and ground-launched supersonic ASCM.

The YJ-15 has four axisymmetric air-intakes, suggesting the presence of scramjet or a ramjet for supersonic speeds. Surface control consists of four long strakes and small stabilizing fins for mid-course adjustments, ahead of a small booster section having its own four fins.

According to Janes, the size of the body suggests a fuel capacity to support distances of 1,800 km. Interestingly, following the appearance of the J-15T photo, a user shared a 2022 image of a PLAAF J-16 carrying a YJ-15, suggesting a possible commonality with the PLA Navy for logistical ease and cost effectiveness.

The missile also arms the H-6K bombers, which feature among their known and confirmed weapons for surface strikes the YJ-21/KD-21. The H-6K was spotted carrying four YJ-21s in July 2024 and, a few months later, in-flight footage showed the bomber dropping one of them.

Another user had also shared on Sep. 15, 2024, an image of an H-6 carrying at least two older YJ-12s on its port (left-side) wing, suggesting it can carry a total of four, with two on the other side. This post was part of a thread in response to another post showing a YJ-12B, fired from road-mobile launchers, striking a target vessel in a steep diagonal ballistic trajectory. 

This could mean the YJ-12 can also follow a quasi-ballistic trajectory, and not necessarily a sea-skimming path, that allows it to perform maneuvers in its terminal stage to evade air defenses. As for the YJ-15, an angle from the rear also shows suspension lugs during the September parade, further confirming its air-launched use.

China’s growing missile arsenal

There were two other missiles that were displayed in the parade for the first time and which we could also expect to be demonstrated in the future. One was the YJ-17 air-launched ballistic missile, which is able to release what could be a boost-glided Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV), while the other is the YJ-19, observed to be a dual-stage system, based on the cylindrical first-stage releasing what could be a scramjet-powered hypersonic attack cruise missile (HACM)-type anti-ship missile.

Both weapons have been described as anti-ship systems, since the ‘YJ’ designation traditionally in the PLA has been associated with maritime strike warship-killing weapons. Like previous instances, the appearance establishes that weapons showcased in China’s military parades are sure to be soon-to-be operational systems, if not already inducted in service.

Notably, the YJ-15’s appearance, like the YJ-21E’s, came within months of that display. This could suggests the missile has been in service for a while and may have been only captured now for the first time.

The new development also upholds the J-15T’s role as the PLA Navy’s premier carrier-borne fighter, undertaking both air-to-air and air-to-surface roles, like the U.S. F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The Fujian carrier has recorded milestones of launching the J-15T, J-15DT, J-35 and the KJ-600 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C), and the YJ-15 is now possibly the first ship-killing cruise missile that the PLAN’s naval aviation will carry.

Thus, with the ship-fired YJ-18 ASCM and YJ-20 aeroballistic-type hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM), the YJ-15 completes the dyad, giving also carrier aviation an anti-ship capability in a carrier strike group.

This is in addition to the PLA Rocket Forces (PLARF) having their own arsenals and covering the entire western Pacific’s land and maritime targets with a layered Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) umbrella. The primary carrier-killing weapon here is the shore-fired road-mobile DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM), that functions like a regular ballistic missile, with its suspected Maneuverable Reentry Vehicle (MaRV) diving down on enemy armadas in the dozens.

As we had noted before here at The Aviationist, the diversity and growing number of China’s weapons are adequately serving as a deterrent instead of nuclear weapons. The conventional arms are enough for a massive retaliatory destruction, without the fallout.

This has fundamentally changed the tenets of post-World War military theory that requires unconventional nuclear weapons to deter an adversary. Yet, for good measure, China also possesses those too, with an estimated 600 warheads.    

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By Parth Satam
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Parth Satam's career spans a decade and a half between two dailies and two defense publications. He believes war, as a human activity, has causes and results that go far beyond which missile and jet flies the fastest. He therefore loves analyzing military affairs at their intersection with foreign policy, economics, technology, society and history. The body of his work spans the entire breadth from defense aerospace, tactics, military doctrine and theory, personnel issues, West Asian, Eurasian affairs, the energy sector and Space.
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