“Non-Skid” Coating for F-35B Ship Landing Replicated by People’s Liberation Army – Navy

Video Above: 

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

The People’s Liberation Army – Navy is taking specific measures to maintain and upgrade its first indigenously built aircraft carrier which has already been operational for two years.

A Chinese government-backed newspaper describes it as “maintenance and refurbishment,” suggesting the carrier will be more combat capable following the procedures. The Global Times newspaper says the sub-systems and some of the ship’s technologies have been subject to wear and tear, such as the arresting gear, power systems, pipelines and electronics.

“Non-Skid” Coating

However, an interesting element of the upgrades buried among the list of enhancement includes the refreshing of a “non-skid” coating on the flight deck. Significantly, the US Navy has in recent years added non-skid coating to the deck of its America-class amphibs for the specific purpose of supporting the vertical landing of the F-35B. The material enables the flight deck to better withstand the heat associated with a vertical landing by reinforcing the deck itself.

Several years ago, the US Navy modified its first in class America-class amphib for F-35B operations by adding non-skid materials to the deck as well as reinforced structures below the flight deck.

Certainly non-skid could help with most kinds of fighter jet landings, but this development raises the interesting question as to whether the Chinese are working on or even planning an F-35B vertical take-off-and-landing copycat 5th generation aircraft. China is of course known to be building and preparing a carrier-launched stealthy J-31 aircraft, yet China is not known to have any kind of 5th-generation vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.