Navalizing an aircraft for saltwater operations

Salt spray and humid marine air attack engines, hydraulics, electronics, and structures continuously. Navalization is therefore a major engineering discipline. Repeated low-level operations over the sea can double or even triple cleaning and maintenance demands on land-based aircraft such as the F-15 and F-16. Carrier aircraft must be designed for marine exposure as a routine condition. China sought Russian knowledge partly to accelerate this hard-to-acquire expertise, especially in demanding components such as turbine machinery, while developing its own maintainers and design practice.