PLA Air Force General News Thread:

ALAMO wrote:

lancelot wrote:I doubt the range is just that. Kinzhal has 3000km range. That missile is much larger than Kinzhal.

Kinzhal range is made of initial speed, which is triple what H-6 can handle.

1/10th of that booster is enough to bring it to kinzhal launch speed.

This thing has a range of at least 5-6000km. It's huge.

New j-10. The dorsal part is the same solution as on the f-16.

Clearly not the best looking aircraft but it does the job with an AESA radar, modern avionics and good missiles.

They also have 500+ of them which is a huge fleet of a modern aircraft. If you look better you will find out that no one has a bigger fleet of a modern jet.

US f-16 and f-15 are old. F-22 only 100 or so left in service. F-35 still in developement even if being procured.

Looks like the Ye-8 modification of the MiG-21...



Single engined canard equipped tailless delta with a chin air intake... I quite like it... it appears to be a light numbers fighter so carrying AAMs and air to ground weapons it looks pretty good.

The YU-20 aerial tanker.

GarryB wrote:Looks like the Ye-8 modification of the MiG-21...

Single engined canard equipped tailless delta with a chin air intake... I quite like it... it appears to be a light numbers fighter so carrying AAMs and air to ground weapons it looks pretty good.

Really uggly. The design of those j-10, Typhoon, Grippen, mig1.44 with the canards higher than the wings and weapons hanging like testicules is the worst you can imagine.

Funny that french managed to make a beauty like the Rafale which has a similar design.

Except they gave the beauty a beard with that fixed inflight refuelling probe... and like most French models she looks about 12 years old so she appears to be more of a LIFT than a multirole fighter.

They were just testing a layout arrangement... if it made sense and achieved any real improvement they likely would have made it look prettier...

J-10s

I like the j-10 especially the intake of the A variant and I like the permanently fixed fuel probe. I have weird cold war tier taste, tho. I'm not a fan of eurocanards but j-10 is cool. Now what they have done with their most modern flankers is awesome and in some ways what I imagine Russia would do if they had the same budget. Note the IRST ball on the newest chinese flankers are huge. I wonder how powerful they are in resolution and distance captured in front and rear attack.

Still though they cannot beat Russians imo as they just have such a clever way of development and make such artistic war machines.

Tu-16 with Kinzhal copy

TMA1 wrote:I like the j-10 especially the intake of the A variant and I like the permanently fixed fuel probe. I have weird cold war tier taste, tho. I'm not a fan of eurocanards but j-10 is cool. Now what they have done with their most modern flankers is awesome and in some ways what I imagine Russia would do if they had the same budget. Note the IRST ball on the newest chinese flankers are huge. I wonder how powerful they are in resolution and distance captured in front and rear attack.

Still though they cannot beat Russians imo as they just have such a clever way of development and make such artistic war machines.

Hopefully russian just don't improve their flankers and just go for su-57 and su-75 productions only.

I would guess it is a completely empty mockup looking at those g clamps holding it on the trolley...

Interesting looking missile...

Looks like a storm shadow type of cruise missile. Gives 4th gen aircraft a boost as it has the ability to send a stealthy subsonic munition towards a target while staying far from danger. I prefer the kh-69 which serves a similar role. Not only stealthy but able to be fit within the internal bays of stealthy fifth gen platforms.

Looks like a storm shadow type of cruise missile. Gives 4th gen aircraft a boost as it has the ability to send a stealthy subsonic munition towards a target while staying far from danger.

The only western air defences worth a damn so far are naval defences so perhaps it is an anti ship missile type?

What we know about Chinese Flankers – Andreas Rupprecht

https://hushkit.net/2022/11/08/what-we-know-about-chinese-flankers-andreas-rupprecht/

11/16/2022
Lenta.ru

In the United States spoke about the problems due to Chinese missiles



Chinese anti-ship missile YJ-21.
Image source: avatars.dzeninfra.ru


The Chinese YJ-21 ("Eagle strike 21") hypersonic missile threatens and creates problems for American aircraft carriers. This is told by the American edition of 19FortyFive.
The publication recalls that the YJ-21 anti-ship hypersonic missile, designed to be launched from an aircraft and a surface ship, was demonstrated at the 14th Airshow China International Air Show, which was held from November 8 to 13 in the Chinese city of Zhuhai.

The publication notes that the YJ-21 is considered a killer of aircraft carriers, and its adoption "marks a big step in China's efforts to change the balance of the Navy (Navy) in its favor."

According to the publication, the speed of this hypersonic missile reaches Mach 10, and the maximum flight range is 932 nautical miles (1726 kilometers), which makes it dangerous for the US Navy. “At these speeds, the YJ-21 could create problems for the Aegis combat system that protects US aircraft carriers and their escort ships,” the publication says.
The publication admits that the latest Chinese hypersonic missile may be involved in a potential conflict between China and the United States.

In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the United States had not yet caught up with Russia in the field of hypersonic weapons.

https://vpk.name/news/654019_v_ssha_rasskazali_o_problemah_iz-za_kitaiskoi_rakety.html

MILITARYWATCH MAGAZINE; although this media is emphatically on the side of the Chinese, which is not surprising, because it is my opinion that everyone must slowly move away from the Chinese.

China’s J-16 Heavyweight Fighter Continues to Dwarf Russian Cousin Su-35 in Production: Tenth Brigade Now Operational


J-16

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has inducted its tenth batch of J-16 heavyweight fighter jets into frontline service, with the first clear images of aircraft with Batch 10 construction numbers appearing in the final week of November - namely fighter no. 1013. The tenth batch appears to have been used to equip the 6th Air Brigade based at Suixi, Guangdong Province, which operates under the Southern Theatre Command responsible for operations in the South China Sea. Beyond the tenth batch, the fifth production fighter from the eleventh production batch of J-16s was first seen at the Zhuhai Air Show on November 5, which indicated a fleet size of approximately 300 J-16s in service. Although only third among Chinese fighters in terms of production scale, the J-16 is being produced at a very significantly higher rate than any Western or Russian fighter other than the American F-35.

The J-16 is a derivative of the Soviet Su-27 Flanker which China first acquired in 1991 and began to produce under license shortly afterwards, with the revolutionary design considered the most capable for air to air combat in the Cold War era. While Flanker derivatives have made up over 95 percent of fighter acquisitions by the Russian Air Force over the past quarter century, the much greater size of China’s air force and greater sophistication of its industrial base and tech sector have allowed the J-16 to be acquired on a scale dwarfing that of any Russian Flanker variant. This has been a particularly notable achievement when considering that the J-16 forms only a fraction of Chinese fighter acquisitions, in contrast to Flankers’ overwhelming dominance of Russia spending on fighter acquisitions. 

With approximately 300 J-16s in service, this figure contrasts sharply with the top Russian Flanker variant the Su-35S of which only around 100 are thought to be operational. Both fighters are estimated to have entered service in 2014, and with approximately 150 Su-35s having been built, 48 of them for export, this means the Su-35 has been built on only half the scale of the J-16 despite its much more important position in the Russian fleet than the J-16 has in the Chinese. The J-16 comes in a standard twin seat configuration and is not specialised in any particular role, in contrast to the purely single seat Su-35 which is heavily oriented towards air to air engagements. The J-16 is thought to be less costly largely due to economies of scale and the greater efficiency of China’s defence sector, and uses superior composite materials and stealth coatings, a more sophisticated radar and  more advanced avionics and weapons, while the Su-35 benefits from use of triple rather than a single radar, a higher endurance and more powerful engines. Although the two fighters are considered well matched, the J-16’s scale of production highlights the vast discrepancy between the Chinese and Russian defence sectors which began to emerge in the 1990s after the latter contracted to a fraction of its Soviet era size. The fact that China has fielded the much more capable next generation J-20 since 2017, which forms the PLA Air Force's elite, further serves to highlight the discrepancy between the two countries since Russia is not expected to field any next generation fighter in numbers comparable to China's current J-20 fleet until at least the mid 2030s.


Su-35S

The Su-35 was initially expected to be produced exclusively for export, and was heavily based on the Su-37 and Su-27M designs which were both considered ready for serial production in the 1990s but were not financed due to economic crisis in Russia. The fighter was belatedly financed in 2009, albeit domestically rather than with export revenues, with plans initially stipulating that 200 aircraft be built - 100 for the Russian Air Force and 100 for export. The lack of Chinese demand, and Western pressure on other potential clients, undermined export prospects and led the Russian Defence Ministry to place more orders, with very serious delays to the more ambitious Su-57 fighter program also being a factor in this decision. More recently, however, Iranian interest in the Su-35 has raised the possibility of much needed major export contracts finally materialising for the fighter. The J-16 by contrast has not been and is unlikely to ever by exported, as the Soviet origin of the Flanker design has resulted in the prohibition of such sales to directly compete with Russian platforms.

https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/j16-dwarf-russian-su35-production-scale

although this media is emphatically on the side of the Chinese, which is not surprising, because it is my opinion that everyone must slowly move away from the Chinese.

Russia has much better relations with China than it ever had with the west... Russia has no future with the west in the form it is currently... when they grow up and start respecting other countries and other cultures they might be worth another look but that is not going to happen while the US is in charge.

China on the other hand would be an important ally and trading partner and a country that respects international law... unlike the west.

China’s J-16 Heavyweight Fighter Continues to Dwarf Russian Cousin Su-35 in Production: Tenth Brigade Now Operational

With approximately 300 J-16s in service, this figure contrasts sharply with the top Russian Flanker variant the Su-35S of which only around 100 are thought to be operational. Both fighters are estimated to have entered service in 2014, and with approximately 150 Su-35s having been built, 48 of them for export, this means the Su-35 has been built on only half the scale of the J-16 despite its much more important position in the Russian fleet than the J-16 has in the Chinese.

As always, militarywatchmagazine is complete garbage. Is Russia in an arms race with China? Why is Russia supposed to produce as many fighter jets (or anything else for that matter) as a 20 trillion dollar economy like China? How about the fact that China still buys billions of dollars of Russian military equipment till this very day and will most likely buy export model Su-57's too.

The J-16 is a clone of the Su-30, not the Su-35. Russia build roughly 600 Su-30s of all versions for her own VKS and many Air Forces around the world.

Militarywatch has been making a sensation about J-16 in the text, I agree.
As for the purchase of the Su-57 by the Chinese, I highly doubt it. I think those times are over.
I also agree that the J-16 is a two-seater while the Su-35 is a single-seater fighter.

I am not a supporter of trusting only the West or Russia in the world of armaments.
Neither the US nor Russia can keep up with China's capabilities anymore.
No matter how much the West praises its planes, the advantage of Western planes compared to Russian ones is only in numbers - the rest of Western "superiority" has never been proven.
The same goes for China, the numbers speak for themselves. As far as I'm concerned, China is already number 1.

A western magazine does not care about Russia, they are using China to make Russia look small and to try to bait pro Russians and pro Chinese people to argue over who makes the most planes and the best planes... the enormous progress China has made can be made by most countries if they get the right conditions and have the right mindset... what has previously prevented Russia and China growing is western interference and the various World Wars and subsequent cold wars they have had to waste money and time and energy on.

It certainly makes sense for China to increase its Navy and Air Force because they are very much a regional power that is vulnerable to the West using its global base to block and limit them as much as they can.

Russia and China and the other BRICS countries which is expanding too means rest of the world countries are going to get choices that don't include the west which means they can grow and develop too... the west don't understand but this is good for the world... if they got their way and the entire world became a consumer society the world would be screwed... there simply are not enough resources on the planet for 8 billion Americans and their throw away consumer society...

A consumer society is only good for companies like Amazon and Google and Apple, for the rest of us it is destructive and wasteful.

If China wants 2,000 Flankers then good for them... it is only a threat to countries who want to bully China into doing what they want... so only the west should fear them.