People's Liberation Army Air Force : News & Discussions

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FC-31 (finally) chosen by the Chinese Navy?

Since its first prototype made the inaugural flight in October 2012, there are not any rumors about the official "tenure" for the Shenyang FC-31 fighter plane. However, six long years have already passed without the fate of this second Chinese stealth aircraft program being fully sealed.

On the domestic market, the Chinese army does not seem to be interested, at least until now, by this hunter of the middle class - a MTOW of 28 000 kg according to the latest official publication - self-financed manufacturer AVIC. Instead, it prefers to focus on the integration of several heavy jet fighter programs such as J-16 and J-20 as well as single-jet fighter aircraft such as the J-10C. And internationally, the VLO fighter designed by the 601 Shenyang Institute unfortunately does not find any interested until then, despite the many presentations in the defense fairs held in China and elsewhere in the world.

This would probably be explained by the fact that those who have both the ambition and the means to have such a last-generation vector, such as Japan, South Korea and India for example, generally look to Russian or Western historical suppliers for political and industrial reasons. And for China's long-standing customers, mostly third-world countries, the FC-31 is both expensive and complex to exploit over the long term, a "luxury" that these customers can not find. utility or the budget to afford it. So there are still some countries between the two waters, such as Turkey seeking a certain political and industrial autonomy, which could eventually serve as the Chinese aircraft as a brick or technology platform to develop theirs.

The model of the first prototype of FC-31
The model of the second FC-31 prototype
The characteristics of the FC-31 presented recently, the aircraft has increased considerably compared to the first presentation.
The first two prototypes of FC-31, will there be a third?

If the future of the FC-31, entirely dedicated to export, seemed dull on his native land until now, things could be changed soon. Indeed, the various independent sources have all converged since the end of 2017 to say that "things are moving," and the Chinese navy, which seeks to build both ground and airborne air forces of the future, would be the main engine of this turnaround.

But in detail, the versions of "made" differ according to the sources. When some, especially those close to the binomial Institute 601 Shenyang (designer of the FC-31) and the Factory 112 SAC (Aircraft Production Entity), claim that the Chinese navy would have officially chosen the FC-31 and would have authorized the launching of the development project under a name J-xx - which is not the case so far - others rather close to the other mega-aeronautics of China at the level of fighter jets, namely the The Chengdu 611 Institute and the 132 CAC Factory, already the designer and builder respectively of the J-10 and J-20 for example, indicates that the evaluation phase between the naval version of the J-20 and the FC-31 would have (had?) place.

Needless to say, it is difficult to see more clearly in these unofficial elements which converge on certain points but diverge on others. One thing is certain, on the other hand, is that both of them confirm the need of the Chinese navy to have VLO fighters, both for its ground-based air units to monitor the 32,000 of the country's coastlines only for its naval air forces, which continue to grow with the coming arrival of new aircraft carriers.




The design and assembly of the FC-31, extracted from the publications of the manufacturer Shenyang.

Note that another source, this time directly owned by a Chinese engine manufacturer, has given an interesting side of the story. According to her, recent rumors about the tenure of the FC-31 actually come from the two entities of Shenyang, and this following a visit from a very senior Chinese naval official who announced his "support" for the program after have attended a demonstration flight in late 2017 of two FC-31s. A visibly verbal support that the 601 Institute and the 112 Factory both interpreted as a positive signal for the launch of the project.

However, the choice of the launching of any project within the Chinese navy must imperatively pass through the stage of the preliminary study conducted by the Chinese Navy Equipment Institute, a structure whose role is close to that of the DGA in France, which writes a detailed report to be validated by a committee of experts of the CMC and the army corps concerned before a project can be launched.

And this is precisely what the same source engine Chinese, that the personnel coming from the Institute of equipments of the Chinese navy would have rather indicated a competition of Shenyang and Chengdu, thus between the FC-31 and the J-20, where details have not been revealed.

Could the FC-31 finally serve under the flags of the Chinese army, like what can be seen recently in a TV report where a model of FC-31 in livery PLA Navy is seen behind an officer of the Chinese Navy interviewed? Or will the Chengdu J-20 end up monopolizing the Chinese VLO combat device market for the next three decades thanks in part to its navalized version ? We could hope to have a (first) answer in the months to come ...
 
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Pakistani obsession with Sukhoi-35 shows, how bad Chinese Sukhoi Copies are – Indian Defence Research Wing
Pakistani obsession with Sukhoi-35 shows, how bad Chinese Sukhoi Copies are

Published August 19, 2018 | By admin

SOURCE: Rajesh Kumar/ FOR MY TAKE / ****

14123542.jpg


Pakistani establishment off late has been actively pursuing Russian Government to allow them to procure unspecified numbers of Su-35 ‘Flanker-E’ multi-role fighter aircraft after Islamabad failed to procure additional F-16s from the United States.

Pakistani air force at present is made of four different types of fighter aircraft and fly’s Vintage Dassault Mirage-5s, Chinese-manufactured F-7s, Lockheed Martin F-16s and Chinese JF-17 Thunder which they license assembled in Pakistan and is powered by a Russian supplied Klimov RD-93 Afterburning Turbofan engine.

PAF in its History has never operated Soviet-Russian make of fighter aircraft but in past has operated Shenyang J-6 which is the Chinese-built version of the Soviet MiG-19 ‘Farmer’ fighter aircraft and present operates Chengdu J-7 which is a license-built version of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21.

In Past due to India growing relations with the United States. Russia finally showed the willingness to sell advanced hardware with Pakistan despite Moscow’s longstanding ties with India which lead to Mi-17-1 and Mi-35M deals with Pakistan. Pakistan now wants to up defense cooperation and procure fighter aircraft directly from Russia. Whats interesting is that Pakistan has shown no interest in procurement of unlicensed copies of Sukhoi fighter aircraft which China already manufactures presently for its air force.

Shenyang J-11 copy of Sukhoi Su-27, Shenyang J-16 copy of Russian Sukhoi Su-30MKK and Shenyang J-15 unlicensed Chinese development of the Russian Su-33 Flanker-D all have been evaluated by Pakistani air force pilots under the various pilot exchange program between the two countries and buzz for years now has been that Pakistanis were not exactly happy with their sub-par performance and instead where asking Chinese to clear export of J-10 fighter aircraft which Chinese government has barred from exports.

Unlicensed Chinese development of Sukhoi Su-27,30 and 33 initially was seen as a Game changer by the western defense analysts who thought that this new 4.5 generation aircraft will come as an additional force multiplier to the Chinese air force but over the years Chinese media locally were critical of this aircrafts and now even the government of China is more or less convinced that reversed engineered copies are plan disasters and instead is shifting focus back on local fighter programs.

Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark which is a new carrier-based fighter aircraft already has suffered a number of high-profile crashes due to technical issues with the aircraft’s engines and flight control system. indigenous Shenyang Liming WS-10H engines too have serious reliability issues that Chinese pilots prefer Russian Salyut AL-31F engines over their copies which probably is one reason why China still continues to buy them from Russia even after claiming it to be a total success of their copies years ago.

J-11 and J-15 design too suffer from serious design flaws due to traditional limitations inherent to reverse engineering methodology. In the Initial phase, aircraft looks and feels just like the original but when pushed into regular service that’s when issues start cropping up mechanically which are difficult to fix when you just copied it from some other aircraft without going through in-depth design data collections.
****/pakistani-obsession-with-sukhoi-35-shows-how-bad-chinese-sukhoi-copies-are/#more-178728
 
Pakistani obsession with Sukhoi-35 shows, how bad Chinese Sukhoi Copies are – Indian Defence Research Wing
Pakistani obsession with Sukhoi-35 shows, how bad Chinese Sukhoi Copies are

Published August 19, 2018 | By admin

SOURCE: Rajesh Kumar/ FOR MY TAKE / ****

14123542.jpg


Pakistani establishment off late has been actively pursuing Russian Government to allow them to procure unspecified numbers of Su-35 ‘Flanker-E’ multi-role fighter aircraft after Islamabad failed to procure additional F-16s from the United States.

Pakistani air force at present is made of four different types of fighter aircraft and fly’s Vintage Dassault Mirage-5s, Chinese-manufactured F-7s, Lockheed Martin F-16s and Chinese JF-17 Thunder which they license assembled in Pakistan and is powered by a Russian supplied Klimov RD-93 Afterburning Turbofan engine.

PAF in its History has never operated Soviet-Russian make of fighter aircraft but in past has operated Shenyang J-6 which is the Chinese-built version of the Soviet MiG-19 ‘Farmer’ fighter aircraft and present operates Chengdu J-7 which is a license-built version of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21.

In Past due to India growing relations with the United States. Russia finally showed the willingness to sell advanced hardware with Pakistan despite Moscow’s longstanding ties with India which lead to Mi-17-1 and Mi-35M deals with Pakistan. Pakistan now wants to up defense cooperation and procure fighter aircraft directly from Russia. Whats interesting is that Pakistan has shown no interest in procurement of unlicensed copies of Sukhoi fighter aircraft which China already manufactures presently for its air force.

Shenyang J-11 copy of Sukhoi Su-27, Shenyang J-16 copy of Russian Sukhoi Su-30MKK and Shenyang J-15 unlicensed Chinese development of the Russian Su-33 Flanker-D all have been evaluated by Pakistani air force pilots under the various pilot exchange program between the two countries and buzz for years now has been that Pakistanis were not exactly happy with their sub-par performance and instead where asking Chinese to clear export of J-10 fighter aircraft which Chinese government has barred from exports.

Unlicensed Chinese development of Sukhoi Su-27,30 and 33 initially was seen as a Game changer by the western defense analysts who thought that this new 4.5 generation aircraft will come as an additional force multiplier to the Chinese air force but over the years Chinese media locally were critical of this aircrafts and now even the government of China is more or less convinced that reversed engineered copies are plan disasters and instead is shifting focus back on local fighter programs.

Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark which is a new carrier-based fighter aircraft already has suffered a number of high-profile crashes due to technical issues with the aircraft’s engines and flight control system. indigenous Shenyang Liming WS-10H engines too have serious reliability issues that Chinese pilots prefer Russian Salyut AL-31F engines over their copies which probably is one reason why China still continues to buy them from Russia even after claiming it to be a total success of their copies years ago.

J-11 and J-15 design too suffer from serious design flaws due to traditional limitations inherent to reverse engineering methodology. In the Initial phase, aircraft looks and feels just like the original but when pushed into regular service that’s when issues start cropping up mechanically which are difficult to fix when you just copied it from some other aircraft without going through in-depth design data collections.
****/pakistani-obsession-with-sukhoi-35-shows-how-bad-chinese-sukhoi-copies-are/#more-178728
 
More than 100 Wing Loong II armed drones sold for export
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According to a television report of the Chinese national channel CCTV-13 on August 1 this year, "more than 100 Wing Loong II drones are sold today in the international market" but no other details 'has been disclosed. The show focused instead on what China calls "civil-military cooperation," a concept that is largely applied to the mass production of the Chinese armed drone.
The Institut 611 and Usine 132 CAC today manage more than 100 external suppliers for the supply of the 130 subsystems of a Wing Loong II drone. The production line currently has a hundred or so staff, mostly engineers, for a production rate of 24 devices per year currently.
Chinese aircraft manufacturers plan to invest one billion yuan (~ € 127 million) over 3 years to increase their design and production capacity, and reach the pace 30 in the near future in Chengdu.


Four times heavier than the previous Wing Loong I, which made its first flight in October 2007, the Wing Loong II, with a maximum takeoff weight of 4,200 kg, has made China the second-largest country in the world capable of build a Medium Altitude and Long Endurance (MALE) armed drone in this template.
This new version is 11 meters long, 4.1 meters high and 20.5 meters wide. It is capable of flying up to 9,000 meters above sea level, with a top speed of 370 km / h. With a larger size and a new turboprop of Chinese origin, the Wing Loong II can carry 480 kg of weapons on its 6 points of carriage, ie 12 ammunition Air-Sol in total, for missions of identification and typing.
For reconnaissance missions, it can count on a complete optronic suite equipped with TV, IR and laser channels, as well as a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The autonomy of the drone is given at 20 hours in flight when the device is fully armed.

The entry into service of the Chinese hypersonic drone?

60 is the number of messages to aircrafts (NOTAM) that would correspond to high supersonic or hypersonic tests possible in China that we recorded between September 2015 and early July this year. While not all of them are necessarily linked to the ultra-high-speed reconnaissance drone project developed by the 611 Chengdu Institute, the latest satellite photos dating back two months still seem to suggest that the machine would have already entered service at within the Chinese armed forces.



On the image taken probably in Malan (马兰) / Hoxud (和 硕) in Xinjiang province on June 7, we can see several different models of drone lining up in front of the hangars.

Most of these drones remain more or less recognizable, for example we identify the MALE Wing Loong II (or CH-5) drone with its long-range wing that has sold a hundred copies to customers in the Middle East , the EA-03 used by the Navy and the Chinese Air Force for strategic reconnaissance that is easily distinguished by its rhomboid wings, the supposed CH-3 with a pair of ducks in the front, or the ASN-301 anti-radiation drone derived from the Israeli Harpy.

But one of them, a black triangular drone, is totally unrecognizable and has apparently never appeared publicly until now. A quick comparison with the other drones alongside shows that the craft is about 12.1 meters long for a wingspan of 5.6 meters.

The physical aspect of this mysterious drone thus suggests that it is rather designed for a high flight speed. The image analysis also suggests that it is powered, possibly with a RBCC or TBCC type motor.

These first elements converge towards the project of a hypersonic drone revealed three years ago by an article in the newspaper China Aviation News , a daily newspaper of the Chinese manufacturer AVIC. Several elements of this hypersonic project have already been studied in our file " The Chinese hypersonic drone finally revealed? And recent clues also suggest that small-scale production of this drone may have already begun .

Patent extract of a multi-layer thermal insulation for "high-speed cruising vehicle in near space"
Extract from the patent of a GSE dedicated to a "machine of large surface area"

Of course we have to wait for other institutional elements to confirm the link between this drone appeared in early June in the satellite images and the so-called project of the 611 Chengdu Institute, but it is virtually certain that no matter the true nature of the the fact that it is located in the Air Base Unit 95835, which is responsible for training and transforming pilots and drone operators for the Chinese Air Force , means that the project has at least has reached a certain technical maturity and has either already entered active service or is in the process of becoming active.
 
Livraison de la 1ère structure tout composite du drone Wing Loong I-D | East Pendulum
screencapture-eastpendulum-livraison-de-la-1ere-structure-tout-composite-du-drone-wing-loong-i...png


China ‘nears mass production’ of J-20 stealth fighter as engine issue fixed

A new and improved engine designed to make China’s J-20 stealth fighter a world-class combat jet should be ready for mass production by the end of the year, military sources have said.

The WS-15 engine features cutting-edge single-crystal turbine blades and has been in development for several years, but Chinese technicians have struggled to get it into mass production.

However, many of the problems – which largely related to blades overheating at top speeds – have been ironed out in ground tests and trial flights, putting the goal of a consistently high quality product in sight, sources told the South China Morning Post.

Beijing is keen to have a stealth aircraft capable of competing with the best in the world as tensions rise in the Asia-Pacific and the United States ramps up deployment of its F-22 and F-35 fighters in the region.

The WS-15 is expected to be ready for widespread installation in the J-20s by the end of this year,” one of the sources said.

Although some “minor problems” remained, these should be resolved once the engine had been more “extensively run in the aircraft”, the source said.

Beijing-based military expert Zhou Chenming said that China expected the US to deploy between 200 and 300 F-35s – its most advanced stealth fighter – in the Asia-Pacific by 2025, which meant “China needs a similar number of J-20s, or at least 200”.

Twelve F-35s arrived at the US Air Force’s Kadena Air Base in Japan in November, while South Korea said it planned to take delivery of 40 of the fighters this year.

A second military source said that the problems with the WS-15 needed to be resolved before large numbers of the J-20 could be manufactured.

China currently has about 20 J-20s, which is far from enough,” the source said. “[Having] a home-grown engine is a must for the J-20 to enter mass production, as no other country would be prepared to give China such cutting-edge technology.”

The sources’ claims add weight to an April report by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) that said Chengdu Aerospace Corporation, which manufactures the J-20, was set to open a fourth production line for the stealth fighter in 2019.

And last month CCTV reported that China’s air force had stepped up its training programme for J-20 pilots.

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The People’s Liberation Army said that the J-20 entered combat service on February 9 and had been working alongside other fourth-generation aircraft, such as the J-16 and J-10 fighters and the H-6K strategic bomber. In May it took part in island encirclement drills around Taiwan.

The Post reported in February that the J-20 at that time was fitted with a “stopgap” engine.

One of the military sources said the public could get its first glimpse of the new stealth fighter, complete with its upgraded engine, at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition later in the year.

The event, which is held every two years, is set to run from November 5 to 11, in Zhuhai, southern China’s Guangdong province.
 
L-15 tests two new Air-Surface ammunition
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To continue to expand the commercial offer around its new flagship product L-15, also known as the JL-10 for the version used by the Chinese army, the aircraft manufacturer Jiangxi Hongdu Aviation Industry Group not only put on the modernization of avionics suites, in particular with a variant equipped with passive electronic scanning radar (PESA) radar, but also on new precision munitions.
According to an article on the company's Weixin account, China's new advanced training aircraft has successfully tested the launch of two new types of Air-Surface ammunition in a test base in China.
Under the control of the Chinese Air Force test pilots, the L-15 prototype registered 05 fired several firing campaigns from three different altitudes and launched several YJ-9E anti-ship missiles and planing bombs. TL-20 dedicated to export. The Hongdu text indicates that all systems worked in a nominal manner, and the guided munitions hit their targets successfully.


Still according to the same article, the L-15 has already tested three different ammunition models for Air-Sol and Air-Mer precision striking. The YJ-9E's successful tests will now be able to "push export", while the TL-20 tests have enabled Hongdu to complete the evaluation of some key technologies, thus expanding the range of guided ammunition from small diameter and improve the competitiveness of the aircraft manufacturer in this segment of the market.
Although this is not explicitly stated, but these few lines from the Chinese manufacturer suggest that at least one L-15 prospect would be interested in the aircraft's anti-ship strike capability - so it would probably be a country in a coastal zone - and that Hongdu would also like to develop a range of small ammunition to increase the attack capacity of the L-15 despite its relatively low carry.

YJ-9 on a Chinese Navy Z-9D (Photos: PLA Navy)

YJ-9E, the export version of the YJ-9, at the Zhuhai Air Show.
The YJ-9E is the export version of the YJ-9 already in service with the Chinese Armed Forces. Some of the Chinese Navy's Z-9D helicopters are now equipped with the 105-kilo light-weight anti-ship missile to counter the threats of Fast Attack Craft (FAC), including the Taiwan Strait and at sea. from South China.
Unlike the YJ-9, which only has an active radar search head, the YJ-9E (E for Export) has a flexible homing device that can use other types of guidance, such as TV, IR and the semi-active laser. Launched from a flying platform such as the L-15, the range of the missile is also extended up to 25 km.


As for the TL-20, which is displayed under the reference TL-20 / CK-G, it is a small diameter guided bomb of 100 kg and equipped with a glider kit. This new munition developed by Hongdu itself was first shown at the Zhuhai Air Show in 2016, and then in South Africa with the Zambian L-15Zs at the Africa Aerospace & Defense Show held at the Air Base. Waterkloof near Johannesburg.
According to the data published by the manufacturer, TL-20 is 1.42 meters long and 0.24 meters in diameter. The planing bomb has a multi-mode guide, GPS / INS and semi-active laser, but it seems to be missing in the tests of September 18 from photos released by Hongdu.
The range of this small diameter ammunition is displayed at 85 km, and the accuracy between 20 meters (GPS / INS only) and 1 meter (mixed guidance). It should be noted that TL-20 has already been tested in flight under a Chinese drone.


http://www.china.org.cn/business/2018-10/02/content_64603385.htm

 
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