Saturday, March 29, 2008

Latest news from PLA

First, we saw some final photos of 054As in HP and HD before joining SSF. It's kind of surprising that they have still yet to officially be commissioned into the force. I guess there's been some typical problems from being the first batch of 4. These are some of the its photos from HP:



And here are some from HD:


Not only is 054A there, but we've also seen pictures of F-22P. Looks like a lot of progress has been made:


What's more, we finally saw HH-16 firing off from VLS cells on test ship. It finally shows us that HH-16 is hot-launched rather than cold-launched like on HH-9.

I seems like the second batch of 054A might finally be building in HP and HD shipyards. I would say that in a couple of months, we would have conclusive pictures on this matter. And it would be interesting to see if there is any visible changes between the first and second batch.

Recently, the HKB (aviation newspaper) wrote an article about the 10th anniversary of J-10's maiden flight. It's hard to believe that it's being this considering J-10 only was unveiled over a year ago. But I think the bigger news came out later this week when a big shrimp mentioned that the improved J-10 is about to go for its maiden flight. According to many of the speculations, there is supposed to be a huge upgrade in the flight control system, avionics and radar of J-10. The change in stealthiness and maneuverability is probably not as dramatic as many of us hoped. There is no question that J-10 has already had many avionics upgrades, but this will supposedly be a generational improvement of the avionics to level of Rafale/Typhoon. This upgrade should be the bridge between the current generation of J-10/J-11B with the 5th generation plane.

10 comments:

timurelame said...

J-10 may be getting PESA radar.

Feng said...

From what I know, they seem to be going directly from mechanically scanned to AESA. The improvement from PD radar to PESA is apparently not significant enough for PLA.

Jiang said...

I would love to see J-10 with AESA, and better WS-10A engine. The electronics on J-10 is already much better than SU-30 so after getting AESA, I really don't see any chances at all for PLAF to get the Overated SU-35BM.

Don't you think so, Feng?

BTW, I heard that our PLAF is about to have exercise with BAF(Bhindian air force). If so, what plane will we send? I know that the Bhindis will sent their so called Su-30MKBhindia their so called SUPER FIGHTER of the Universe. What about us, will we send J-11B or J-10A?

timurelame said...

How about JH-7A and J-8F? Everyone must be happy. The Indians may want to bring their LCAs too.

So many planes and so little time.

Feng said...

I don't want to turn this into a china vs india kind of blog. But in my opinion, there is no chance that you will see j-11b or j-10 against india. china will send either the upgraded SKs, MKKs or J-8F. If there is program for strike missions, then jh-7a will appear.

as for su-35, i always said there was no need for it. as j-11 progress, getting upgraded engines, better radar and avionics, I just don't see what advantage su-35 really has.

timurelame said...

I would like to see the JH-7B upgrades. May be another 3 to 5years?

Feng said...

it should come out soon I guess and then that should be the end, in the future, J-11 should take over what JH-7 is doing right now.

Jiang said...

Indeed, Feng. China and Bhindia are so different. The bhindis alwasys want to show their best to satisgy their sick ego and to cover the fact that they are sooooooo backward and poor. While China do not, so you will never know what China really has thus never turly understand China thus not DARE TO ATTACK CHINA.

About Su-35bm, I really think it is sooooo overrated, it is a simply a Su-27 with better engine, radar, and electronics. The Su-35bm just shows how desperate the russians are that they are no longer capable of developing advanced fighters on their own that they need others money too to complete the jobs. Also, russia's top general visit China recently, he wants to solve the China-russia arms sell problem, where China has stopped buying russian junks since 2006. This also shows the russians are liars and bluffing that they do not need China's arms market. The reality is that russia despreatlly need China's arms market because it is soooo much better than bhindia's and the rest of the world's since China can not buy weapons from US and EU so there are much less competition from China's arms market. Yet the russians still Fu@ked up by selling junks to China, thinking China will buy their junks forever. Now they are begging China to buy their weapons. Isn't this true Feng?

And last for the large transport. If the russians can not fullfill their own contract where will China get large transports, because developing large transport might take 8 to 10 years and now we really need them to make more AWAC and to transport more troops.
What do you suggest Feng?

timurelame said...

I think the Russians may be quite concerned about the Il-76/Il-78
issue. It is to the benefits of both sides to resolve this as soon as possible.

I think by 2020, there will not be much arms imports from Russia to China, since by then the Chinese will have caught up technologically with Russia as far as military hardware is concerned.

There will not be any war between China and India. The Indians have a different mindset in regards to the military. No need to compare apples and oranges.

Feng said...

well, by popular request, I'm writing one on the possible deals after the lifting of arms embargo. Again, I don't really want to say China is better than India or anything like that. Why compare? China's real concerns are all on the East side. As of now, PLAN is still not in JMSDF's league and also technologically behind ROKN. So for all the stories about PLAN buildup, its not even equal to JMSDF let alone USN 7th fleet.

As for technologically equivalence with Russians, I don't really see that as their goal. Their ultimate goal has to be to match the best that the Americans have to offer. It's a high goal, but there is no way around it.