Sunday, May 18, 2008

Helicopters in the rescue efforts

So, the recent tragic events in the Sichuan region has touched many of us. It has also revealed one of the weakest part of China and PLA's modernization. The SAR and transport fleet for PLA is really lacking. More importantly, China still does not have enough helicopters. The following excerpts in Chinese give a good idea of what PLA is contributing:

昌飞公司全力以赴保障抗灾救灾直升机使用

来  源:
责任编辑:古新萍

2008年05月14日 【字体大小:大 中 小】


5月12日四川汶川地震灾害发生后,13日上午,昌飞公司接到驻厂空军代表室通知,南空8架直8K型直升机、十五军4架直8KA型直升机己经进入应急救援待命状态。昌飞公司领导立即召开了抗灾救灾应急救援直升机保障会议,当前一切工作以保障抗灾抢险为中心,对即将执行任务的12架搜救和运输直升机从人力资源、备件以及技术支持等方面做好了充分的安排,全力保障机队应急救援任务的完成,坚决做好售后服务和保障工作,履行军工企业服务国家、服务社会、服务人民的神圣职责,完成党和国家交给的抗灾抢险任务。(许国荣)

8K!

我航空救生部队首次参加抗震救灾

特约记者 伍轶 记者 谭洁
2008-05-16 20:07:15 来源:中国军网

我航空救生部队形成战斗力后首次在抗震救灾一线亮相,便以其高超的专业技能和先进的搜救装备大展身手,迅速搭建起抢救生命的空中通道。今天下午,记者登上某型专业搜救直升机,紧急飞赴地震重灾区绵竹运送物资和抢运伤员。

起飞!直升机拔地而起。"看,我们正在沿着这条红线飞。"
领航员段延超指着驾驶舱右下方的多普勒导航计算机告诉记者,陌生空域和航线都难不住他们,只要将着陆点的经纬度输入,沿着电子地图上的航线飞。

一望无际的云海、座座高山翠绿的褶皱间,直升机灵活地钻着山沟。这时,透过舷窗望去,白茫茫一片,能见度越来越低。"我们有明亮的眼睛--气象雷达,能显示一两百公里以外的气象情况。气象条件再恶劣也有充足的时间避开危险区域。专业搜救直升机上的应急飘浮系统,还可以使飞机出现险情后在水面上飘浮半小时。"团长李春辉镇定自若地说。

没有地面引导,没有对空指挥,茫茫大山中,如何保持信息畅通、准确搜索目标、确定机降位置?空中机械师张世峰不慌不忙在"对空广播"上插上话筒,开始向地面广播和喊话。"先进通信手段还有不少,紧急情况下可以用救生电台保持空地联络。"
他同时启动红外成像设备上下左右360度旋转搜索目标。"发现目标,准备降落!"

直升机平稳降落在重灾区的一块平地上,旋翼飞转,掀起阵阵旋风……等候已久的灾区群众马上聚集上来,开始紧张工作,随即,飞机盘旋升空,翻越一座座山岭,直飞成都。

截至目前,该团分布在2个机场4个机型战机已经出动23个架次,运送16名医护人员到灾区,成功运出58名受伤群众,给灾区带去了近10吨药品和食品等物资。

(中国军网成都5月16日电)

总参增调90余架直升机往灾区救援
因为天气转好,而且由于现场的道路情况短时间内无法改善,无论救援人员物资的的运送还是重伤员的转移,直升机都是最好的工具,因此总参从各军区调配90余架直升机,加上民航调派的估计有100多架直升机会加入救灾行列。

希望这次灾难能让我军及民航能更加的重视直升机建设,更多!更快!更强!

米-26今晨南下入川救灾
超大型直升机出动救灾http://www.huanqiu.com 来源:哈尔滨新闻网
正在加格达奇执行任务的国内目前唯一一架世界最大的直升机——米26直升机于昨晚返哈,经过短暂的检修维护后,今晨起程南下

哈尔滨新闻网讯(吴庆梅 黄丽娟 记者
王方遒)昨天下午2时许,两架直9直升机从哈飞机场腾空而起,奔赴4000多公里之外的四川地震灾区。作为哈尔滨飞机工业集团赴四川抗震救灾机队的"先行官",它们将与其他5位"同门兄弟"一起投身抗震救灾战斗。

根据中国民航局部署,哈飞将派出7架(首批派出4架)直升机赴川接受国家抗震救灾指挥部调遣。

14日下午接到民航局调度命令后,哈飞立即决定由集团所属飞龙专业航空公司执行这一任务。昨天中午11时30分,7110号直9直升机从内蒙古扎兰屯赶回。维修和检修后,就同另一架直9紧急南飞。

同日下午,飞龙公司一架正在吉林执行任务的小松鼠直升机已直接赶往四川广汉机场。正在加格达奇执行任务的国内目前唯一一架世界最大的直升机——米26直升机于昨晚返哈,经过短暂的检修维护后,将于今晨起程南下。南下"第二梯队"也将在最快的时间集结到位,飞赴抗震救灾第一线。

另悉,目前有多架哈飞生产的飞机、直升机和三角翼飞行器奋战在四川抗震救灾一线。除直9系列直升机积极参与人员、物资运送外,运12系列通用飞机和三角翼飞行器也参与了空中遥感和观测等任务,为抗震救灾指挥安上了"千里眼"。

全军就12个陆航团,除去轻型直升机这次家底也抽的差不多了
南空搜救团和15军直8KA也已经上了

一、征用以下单位的部分直升机参加抗震救灾行动:东方通用航空公司米171、S76 或S92 等型直升机共计6架;江苏华宇通用航空公司A119、米171 等型直升机2 架;中信海洋直升机股份有限公司AS332、EC155、EC225、S365等型直升机12 架(其中备份1 架);南航珠海直升机分公司S76型直升机6 架(其中备份1 架);哈尔滨飞龙专业航空公司米8、米26、直九等型直升机6 架(其中备份2 架);新疆开元通用航空公司米8 直升机2 架,共征用30 架,备份4 架原地待命。

You can see that PLA is sending 8 Z-8K from the 26th division and 4 Z-8KA from the 15th army over. Z-8K serves the role of SAR in PLAAF, whereas Z-8KA seems like heavy transports(don't have the SAR equipments). From what I can see, Z-8K series seems to be the domestic extension of Z-8F. Although not mentioned in the above quote, they sent out many of their Mi-8, Mi-171 and S-70 for this rescue mission. HAMC even sent a couple of their Z-9s + China's only Mi-26 over their to do relief. Including the 30 SAR helicopters of civilian ministries, 1/5 of all Chinese helicopters have been sent to disaster relief. Even so, they only have about 110 helicopters in the area and the sortie rate according to most people isn't so great. And worst of all, some of these helicopters, including Mi-26, are not even flown by Chinese. This disaster in many ways really have shown the weakness in PLA's helicopter force. PLAAF certainly needs to not only build up its helicopter force but also train the pilots needed to operate them.

With Mi-171 being so prominent in the recent rescue efforts, it really shows that China made a good decision in getting the local assembly for the helicopter. I suppose they will continue to build Z-8Ks, but it really doesn't make too much sense in the future to have both platforms unless Z-8s are specifically built for PLAN.

Aside of that, just some of the pictures from the past week. The third hull of Yuan is now in sea trials. Here are some of the photos for it.



And here are some pictures of 810, the minesweeper


And finally, 774 might be coming back to service soon.

21 comments:

bigdaddy said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jiang said...

Feng, I found something interesting on the internet. Here visit this site. ( http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Flanker.html ). It basically says that Su-30 are way better than F-18E/F and even superior than F-35 in terms of air to air!!! LOL, LMFAO. They think so because Su-35 and Su-30 has longer range radar and they even say that R-27 is better than Aim-120C. Can you believe that? Feng I would like you to comment on this one and please clear something out for me. Right Now I can NEVER TRUST THE russians.

At first the russians say we Chinese will buy their JUNK Destoryer the Sovermmetry class, then they say we will buy more Kilo, then they say we want Tu-23, now they say we want their JUNK SU-33 and Su-35BM. But none of these things have come true!!! Also, the russian weapons such as tanks, air- planes always get their A@@ kicked buy western ones. How can we possiblly believe them now??

bigdaddy said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jiang said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Feng said...

well, I would not accept anything Kopp said. He typically overly emphasize the flanker threat to pressure Australian gov't to buy F-22.

Anonymous said...

Hey feng, what Chinese military BBS do you usually go to?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

sorry about double posting, I had some problem with my internet.

Feng said...

no problem, i visit quite a few.

I do CD, XH, XF and FY. I get whatever information I think is helpful. Generally, it takes a while for anyone to build up a reputation with me. The best sources when it comes to PLAN are still the pictures and the open sources.

Jiang said...

Feng, how come that the Austrilans can buy F-22 while the Japanese can not?? Is it has to do with race?

I know that the Americans want to sell the F-22 badly because they lack money right now to aquire more. But the Congress has a law that prohibit the selling of F-22.

BTW, Feng, how long do you think our J-14 will be ready?? Cause this is one important project, we have to use J-14 to counter F-22 from US, Japan, and even Austrilia.

Jiang said...

Feng, I have one more question. All the Su-30MKK are still they way they are when they are bought, they have not gone through any upgrades right?? If this is true, then I really do not see any chance that our Air Force will use in any future conflicts at all. Cause even JH-7A has better performance. To be honest with you I think the Taiwan's F-16 can easily score a 5-1 kill ratio against Su-30MKK!!

Feng said...

who told you Australians can buy F-22s?

As for mkk, they probably put in some upgrades. I wouldn't worry about them, the important part is for plaaf to find the right way to use them?

Jiang said...

Feng, what is the right way to use them? Maybe ground attack? The only way I can think of is that our missiles strike take out most of Taiwan's air-fields and air-defense systems. Then our subs move in to block Taiwan, after that our J-10A/B and J-11A or J-11B move in to gain air-superioity. If we can achieve air dominace then, we can use MKK, but if we can only gain air-superioty not dominace, then JH-7A is much better than MKK cause JH-7A's avionics and stealth is far better than MKK thus JH-7A has higher surviorbility!

I think to use MKK, we should place the MKK near China-Vietname boarder, cause Vietanme's air force is pretty weak. Or place them near China-North Koera boarder, just in case if South Koera attack North, the MKK can go into North Koera to provide some ground attack support cause inside North Koera is far safer than going into South Koera, Right?

Jiang said...

Feng, I just checked out Taiwan's F-16, they are pretty good. MUCH better than Pakistan's F-16. Taiwan's F-16 is close to F-16 block-40 standard, and can track 10 targets and attack 6 at the same time! JUNK MKK can only attack 2. To be honest with you, I think Taiwan's F-16 can achieve a 1-1 kill ratio against the Su-30MKI in air to air. So as I said, send in MKK against Taiwan's F-16 is Fu#kTard! However, I think our J-10A/B can handle the F-16 pretty well.

Jiang said...

Feng, I am interested in our Bomber fleet. I know that currently our best is the H-6K. But that is not enough to satisfy our demand, in order to have a three dememsional strike capability(air, sea, land) we need a long range bomber. Yet the stupid russians offer us Tu-95 bear which itself is a worthless JUNK! They also offered us Tu-22M3, but again Tu-22M3 Ain't soo impreeeive neither, cause its range is the same as H-6k and its avionis is not even close to H-6k still in the early 1980's standard, the only advantage it has is its speed. So, Feng I really do not see another option cause the russian will not sell Tu-160. We have to develope a long range bomber. If we are to do so, what charater do you think it will have? Also, how good will it be compare to the TU-160 or the B-1B, and how long will it take?

Feng said...

MKK should have better survivability than JH-7A due to its much better flight performance. Remember, JH-7A's flight performance is not even as good as F-2. And certainly, I wouldn't say anything about stealth regarding to it. As much as I like the platform, it really has a limit. MKK may not be as good as J-10/11B, but it's still a good 4th generation plane and have longer range and greater payload than anything in plaaf other than jh-7a. And again, any twin-seater strike bomber version of J-11 will look a lot like MKK.

Again, don't get overexcited about everything you see, the number of concurrent engagement for a fighter is a very small part of the fighter. The range under TWS mode should be greater for MKK than F-16.

And I hold not too much hope for H-6K. It has it's purpose, but it's not an advanced platform by any means. Nothing to write home about.

Jiang said...

What about Tu-22M3 how good is it compare to H-6K??

Feng said...

as a platform, it should be better, but China is not going to buy old air frames that use only Russian missiles/avionics.

Jiang said...

Anytghing new???

Hey, Feng have you noticed that BigStupidWhiteGuy is gone. That is good, I hope no more idoits will ever pollute this blog again.

Jiang said...

BTW, Feng. How good is our S-300PMU2 compare to the PAC-2??? and How many Su-300 systems do we have and how many HQ-9A do we have???

Jammer said...

If I understood it correctly, they're working on a new aircraft that can fly 6900 nautical miles? Any guesses on what type of aircraft? Transport or (stealth)bomber?