Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Most recent PLA news

I guess the two big news today are the unveiling of J-10 to 51 countries and Japan getting alarmed about PLAN moving past Okinawa.

Although it made some errors like the F-16 price tag, this Times Online Article pretty much contains all of the contents mentioned in all similar articles. Important points that we know from the past few days:
  • From 24th division, 70th regiment
  • More pilots than plane (1.2 pilot per plane)
  • Flyaway cost of J-10 is 190 million RMB, around $27 million at current exchange rate
  • Maximum load is 9G
  • Take-off/landing distance is 350 to 650 m
  • Has 11 hard points

The pictures below show J-10s from the 70th regiment of the 24th division flying during the day and night. It also shows foreign military attachés getting up-close look at the cockpit of J-10 and a photo of J-10's radar.






As for the incident with Japan, it was significant because the North Sea Fleet actually send a fleet consisting of a 051C, several 053s and tugboat to Malacca Straits after 6000 nm. This really just represents a continuing shift toward more blue water activities for PLAN. Japan better get used to it, because China is not violating any international laws in trying to gain more blue water experience in international waters.

11 comments:

dylan said...

Err - don't know where you get your information from but it was an ESF formation off Okinawa. No 051Cs!

ao said...

What's there to be surprised about? PLA passed Okinawa 5 times last year. Since Japan did nothing but protest, China's doing it again. It's the law of bullying. Now if China sent a 052C, that'd be something.

And for the record, the J-10 is just too expensive.

timurelame said...

The PLAN needs larger and more heavily armed destroyers in order to become a blue water navy.

The J10s still need further technical development to become viable in the international market.

timurelame said...

The PLAAF urgently needs to develop the large transport planes, the future bombers, and larger helicopters. The fighters are not the key to its future.

Feng said...

J-10 at $27 million is cheaper than any comparable fighter jets out there. They are paying over $100 million per F-16 when including the whole package of weapons, spare engines and servicing. J-10 even including everything won't get to $50 million.

dylan, check http://www.hobbyshanghai.net/viewthread.php?tid=24280&extra=page%3D1
There were two fleets that passed by. One was NSF, second was ESF.

dylan said...

Thanks Feng, I see that you are talking about the fleet that passed by back in March.

Applesauce said...

what the... that times article is terrible...

so much wrong information on it, who calls the j-10 "Annihilator 10" anyways?

"China could take a major leap forward when it finally unveils its fourth-generation J11"

what? j-11 is china build su-27's since when is it 5th gen??? (4th gen in china) also j-11 is around for a while now ie unveiled long ago, they talking about jxx here???

also "$50 million per plane paid by India"

since when did india ever get f-16's????

Type99 said...

Feng, what do you make of Radar from the picture? Any opinion will be useful.

Jiang said...

That radar looks much much more advanced than SU-30MKK's radar but still not as good as the Irbis radar.

China needs to get AESA done as soon as possible, by then J-10 will be equivalent to EF-2000 and Rafale.

Feng said...

The radar just looks like an advanced slotted array radar. It looks fairly modern. It is kind of what I expected if you have seen KLJ-7 or any other radar they have exhibited.

Type99 said...

Cheers for reply