Chinese UCAV/CCA/flying wing drones (ISR, A2A, A2G) thread

[Tomboy]

What are the chances of ever seeing GJ-X in a public demo, airshow or parade etc. I suppose if they are going to procure enough of it to make a difference, it's going to be in the high tens or low hundred. Would be difficult to keep a secret unlike the WZ-X which is strategic in nature and probably less than a dozen will be procured.

 

[Nevermore]

What are the chances of ever seeing GJ-X in a public demo, airshow or parade etc. I suppose if they are going to procure enough of it to make a difference, it's going to be in the high tens or low hundred. Would be difficult to keep a secret unlike the WZ-X which is strategic in nature and probably less than a dozen will be procured.

For security reasons, China's unmanned systems are not flown during military parades. A significant portion of China's future new equipment will consist of advanced drones. I'm also very curious to see how the PLA will address this issue.

 

[F=XX Corsair]

A CG image I found on the net where the missiles shown at the parade being scaled together, just to give a rough sense of their proportions, relative to the GJ-X weapons bay assuming bay length of ~7/8 meters long and the estimated dimensions of the missiles compiled by:

YJ-15: 5.26-meter total length, 0.39-meter base diameter, 0.79-meter max diameter
YJ-17: 8.34-meter total length, 0.83-meter booster diameter
YJ-18C: 6.06-meter total length, 0.51-meter max diameter
YJ-19: 7.13-meter total length, 0.53-meter booster diameter, 0.48-meter missile diameter
YJ-20: 8.43-meter total length, 0.76-meter booster diameter

YJ-18C, YJ-19, CJ-20A and YJ-21 appear closest to a believable GJ-X internal-bay form factor. The other missiles would require a new variant with slimmer and shorter boosters to fit internally without major airframe changes (treated here as if air-launched for comparison purposes)

 

[Tomboy]

A CG image I found on the net where the missiles shown at the parade being scaled together, just to give a rough sense of their proportions, relative to the GJ-X weapons bay assuming bay length of ~7/8 meters long and the estimated dimensions of the missiles compiled by:



YJ-18C, YJ-19, CJ-20A and YJ-21 appear closest to a believable GJ-X internal-bay form factor. The other missiles would require a new variant with slimmer and shorter boosters to fit internally without major airframe changes (treated here as if air-launched for comparison purposes)

View attachment 161127

Depending on how wide the bay is you could likely fit up to four cruise missle or YJ-21 type ALBM.

 

[Tomboy]

Depending on how wide the bay is you could likely fit up to four cruise missle or YJ-21 type ALBM.

Also, GJ-X would likely be the a platform for Chinese version of MOP. I don't think H-6 has the payload capacity or has the space for one.

 

[reservior dogs]

Has anyone seen the debut of J-6w? Here is one article with a write up. A while back, there were discussions on this forum about J-6 conversion. The downside is significant.
1. they use airfield which is a valuable resource (compared to other uavs which are shot into the air)
2. The cost of conversion could go up to hundreds of thousands. This compares unfavorably to other suicide drones.
3. Maintenance and storage in peace time is much more demanding compared to other drone.

Yet, the Chinese military decided to go ahead and make the conversion. Most people speculate that this is not a one time suicide drone, but an unmanned reusable bomb truck. What are your thoughts about the merits of such a conversion?

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[Tomboy]

Has anyone seen the debut of J-6w? Here is one article with a write up. A while back, there were discussions on this forum about J-6 conversion. The downside is significant.
1. they use airfield which is a valuable resource (compared to other uavs which are shot into the air)
2. The cost of conversion could go up to hundreds of thousands. This compares unfavorably to other suicide drones.
3. Maintenance and storage in peace time is much more demanding compared to other drone.

Yet, the Chinese military decided to go ahead and make the conversion. Most people speculate that this is not a one time suicide drone, but an unmanned reusable bomb truck. What are your thoughts about the merits of such a conversion?

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Already retired, also J-6 drone is old news. Been around for decades even.

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

Compared to the JH-7, GJ-11/21 should offer at least similar if not two times greater combat radius, though likely carrying a lighter payload.
Compared to the JH-7, this new GJ-X should offer several times greater combat radius with a comparable payload, or still a few time greater combat radius with something like a 10 ton internal payload.

It's not just likely, but certainly the case.

In fact, the GJ-11/21's estimated payload capacity celling is only ~2 tons, which is much less than the JH-7A's ~8 tons. Needless to say, the constrains due keeping a VLO profile being a paramount requirement for the GJ-11/21 is a key role here (as the JH-7 isn't really concerned about stealth, after all) - But the JH-7 is also somewhat larger than the GJ-11/21.

Yet, of course, this is not to say that the JH-7A doesn't come with downsides, either - For instance, those way larger payload capacity introduces greater drag (thus reduced combat range and radius) on the JH-7A, something which the GJ-11/21 doesn't really need to worry about.

Speaking of which - Right before TWZ's unveiling of the GJ-X at Malan, some of us did have a brief chit-chat about a hypothetical successor to the GJ-11/21 UCAV in this thread. Personally, I do envision that the GJ-11/21-successor UCAV to only be moderately bigger than the GJ-11/21 - I.e. about in the same size ballpark as the CH-7 if not slightly bigger (albeit no more than 30 meters), but designed to be more effective as a high-altitude, high-subsonic strike platform (e.g. steeper sweep wing angle and (perhaps also) in cranked kite configuration) rather than being an ISTAR platform - Alongside doubling or tripling the payload capacity (~4-6 tons) of the GJ-11/21.

But who would have thought that we would actually see a (potential) Chinese analogue to the B-21 today - And being an unmanned one at that?

So, for years we've heard of possible JH-XX. This may be it. But instead of a single plane to replace it, we've got a family of two separate classes.

Why do you think that there is a family of two separate classes?

 

[reservior dogs]

Already retired, also J-6 drone is old news. Been around for decades even.

I am aware that J-6 had been retired. Converting them for target drones make a lot of sense, since you want your drone to behave like a fighter aircraft. I am just pondering the large scale conversion of these aircrafts into combat drones and how they would be used in times of war.

 

[vincent]

I am aware that J-6 had been retired. Converting them for target drones make a lot of sense, since you want your drone to behave like a fighter aircraft. I am just pondering the large scale conversion of these aircrafts into combat drones and how they would be used in times of war.

PLA uses J-7 for target practice.