Possible night/dusk operation near then end of the video?
China Flanker Thread II
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Possible night/dusk operation near then end of the video?
Engineer
Major
Here is something I said over at the PLAN Aircraft Carrier thread about a month ago:
We now see footage of J-15 training with dummy ordinances. I hope we get to see footage of night training soon.
If J-15 keeps the internal layout of the Su-27 family than it can carry 12 tons of internal fuel.
I will assume J-15 will have no problem taking off in STOBAR with a full internal fuel load and some light AA load. If J-15 does have problems with even this, then it is really seriously crippled by STOBAR even in its basic role, and Liaoning's ability to maintain even a combat air patrol over the fleet would be weaker than it appears because its fighters would not have even the type's nominal staying power over the fleet.
Given it can take off with full fuel load and a AA load, this suggests the J-15 has a large amount of room, at least 8-10 tons, to trade fuel weight for additional weapon weight if it must get AshM and A2G audinance weight into the air. So I think it was always ridiculous to suggest J-15 had no capability to launch with AshM or A2G load out. I would never have fallen out of my chair if I saw pictures of J-15 taking off from Liaoning with 18 1000 lbs bombs. For a short demo flight flight, I would have no doubt the J-15 can get into the air in STOBAR mode with 9 tons of ordinance dummies and only 4 tons of fuel, enough to jetison the dummies and circle around for a landing.
The real question is how muchweapon load J-15 can take off with with a full fuel load, or coversely, how much internal fuel must it sacrafice for each given level of ordinance load. Sure, J-15 can probably launch 2 or 4 AshMs plus some AAM load, or several tons of smart bombs. But, can the J-15 with 4 AshM, taking off in STOBAR mode, outrage a F/A-18 with 4 Harpoons and benefiting from CATOBAR?
If both aircraft took off from a long land runway, then J-15 almost surely can handily outrange the F/A-18 with equivalent load. But with STOBAR for J-15 and CATOBAR for F/A-18, it's not clear. I suspect it can't.
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Check out the (3000 L???) external fuel tank! Uncommon sight on a flanker.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Check out the (3000 L???) external fuel tank! Uncommon sight on a flanker.
Might not be a fuel tank, could be a buddy refuelling pod.
Hyperwarp
Captain
kwaigonegin
Colonel
You maybe onto something there...
That is definitely a refueling pod. It would significantly extend the legs of the J-15s with buddy refueling. 1 or 2 may act as tankers while the rest would TO with full ordnance loads but much less fuel assuming MTOW off the skijump is less than ideal.
So there's the answer to the 54 dollar question, we all knew it any way, but some want to believe, what they want, and don't want to be confused by the facts. brat
A refuelling pod would definitely add great flexibility to the liaoning's airwing. If they cannot or choose not to take off with large loads (or perhaps sacrifice fuel weight for ordnance), they can too up from an orbiting J-15 refuelled instead.
A refuelling pod can also be used to top up returning J-15s as they wait to land, which I've read is a common USN practice.
But there's a chance that thing is merely an optical illusion or may just be a fuel pod without the refuelling capability — which would be interesting because we've never seen any flanker with standard fuel pods before
A refuelling pod can also be used to top up returning J-15s as they wait to land, which I've read is a common USN practice.
But there's a chance that thing is merely an optical illusion or may just be a fuel pod without the refuelling capability — which would be interesting because we've never seen any flanker with standard fuel pods before
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