China Flanker Thread III (land based, exclude J-15)
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Speaking of flankers, Deino what’s your view on PLAAF’s deployment of J-16D? We’re seeing at least 2 batches produced and they are (if I remember correctly) in active service, but are they being mixed with regular J-16, say 2-4 J-16D per J-16 brigade? Or are they forming units comprising solely of J-16D which is I believe what the US Navy is doing with their growlers?
Interview with a J-16 pilot. Basically says that his J-16 has seen many upgrades since it left factory several years ago. Now, his aircraft is using the latest version.
That confirms the Yankee/Shilao comment that J-16 avionics can easily be upgraded similar to OTA upgrade with your phone or Tesla (except it probably needs to be back at the base. A lot of the upgrades are just with software.
You can only do so much on UI/Algorithm/software optimization no? At certain point dont you need to upgrade the hardware (mission computer), other computing unit to faster process/send signals? Perhaps on the AI side of things you can constantly upgrade it to reduce some pilot workload.
We don't know if the upgrades that the pilot is referring to is merely software or if it also involves elements of hardware upgrades.
It is pretty normal for modern aircraft to be designed to upgrade both hardware and software in more convenient fashion than past generations of aircraft.
So one-pedal system for J-16 confirmed? (just joking
I just want to make it clear that I'm not saying every upgrade is software. I'm just saying this confirms that they can upgrade software (probably in some cases just supporting more ground strike weapons and features) without taking them back to the factory. There is no way you can upgrade hardware once a year.
Being able to make software upgrade from base should be a feature of newly developed aircraft.
from a hardware-software prespective, since they are using the same bus, same code, so theoritically, you can update your hardware dynamically just like software, simplely, pluge in and out with minor software updates
Even in the case of hardware they are modularized and could be easily swapped out for upgrades. Lack of modularization is actually a major reason why upgrading Russian flankers is a big headache for the PLA.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
I’m pretty sure money isn’t a bottleneck these days, rather production capacity. Since J16s and missiles are not made in the same factory or use the same parts, there is no real obstacle to China buying both since there isn’t a direct trade-off between the two. The big choices seems to be in terms of what mix of planes and missiles and drones to produce. Even there China is almost going into cheat mode and selecting the ‘more of everything’ option by significantly increasing production capacity basically across the board.