China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft
- Thread starter Totoro
- Start date
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Anybody can confirm the estimate number of Y 20?
A recent article on Chinese news platform Guancha.cn said more than 70 of the Y-20s are in operation, with the total expected to soon exceed triple digits, putting China on course for the second-biggest fleet of military transport planes after the United States.
A recent article on Chinese news platform Guancha.cn said more than 70 of the Y-20s are in operation, with the total expected to soon exceed triple digits, putting China on course for the second-biggest fleet of military transport planes after the United States.
Just for a quick jot-down, and only for airlifters.
Since China does not have an equivalent airlifter to the C-5M Super Galaxy, therefore I would just use the rough equivalent of 1 C-5M Super Galaxy = 2 C-17 Globemaster, since a C-5M can carry 2 Abrams while a C-17 can carry only 1 Abrams.
The USAF currently has:
52 C-5M Super Galaxy (x2 for the sake of equivalence) = 104 "C-17 Globemaster" strategic airlifter;
227 C-17 Globemaster strategic airlifter;
190 C-130 Hercules tactical airlifter; and
136 C-130J Super Hercules tactical airlifter.
Total would be 331 strategic airlifters and 326 tactical airlifters currently in service with the USAF.
The PLAAF currently has:
~55 Y-20 strategic airlifter (assuming 15 out of the 70 quoted above being the refueling variant);
24 IL-76MD strategic airlifter;
~30 Y-9 tactical airlifter; and
~81 Y-8 tactical airlifter.
Total would be at least 79 strategic airlifters and at least 111 tactical airlifters currently in service with the PLAAF.
To compare, the PLAAF's strategic airlifter fleet size is around 24% that of the USAF, while the PLAAF's tactical airlifter fleet size is around 34% that of the USAF.
It is true that China has a signficiant home-front advantage as the PLA does not need to travel halfway across the globe. So this ain't a d1ck size measuring contest.
However, I believe in the worst case scenario where China needs to deal with two fronts (Himalaya and Western Pacific), the airlifter fleet in the PLAAF should reach at least 75% that of the USAF. Or even 50-60% as the bare minimum to fulfill the arduous demand for a strong military logistical chain during wartime.
As I have mentioned in this post (Chinese UAV & UCAV development), good military logistics in the rear is just as vital as good battle tactics and strategies on the frontline. You don't win a war on empty stomachs and empty magazines.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Abrams is rarely flown anywhere. It happens but air deployment of MBT is a very rare very special very niche duty. Most MBT movement overseas happens by ship.
For the Himalayas, more roads and railways would work out better.
And in the Western Pacific, more ships would work better.
Aircraft just have so little payload compared to the cost.
55-60 total airframes of Y-20 as of now. Xian has speed up the production of Y-20 after WS-20 engine being put into production.MBD and pulsating assembly lines will eventually help a lot. within few years, PLAAF will have large fleet of Y-20.
here are the two different sets of satellite images. you can count the number of Y-20Bs.
edit - WS-20 is in great demand. Shenyang institute has already begun working on advance variant. original design was meant to be 40,000 lbs thrust but being the first high bypass engine project in PRC history and initial difficulty, they decided to play safe. and this base variant has maximum take off thrust is 160kn with bypass ratio is 6 and front fan exceed 2.1 meters. new variant will have 2.5-2.7 meter front fan , bypass ratio will increase and thrust can be around 45,000-50,000 lbs.
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True.
Although, for the Western Pacific scenario, I mainly refers to the Taiwan scenario.
