China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft
- Thread starter Totoro
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asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
so Y50 is a official designation for C5 Galaxy equivalent ? a enlarged Y20? how credible is this
there is certainly a scope for a ultra heavy lifter for Chinese Military
there is certainly a scope for a ultra heavy lifter for Chinese Military
That is an inflated number... Active duty is more like ~300. also US aircrafts are short legged and US cover the whole world... Chinese need is probably high double digits. Maybe very low three digits.
No.
"Y-50" is a designation made by a Chinese military fan/netizen on the assumption that China would be developing large airlifters for future use by the PLAAF some years ago. "Y-50" has never been the official designation for China's large airlifter, because there is none.
I'm the one who brought the fanmade "Y-50" designation into this thread for the sake of ease of discussion, because typing "Y-50" is much quicker than typing "China's C-5-class large airlifter/transport aircraft".
However, regarding the large airlifter itself - What we do know that such project allegedly does exists, and is now WIP. But that's all we know.
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Preferably somewhere between 100 and 150. At maximum, 200.
But what China does need right now is more YY-20s in order to allow sustaining Desert Storm-like operational intensity becomes closer to reality. So that number should do.
Well, based on the USAF, my understanding is that a single tanker can support 4 fighter-sized aircraft on a mission.
Hence 500 USAF tankers could support the 2000-odd fighters of the USAF.
For the next 15 years, the Chinese carrier fleet will still be significantly smaller than the US equivalent. Therefore China will have to rely on land-based fighter support to a greater degree and wants them to reach as far as possible into the Western Pacific.
In addition, longer-range fighter operations to the Japanese Home Islands will really benefit from tankers.
Given that the Chinese military currently has about 2000 frontline fighter or bomber aircraft, 300 tankers would only support extended range missions for 1200 aircraft at most. Call it 600 towards Taiwan/Guam and another 600 sorties for air superiority over the Japanese Home Islands.
Then you have to consider that inflight refuelling for existing and upcoming bombers will consume a lot more fuel.
And in the longer-term view when the Chinese Navy will likely field a larger carrier fleet than the US Navy, those Chinese tankers will still be useful for bombers, given the distances in the Pacific.
Hence my view that they'll buy at least 300 tankers
Indeed, happy 10th anniversary to the Y-20A
But that chubby girl seems to be in puberty now judging by particular curves that seem to have grown a bit since then
(Image via @Oneninety from Weibo)
by78
General
A bigger version. The engine cowling is much slimmer than that of the test engine (second image).
A bigger version. The engine cowling is much slimmer than that of the test engine (second image).
I meant bigger in comparison to the D-30KP-2 engines.