Chinese air to air missiles
- Thread starter tphuang
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Xi Yazhou reiterated this in a recent PL-17 video series, stating that its effective range against targets such as early warning aircraft should be 800 kilometers, 400 kilometers is the effective range against highly maneuverable targets such as fighter jets.
He also pointed out that the PL-17 should belong to the next generation of air-to-air missiles with the PL-16 and AIM-260, rather than being in the same class as the PL-15; you can deduce some features of PL-16 based on the characteristics of PL-17. In addition, there is the Ramjet PL, which is far superior to the European Meteor. Of course, those who have been following the development of PLA air-to-air missiles and related papers for a long time should be familiar with this.
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So the PL-17's successor (IIRC there is one rumoured) should actually be considered a generation beyond the PL-16? Wild.
So are the rumors about the existence of the PL-21 missile true?
iirc PL-21 was a decade-old concept of a ramjet missile that was never explored, as pl-16/17 exists and they found the tradeoffs of the ramjet not worth it.
Ramjet AAM research does not ended after the PL-17.
Again, just because it lost in the past doesn't mean it can't be used in the future. Things and situations are dynamic and evolving.
Part of a reason I think ramjets are not favored is that they have too little maximum speed to be sufficiently deadly especially at very long ranges. Ramjets fizzle out at around Mach 4.0 max, but PL15 can already hit 200km targets with an average speed of around M3.5. PL16 will be even faster. Coupled with the time needed for acceleration even a very long range ramjet missile won't be very attractive. However, there is the great possibility of a scramjet based VLRAAM successor to PL17, something that can travel at Mach 7+ for a thousand kilometer hit.
I wonder if the PL16 is already in LRIP, can't wait to see it on the J16
PL-16 was confirmed in service years ago. It's well into mass production, to the point where PL-15 production—discounting anti-radiation and export variants—has already been shut down.
I assume it's been only in IWBs of the J20 and J35/A then? Since there isn't even a single photograph of the PL16.