Chinese air to air missiles
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
There have been some murmurs in the last two years about new motors that can take PL-15 sized missiles into the 200-300 km range. That might be what he meant.
SinoSoldier
Colonel
The diagram of the FC-31 holding six AAMs (2016 Zhuhai Airshow) depicts the variant of the PL-12 with folded fins.
The photo of the J-20 carrying four missiles in its internal bay apparently shows the PL-15, which is classified as a "medium-long-range" air-to-air missile. PB mentions that a new medium-long-range anti-radiation missile (YJ-XX) exists as well, and four of those can be carried internally by the J-20.
The PL-15 folded-fin variant is still in tech demonstrator phase and not yet in service.
The new YJ-XX anti-radiation missile has a range of 180 km, can attack AWACS and sea-based radars, and will be equipped by both the J-20 and the navalized J-XX.
PL-15 has a two-way datalink.
So...does a folding fin version of the PL-15 means we should eventually see the J-20 be able to mount 6 PL-15s? (I don’t have time today to dig through that thread).
There's no guarantee the folding-fin PL-15 will enter service according to pb. The PL-15 is a different class of missile compared to the PL-12/AIM-120, there's no shame in carrying four. If the J-20 needed to carry six MRAAMs, it can always carry six folding-fin PL-12s.
This new ARM is also based on the PL-15, which is why the J-20 and next-gen carrier fighter can fit four of them.
The FC-31's main weapons bay is as big as the J-20's despite being a shorter aircraft because its engines are also significantly shorter so SAC managed to find space to squeeze in a comparable weapons bay.
For me the inquiry is not about shame or pride. I find it curious because as far as I know the PL-15 and the PL-12 aren’t so dramatically different in their dimensions that if they could fit 6 of the latter it’s hard to see why they couldn’t fit 6 of the former. If you were the PLAAF and there was a way you could do so, why wouldn’t you want to? It could just be that the PL-15 is literally just longer enough than the PL-12 to make staggering impossible of course, so the base presumption I’m operating off of could be wrong, but if I’m not wrong the J-20’s weapons bay should be about 4.2 meters long and I’ve heard that PL-15 is 4 meters, and that makes staggering seem doable, which is why I’ve been a bit persistent about this point. At the end of the day I just want to know the particulars, given that how I imagine the PLAAF’s thinking behind the decisions over weapons load here would have indicated a different outcome.
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The logical assumption would be that what we saw inside j20 is NOT pl-15. Rather a pl-12 variant. Only that way can one still claim that pl-15 is a different class of a missile compared to pl-12. Otherwise, you could always retain the same body dimensions and update the rest of the missile and still both have a more capable missile while being in the same class of the missile.