Chinese air to ground weapons (missiles, PGMs, etc)
- Thread starter AssassinsMace
- Start date
It is possible that it is unpowered -- i.e. an unpowered glide bomb.
But I agree, the red cover at the back is very suspicious.
This thing is still a mock-up, so certain real things may not be featured on it.
A low profile stealthy air intake/NACA duct is certainly something we wouldn't be able to see -- it would be flat.
Other missiles like JASSM, ACM have such air intake configurations.
Personally I think there is a good likelihood that what we are seeing is a mock-up meant to represent a ALCM.
Pursuit of LO features means its air intake would be flat and more integrated with the hull, thus not shown on a mock-up.
Hmm, on the first render my model
Sadly, it looks like this 1000kg PGM is going on the JH7A2, on the usually hang point that we have seen several times before.
I still hope they would put one on J-16....
Fingers crossed!!
the loading vehicles being used seem quite good, this is something that could potentially be as consequential as the munitions themselves.
@Blitzo There is indeed something under this standoff weapon. The belly is not flat, and there appears to be some openings in various form. They could be sensors (say TERCOM) or possibly air intakes (or both). But they could also be dispensers for submunitions. Let's hope someone with a long selfie stick could get close enough stick his/her camera under this thing. Then we would be able to know whether thing is powered or not.
Well, keep in mind this is a mock-up so there are certain details that are likely to be omitted.
For example, I think the overall external shape of the aircraft is accurate, but some details like the actual window of the nose EO seeker is omitted (we only can deduce it's likely for a EO seeker based on its shape and position).
Similarly, if the weapon does have an air intake similar to JASSM or ACM, then it's very possible they would show that on the missile either because it wouldn't actually change the overall profile/handling of the mock-up.
Either way, I have it on good authority that the weapon does come in both a powered version and an unpowered version -- whether the one we're seeing at Zhuhai this time is a mock-up of the powered version or not, is another matter.
