Chinese air to ground weapons (missiles, PGMs, etc)
- Thread starter AssassinsMace
- Start date
Dropping AKF-088C.
I think that's just a standard KD-88 (or YJ-83K, I can never tell the difference), not AKF-88C, because the AKF-88C has ventral foldout wings not fins as we can see on the J-16 picture.
by78
General
I stand corrected.
i guess if AKF-88C has foldout wings it must be have a longer range?
It means more efficient higher altitude flight is intended. Which means the missile is intended for launches from ranges that high altitude would still be safe. A high-low trajectory is a range booster on its own.
So the answer to your question is "likely". But we can't know for sure.
I think PLAAF would be based mainly on J-20 and J-16 in the near future.
Both have excellent range, but J-20 lacks ability to carry large anti-ground ordnance without compromising stealth, so she will be mainly air focused.
J-16 is based on mature platform with large space, power and weight carrying capacity for continuous improvements/upgrades. She can be used as bomb truck but with stand-off anti-ground munitions as modern battlefield may be too risky for A-10 type operations or even F-16 types. She carries enough fuel to loiter on standby, swooping in no closer than absolutely necessary to fire her munitions then fly out of enemy weapons range again.
Having two people on the plane helps with sharing workload, and she is also more than capable of defending herself against air threats if needed without needing extra escorts, being based off air-superiority platform. So we'll start to see J-16 replacing the roles of many other planes like Q-5 and JH-7s. They may even start replacing older J-11s as the end of their useful airframe time draws near.
Both have excellent range, but J-20 lacks ability to carry large anti-ground ordnance without compromising stealth, so she will be mainly air focused.
J-16 is based on mature platform with large space, power and weight carrying capacity for continuous improvements/upgrades. She can be used as bomb truck but with stand-off anti-ground munitions as modern battlefield may be too risky for A-10 type operations or even F-16 types. She carries enough fuel to loiter on standby, swooping in no closer than absolutely necessary to fire her munitions then fly out of enemy weapons range again.
Having two people on the plane helps with sharing workload, and she is also more than capable of defending herself against air threats if needed without needing extra escorts, being based off air-superiority platform. So we'll start to see J-16 replacing the roles of many other planes like Q-5 and JH-7s. They may even start replacing older J-11s as the end of their useful airframe time draws near.
Because:
1. the PLA doesn't show us pictures that are representative of what their actual in service platforms/weapons/munitions are
2. in terms of guided direct attack munitions (including guided glide bombs), those weapons have relatively short effective ranges, and are best used against opponents without capable air forces or air defenses (or you are able to degrade their air forces and air defenses to a sufficient degree), and given the PLA's primary adversary is much more capable (i.e.: US military), there are relatively fewer opportunities in which the use of guided direct attack munitions
That said it probably makes sense for the PLA to starting procuring them in some numbers, and in the last few years I've written quite a few posts about it, as there are going to likely be situations where the PLA could make use of such weapons (i.e.: not every conflict situation for the PLA involves the US at outset), but chances are we aren't going to know unless they are in service in numbers for a while.
There is no reason to believe that J-16's proliferation should have any bearing on PLA proliferation of guided direct attack munitions/guided glide bombs.