Good morning (ladies) & gentlemen...
Today's military analyst programme introduces the JH-7A:
[video=youtube;DzZPO_YQ9v4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzZPO_YQ9v4[/video]
My fav host is away making a series on Russian Navy's weapon (including my fav Sovs) and today's host is a lady.
Topic is about about "200 units (number might be ambigious) of JH-7A have been deployed along Eastern coast of China". With a combat radius of around 1500km per plane, its air-projection covers till 1st island chain. The JH-7A can mount up to 4x YJ-82K ASM for some very serious anti-ship missions. Regarding the aviation avonics, the deputy chief designer of JH-7's avonics says the JH-7A is above par of the Su-30. The JH-7A is now the most exportable fighter (FBC-1 & FBC-1A) but China might be heavily voiced by western powers for its highly offensive capabilities.
The guest is Maj Gen (Ret). Xu Guangyu.
Mr Xu shares that:
1) Although the JH-7A is designated as "Jian Hong" which is "Fighter Bomber" which can be used as an interceptor for defense and bomber during offensive mission, its primary role is for bombing missions;
2) It is reported that in Shandong peninsula, there is a regiment of 24x JH-7A which is near to Japan & S Korea;
3) Only two countries are still favouring fighter-bombers, Russia & China as these two countries have the same strategic environment which is large land masses and defense in-depth;
4) China is still a defensive country and it is surrounded by borders (sea, air & land) of other countries, in times of invasion or conflict, it has to have the capabilities to launch a counter-strike and the JH-7A is one of the weapons;
5) In fighter-bombers, one pilot is in charged of flying the JH-7A and the other is the weapons officer in charged of releasing the weapons, both have to have coordinations in order to accomplish a mission;
6) In terms of max distance, combat radius & payload, the JH-7A does not lose out to Su-30 & Su-24;
7) A lighter fuselage of the JH-7A means a higher payload in the region of 10 tons (although only known reports shows that only 9 tons of payload) than JH-7;
Programme later introduces about Sino-Russia "Peace Mission 2013" anti-terrorism excerise. Chinese air force sent 5x JH-7A and the Russian side with 4x Su-24. During this exercise, the JH-7As travelled about 6000km to the exercise area, refuelling at Xinjiang and then at Russia. Regarding wny China sent JH-7A, Mr Xu comments:
8) As one of China's main fighters, it was a good chance to train the pilots and test the airframes for problems;
9) Live ammunitions were used during the exercise;
10) A very unfamiliar range in a Chelyabinsk, Russia was a test of pilots' courage and weapons' precision;
11) After the live ammo exercise, all JH-7A had to fly back to Xinjiang which was a close to combat realistic exercise;
Programme then cuts into a diagram showing the various locations of the exercise, the aircrafts had to take off at Shenyang MR, flown to Xinjiang's Urumuqi and then to Chelyabinsk.
12) In flying missions out of own's country, pilots had to rely on GPS positioning to know their exact locations which was a test of the pilots' knowledge and training;
With regards to recent Japnese reports that they had detected JH-7A's presence with live ammunitions, the guests shares that in radar detection, it is only a small dot on the radar screen. During peacetime, the gathering of all opponents' fighters/ships data are vital and then upload the data gathered for the radars and radar operators to analyse possible fighters /ships detected during hostile periods. Despite Japan's claims of such incident, Chinese MoD reports that ther were no such scrambling of JH-7A. This may show that Japan radar operator might be over reactive or inexperienced.
Programme then introduced the possible being of JH-7A going onboard the indigenious CV as an attack aircraft. A report in Amercia reports that almost certainly, the JH-7A could be further developed into a navalised version. Navalised JH-7A could be done by installing a larger thrust powerplant for taking off and a tail hook for landing along with indigenious laser-guided precision weapons.
On the naval JH-7A, Xu says:
13) There is a high possiblity;
14) The combat radius of JH-7A should be fully exploited by PLAN by giving the JH-7A a "floating airbase" for maximising effective combat radius;
15) The JH-7A (weight 30 ton) definately has the capability on a calapult launched CV;
Mr Xu concludes by giving us an insight on how combat radius is calculated. Maximium effective combat radius of an aircraft is usually divided by 3 parts from its total ferry range: Say the JH-7A is 4500km in total ferry range, divide it by 3 is 1500km each part. The first 1500km is a distance to mission area, 1500km to execute mission over a designated airspace and the last 1500km to return to base.
