Hi by the way if one speculate about CR or CI j10s why this can’t be CP for PAF so they can sacrifice one hard point for less fuel tank & use it for some anti ship role
thank you
thank you
J-10 Thread IV
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
I'd say chances are fair it's indeed a retrofit upgrade being tested. Something that could go on all the old J-10 planes in the future. Hence why it's being tested on an old airframe. Certainly, avionics volume going up over the years is more or less a constant - all fighter jets benefit from more and more avionics added to them over the decades.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
The best thing about an avionics spine is that it is to a large extent, future-proofed.
A lot of the time, upgrading avionics is a massive undertaking because it’s sometimes crammed into some really hard to reach and oddly shaped parts of the airframe to use every last possible bit of previous internal volume.
With an avionics spine, things are nice and squared away and easily accessible. That standardisation and modern plug and play tech means it’s theoretically possible to design mission specific avionics to further maximise utility of the space for maximum performance benefit.
Although whether such a massive upgrade is backwards comparable with older models is going to be the biggest question.
Unfortunately, the more ambitious and advanced an upgrade, the less likely it’s going to be so easy to integrate with old systems designed maybe a decade ago. So it’s a balance between performance and cost.
That was a joke answer from Yankeesama and friends. If they kept escalating the nonsense level they'll say that Indians are buying it to counter Pakistan.
Those rocket pods on a platform like the J-10C is insanity. Such high performing planes shouldn't do this kind of task. You risk losing a very sophisticated and expensive plane for very little gain. These kind of tasks should be left to lower end planes. Its a waste of time and fuel to train for this type of things.
China needs to invest in a Maverick missile equivalent and get rid of these rocket pods for the J-10C ASAP.
Apparently PLAAF has strict restrictions on releasing images and videos of using advanced guided munitions, besides training with rockets and dumb bombs is common practice across the world since it requires that the pilot be affluent in planing ingress & egress courses, have good control of his/her aircraft and an understanding of the basics of ground attack runs. These skills are useful no matter the situation or aircraft, so training with them makes every bit of sense.
Maverick is a completely different type of missile, though.
Unguided medium-sized munitions are indeed steadily going in the direction of obsolescence, but still right munitions at a right pricepoint shall be matched with right tasks.
Is there a lower end attack aircraft in PLAAF nowadays?
Drones I guess, but I don’t think there’s a low-end manned attack aircraft. Come to think of it J-10 may be as low-end as it can be if PLAAF wants a jet with the ability to utilize guided air-to-surface munitions.
Frankly speaking, i personally of opinion that drones shall be no different here.
With modern prices on the cheapest means of guidance(satellite/cheap hyro/laser) - it makes sense to slowly work onto making all munitions large enough to accept them to just do it.
They're now well below price point where they are more efficient even for suspected/area targets - i.e. true "dumb" bombs and rockets basically serve little purpose.
But its a long, really long shift, which started at least in the 1990s and probably won't end for a couple of decades to come.
Yeah, especially since a few countries *ahem China ahem Russia* have enormous stockpiles of dumb munitions. At this stage it’s probably more efficient to just use them for training than trying to retrofit everything with guided kits. Better to use up the old stuff and buy new ones.