and what is that blade aerial? radar?
J-10 Thread IV
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
I'm not sure if it would be "serious" but it would be a bit of a minor disadvantage. One possible reason for removing them could be that the plane's onboard ESM may be much more capable viewed as sufficient for providing missile warning... though having optical MAWS has its own advantages as it means it can also provide warning against missiles which are passively guided (IR)
Which blade aerial? On the tail or on the spine? Those are likely datalinks or ESM antennae.
I'm sure they have a good reason for deleting the back MAW sensors. Either they have something better or they need that space for something else that is worth the compromise of getting rid of the MAW sensors. I doubt they come together and say how can we make this plane less capable.
I'm not sure which circular things you are referring to, but I see nothing that looks indicative of 360 degree EO apertures.
The only circular thing that resembles what you describe is the IFR probe attachment point (small white circle) on the right side of the J-10's nose...
What if it's because of the limitation of the power plant, or budget per aircraft? They have to choose between the new radar and MAWS, and experimenting with a prototype that we call as J-10C?
Hmm. Now that I refer back to pictures, it seems like the white circle on the nose isn't the IFR probe attachment. And it does seem like the white circle on the underside of the fuselage is the same dimensions as on the nose.
So it may well be that they could be some sort of EO aperture... however I'm not sure if there is also a white circle on the left side of the aircraft's nose (if it's only on one side it likely isn't any kind of EO aperture). There is also no white circle thing on the tail that your blue circle depicts.
I doubt that it will be because of the unit cost per aircraft. But its possible that a new radar needs a lot more power. And they have to sacrifice the back MAW system for that.