The last pictures shows ongoing modernization of the airport. Seems like they are building more barracks.JH-7A flying over China's Paracel Islands yongxing dao. ( From dingsheng 被遗忘的老班长)
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JH-7/JH-7A/JH-7B Thread
- Thread starter MIGleader
- Start date
JayBird
Junior Member
Long distance exercise moving from one air base to another. Or they need some extra loitering time over the oil rig.
antiterror13
Brigadier
Why would they need a weapon? there is no threat from anybody and extra fuel is much more relevant for that flight
plawolf
Lieutenant General
1. Live weapons are threatening. We all know how much the western media loves to spin and distort any and everything to make China look like the bad guy. There is no need for China to give them more ammunition.
Armed patrols will just have the usual suspects making a big song and dance about supposed Chinese "aggression" or "bullying", and the western media will just lap it all up.
2. No operational need. There is zero threat, so why lug live weapons around? Those are heavy and draggy (so costs a fair amount of fuel - ie money and time on station), and the weapons themselves only have a finite useful life when carried on missions. Better to save that for when you actually need live weapons.
This is just a show the flag patrol, the idea is to be there and be seen to be there.
3. Flying unarmed could arguably be seen as a display of dominance. By flying unarmed in the area, the Chinese are in effect saying that they are safe without even needing to defend themselves.
It is potentially a more powerful psychological blow to opponents' moral than a fully armed flight making a pass over.
If you see an armed patrol by a much more powerful opponent, you can sometimes get a moral lifting boost from showing defiance, that you are not intimidated by such a crude show of force.
If you see the same powerful opponent send in unarmed planes on patrol, you don't get so much of a "defiance boost", as there is little threat, and you could feel like they opponent just doesn't even see you as a threat worthy of them having to pack even self defence weapons, which could be a big blow to egos and troop moral.
joshuatree
Captain
Does anyone know where 20023 is based? That would help give an idea if the drop tanks were used due to range from home base or whether the tanks was needed for the patrol mission. Perhaps their flight took them over the bases in the Spratlys?
So they were far from home.
Ye
p ... about 3100 km ! However I'm not sure if they flew the way all from Siping to Paracel Islands Yongxing Dao in one way or if they were based at a detachment base closer to the Paracel Islands.