I thought ventral points would be able to carry heavier loads.
IIRC I heard Shi Lao and Yankee mentioning that PLAAF prefers big calibre PGMs for assured kills. But at the same time, they are using dumb 250kg. It's perplexing.
PLA Air Force news, pics and videos
- Thread starter Jeff Head
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Yes.
A number of PGM families with 250kg weight class PGMs are offered for export and have had testing.
But we do not have any evidence to suggest the PLA has bought any, and at this stage the only PGM in regular wide scale PLA use is the 500kg class LGB.
If the PLA decided to pull the trigger and buy some new types and weight classes of PGMs in larger numbers, I imagine they could do so relatively quickly to build up a credible force.
Not on J-10's four small fuselage hardpoints, no.
I suppose it depends on what kinds of targets they are thinking about.
In any case, I consider 250kg PGMs to be an excellent weight class for a variety of target profiles and more importantly it enables multiple targets to be engaged per sortie, by virtue of their ability to be carried on multi ejector racks like JH-7A and J-16, and on J-10's fuselage hardpoints.
Magazine size per sortie is important.
antiterror13
Brigadier
How about FT series, like FT-3, 4 and 6, would it be considered 250kg class PGMs ?
optionsss
Junior Member
I think the 4 fuselage points can carry the 100 kg class GB 100. We have previously seen PLAAF test them with JH-7. The export version is passive laser/GPS. I would hope is domestic version is laser and beidou.
Yes, those are all 250kg class PGMs.
And none of them are in PLA service.
If they can carry 250kg bombs then they can carry 100kg in weight at least, and should be compatible in terms of footprint too.
Whether the 100kg class GB100 will be procured in proper numbers like the 500kg PGM is another matter.
That said it would be a bit of a waste for them to carry only 100kg bombs on those stations when they can carry 250kg bombs.
And the 100kg GB100 isn't even a SDB analogue with 100km range either
In their latest talk show posted on Bilibili today, Shi Lao and Yankee explained why there are not many photos/videos of PLA aircrafts shooting A2G PGMs. They claim that PLA has higher OPSEC regarding its A2G capabilities.
"A2G exercises and trainings have very specific purposes, therefore are highly classified."
"We have known of large AD and A2A exercises such as 'Red Sward', 'Golden Helmet'. But code names of large A2G exercises are not disclosed."
"The PR departments are told to 'reuse' the few available A2G photos/videos when needed for show."
Starting at about 23 minute:
"A2G exercises and trainings have very specific purposes, therefore are highly classified."
"We have known of large AD and A2A exercises such as 'Red Sward', 'Golden Helmet'. But code names of large A2G exercises are not disclosed."
"The PR departments are told to 'reuse' the few available A2G photos/videos when needed for show."
Starting at about 23 minute:
Really? I think I remember a 250 kg LGB under a Q-5L some long time ago (ok, could be a test only) and more recently one under a JH-7A … need to check when back home
The US pays $4K for a 250kg class dumb bomb. Then I see an Air Force JDAM kit starting at $21K. That comes to $25K in total.
So given the large increase in cost for a JDAM kit, you might as well go with a larger 500kg bomb to guarantee the target is hit. So the total cost goes from $25K to around $29K.
The JDAM specs are around [4m for Laser guidance] or [13m for GPS+INS] or [30m for INS only]
If you assume that GPS will be jammed or laser targeting is not available (due to clouds), then it would make sense to go with a bigger bomb to compensate.
Of course, the drawback is that less bombs are carried per aircraft sortie.
This applies to gravity bombs without glide wing kits.
But if we're talking about glide bombs, the weight of the bomb does impact the standoff glide range.