China's airborne weapons array gets an airing at home show.
Robert Hewson JDW Correspondent - Zhuhai, China
The Airshow China 2010 show, held in Zhuhai between 16 and 21 November, was a shop window for China's latest air weapons programmes - all of which are available for export and some of which are already in service. The show underlined China's continuing development emphasis on small precision guided munitions (PGMs) and larger stand-off weapons.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is active in both fields through its FT (Fei Teng, 'To Soar') series of PGMs. Current versions include the baseline 500 kg class FT-1 and 250 kg class FT-3 INS/GPS-guided bombs. When fitted with range extension kits, these two weapons become the FT-2 and FT-6 respectively. The pop-out wings give both bombs a gliding range of up to 90 km.
According to CASC, these weapons can be used against "hostile political targets, military headquarters, [industrial] plants, harbours, power plants, transformer substations, communication centres and ground forces."
The FT-5 is described by CASC as "a small diameter bomb" and it stands apart from the other FT weapons by virtue of its smaller size and revised airframe configuration (CASC does not appear to have an FT-4). The FT-5 weighs between 55 kg and 75 kg, according to CASC data.
At Airshow China CASC made reference to "an additional seeking system which greatly improves its delivery precision", allowing the weapon to "precisely attack small point targets" with CEP (Circular Error Probability) accuracy of around 5 m. The INS/GPS-guided FT weapons are accurate to between 10 and 20 m CEP.
The new guidance system for the FT-5 is almost certainly a semi-active laser (SAL) seeker, allowing precise terminal guidance by the launch aircraft or forces on the ground. CASC is integrating the FT-5 on its CH-3 medium-range long-endurance UAV.
Drop tests with unguided weapons began in 2009 and a CASC official told Jane's that guided tests would be completed in 2011. Jane's was also told that this armed CH-3 configuration was being sold to Pakistan, with 20 air vehicles to be acquired.
A similar SAL-equipped enhanced guidance fit has been developed by the Luoyang Electro-Optical Technology Development Centre (LOEC) for two new variants of its LS-6 guided weapon family. The 50 kg LS-6(50) and 100 kg LS-6(100) use some of the basic GPS/INS guidance components of the much larger LS-6(250) and LS-6(500) but with a redesigned airframe and a new laser seeker for enhanced precision.
The two previously unseen 'small diameter' LS-6s have a specially developed tubular warhead fitted with a tail kit housing the bombs' GPS/INS guidance systems and actuated control surfaces. Four long-span, short-chord wing surfaces are strapped on to the bomb body to provide extra lift for gliding range. Each weapon is tipped with a circular SAL seeker.
LOEC says that an infra-red seeker is a future guidance option.
Development of the small diameter LS-6s does not seem to be as advanced as the CASC FT-5. LOEC says it has clients for the weapons but that drop-testing has not begun.
LOEC placed less emphasis on UAV operations with its small weapons, noting they were best suited to expanding the warload of aircraft such as the J-10 and the JH-7.
A LOEC official said that the LS-6(50) and LS-6(100) were also well-suited to internal carriage. The official added that this was not yet a design feature on any current Chinese combat aircraft but would emerge on China's coming fifth-generation fighter, which was acknowledged to be in an advanced development phase.
The CASC FT-5 guided bomb may have been further developed with a new semi-active laser seeker, although this was not evident on the models at Airshow China 2010.
LOEC's LS-6(100) is the larger of the two new 'small diameter' variants of the LS-6 series exhibited for the first time at Airshow China 2010. It combines an additional laser terminal seeker with its basic INS/GPS guidance fit.
