So far, most of the members of the Fujian carrier-based air wing have been exposed, including the J-15B fighter with a beveled radome; the J-35 carrier-based stealth fighter; the KJ-600 carrier-based fixed-wing early warning aircraft, The Z-20 universal and anti-submarine helicopter , and the Z-9 search and rescue helicopter have all been unveiled. The aircraft of China's carrier air wing is already at the same height as that of the US carrier air force, but the carrier air wing of the Fujian ship is missing one piece, which is a carrier-based fixed-wing transport aircraft with the same positioning as the C-2 Greyhound.
The Central Military Commission reported on the evening of June 28 that a certain regiment of the Naval Aviation University increased the training time and proportion of difficult subjects for students in accordance with the standards of combatants , and was close to the actual combat organization transport aircraft land-based simulated landing, high standards Implement low-altitude and formation flying courses. The two keywords " transport aircraft " and " land-based simulated landing " clearly indicate that China Greyhound is already under development and will be publicly unveiled in the near future.
It is too reluctant to assume the responsibility of carrier-based transport aircraft. China's aircraft carrier needs a carrier-based fixed-wing early warning aircraft with a range of two to three thousand kilometers.
Aircraft carrier is a floating airport on the ocean, and an airplane is a delicate man-made object. Failures will inevitably occur during high-intensity use. Most failures can be solved by the ship's maintenance personnel. A small number of failures can be solved by replacing parts. However, once the engine or radar fails, due to the limited skills of the ship's maintenance personnel, These subsystems require return to the factory for maintenance.
The United States is the country with the most experience in using aircraft carriers in the world, so the United States is also the first country to solve the problem of returning the subsystem of the carrier-based aircraft to the factory for maintenance when the aircraft carrier does not dock. The C-2 Greyhound transport aircraft has a maximum range of 2,891 kilometers, and the range is still 1,930 kilometers when carrying a 4.5-ton payload. After the Greyhound enters service, when a subsystem of a carrier-based aircraft fails, the US aircraft carrier can call a Greyhound over, install the problematic radar or engine into the Greyhound's cargo hold, and let the Greyhound take on the faulty subsystem. The important task of returning to the factory. However, the C-2 Greyhound is, after all, a carrier-based transport aircraft that has been in service since the 1960s. As the time enters the 2020s, Greyhound's fatigue is fully apparent.
After careful consideration, the U.S. Navy chose to replace the C-2 Greyhound with the CMV-22 Osprey tilt-wing aircraft. The CMV-22 has a maximum range of about 3,000 kilometers. When carrying a 2.7-ton payload, it has a range of 2,130 kilometers. In terms of hard indicators, the CMV-22 is certainly not as good as the Greyhound, but the CMV-22 can board aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships at the same time. The flight deck has a larger mission sector, and the CMV-22 has the ability to transport F-135 engine modules, while the C-2 does not. Therefore, even if the CMV-22 has poor hard indicators, in order to carry the F-35, the US Navy can only He pinched his nose and admitted.
The problem is that at this stage we have neither Chinese Greyhound nor Chinese Osprey. The shipboard transport functions of Shandong ship and Liaoning ship can only be straight-8 at the bottom of the ship. The maximum range of the Z-8 is only 800 kilometers, and the maximum payload is only 3 tons. Therefore, when the subsystem of the carrier-based aircraft fails, the Shandong ship and the Liaoning ship need to turn back in advance or let the supply ship of the Zhi-8 formation land on the supply ship, and then let 901 or 903 take it back. The performance is really bad.
How do I put this question? When the aircraft carrier is still circling offshore, it has little impact, after all, the airport next door is not too far; when the carrier-based air wing is relatively new, the impact is not great, and the failure rate of new aircraft is generally relatively high. low. But as Chinese aircraft carriers increasingly go to the ocean, this problem has become more and more serious. After all, after an engine or radar failure, we can't wait for the supply ship to pick it up and deliver it to the aircraft carrier, right?
Therefore, the Chinese Greyhound or Chinese Pastoral Dog , which is similar to the US Navy's C-2 Greyhound carrier-based fixed-wing early warning aircraft, is indispensable. The carrier-based transport aircraft does not need to specially develop a new platform. Based on the platform of the carrier-based early warning aircraft, remove the early warning radar and corresponding equipment, and replace it with a transport aircraft-style tailgate, it will be a carrier-based transport aircraft. .
The problem is the design requirements of this kind of carrier-based early warning aircraft. The first step is to obtain an existing carrier-based fixed-wing early warning aircraft, and the development of a carrier-based fixed-wing early warning aircraft is not easy! There is only one country in the world that has an active carrier-based fixed-wing early warning aircraft, and China and Russia have the carrier-based fixed-wing early warning aircraft that flew for the first time. However, the Soviet Union has disappeared, so China has become the only country outside the United States to develop a carrier-based fixed-wing early warning aircraft. country, which means that China will inevitably become the second country in the world to have carrier-based fixed-wing transport aircraft.
The report of the Central Military Commission’s exposure of a certain transport group’s simulated land landing training is directly equivalent to the fact that a certain Hainan Airlines group is using the J-11 to train simulated ship landings. It is true that the Yun-7 is not a carrier-based fixed-wing transport aircraft, and the J-15 is not a carrier-based fixed-wing fighter, but these land-based fighters can still undertake the early training of pilots.
In other words, the current Chinese Garden Dog actual machine has reached the final assembly stage at the latest. If we take into account that our covert disclosure often means that it has entered service/first flight, it can be completely understood that the Chinese Garden Dog is carrier-based. The transport aircraft has already made its first flight, but the carrier-based fixed-wing transport aircraft is not impressive in appearance, so a group of wall-crawlers have not yet found a chance to take photos or the relevant photos have not yet been made public.
In other words, as of now, all the aircraft on the US aircraft carrier and the Chinese Navy have corresponding targets! The J-35 matches the F-35; the J-15 matches the F/A-18; the J-15D matches the E/A-18G; the Z-20 anti-submarine type and general purpose type match the SH-60 and HH-60; empty The Jing-600 is benchmarked against the E-2C, the unknown model of carrier-based fixed-wing transport aircraft is benchmarked against the C-2; the Attack-11 is benchmarked against the X-47B; the carrier-based small UAV is benchmarked against the small ship-borne UAV of the US aircraft carrier.
And the demand for anti-submarine in our country is very urgent. So will our navy develop a carrier-based version of the high-tech series anti-submarine aircraft based on the upcoming carrier-based fixed-wing transport aircraft?
According to the time point, it is speculated that by the time the Fujian ship is put into service, China's carrier-based early warning aircraft and carrier-based transport aircraft will also have reached the point of service. After these two aircraft exclusive to the ocean-going navy are put into service, it will make the Chinese aircraft carrier more calm Cope with the open ocean.
