[Military and military sub-plane] Author: Lele
Recently, the Type 002 Shandong ship that has completed its dock maintenance and upgrade has once again appeared in the outside world. What is very interesting is that on the flight deck of the new Shandong ship, there is a A very rare carrier-based aircraft model. Judging from the special electronic pods mounted on the wingtips on both sides of its folding wings, this gray-white model should be the long-rumored J-15D electronic fighter. However, upon closer inspection, you will find that the support fighter aircraft that was originally supposed to be a two-seat design is actually a single-seat design. Therefore, the ultimate source of this weird model should be the Navy's simple "J-15D" modification based on the previous ordinary single-seat J-15 to complete relevant verification tests. A very interesting question is, will there be other carrier-based aircraft tested on the Shandong ship in the future?
▲ The recently undocking Type 002 Shandong ship
Theoretically, the Shandong ship, which uses the ski-jump J-15 as its absolute combat effectiveness, does have the need to equip the J-15D electronic fighter. After all, judging from the experience of the U.S. Navy operating EA-6B and EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft , an advanced electronic warfare aircraft is fully capable of determining the outcome of a battle. For example, during the 1999 Kosovo War, the US F-117A stealth fighter-bomber was discovered, damaged and crashed by the Yugoslav Alliance air defense forces on the ground because the EA-6B scheduled to be responsible for the cover mission did not arrive. However, due to the complex tasks of a carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft, it usually carries two pilots, who are responsible for driving the aircraft and operating the airborne equipment, which means an increase of hundreds of kilograms.
▲ U.S. Navy EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft
More importantly, if the J-15D electronic warfare aircraft wants to ensure combat effectiveness, it must mount multiple electronic jamming pods under the wings to achieve interference and positioning of different targets. This makes the J-15D in combat mode have a much higher take-off weight than the ordinary J-15. In fact, it can only take off from the ski-jump aircraft carrier through the only heavy-load take-off point at the rear, and the operational efficiency is relatively low. Therefore, the "J-15D" model appeared on the deck of the Shandong ship this time. It is obvious that the Navy is testing the size of the J-15D, especially the aircraft carrier hangar height, elevator width and other data that the folded wing size can adapt to. Since there is not much difference between the original J-15 and the two-seater J-15D, the main difference is the electronic pod mounted on the wing, so the Navy simply modified the ordinary J-15 model to form the weird-looking one now. "Single-seat J-15D".
▲The J-15 is originally the basis for the development of the J-15D
Since it is difficult for the J-15D to operate on a ski-jump aircraft carrier such as the Shandong ship, there is a possibility that it will be mounted on a large scale on the 001/002 aircraft carrier in the future. Not big. In fact, this is also an important reason why the J-15D has been developed for many years but has never been put into service on the two ski-jump aircraft carriers. The reason why the "J-15D" model appeared recently is also very simple. That is, the Type 003 Fujian ship equipped with the electromagnetic catapult has been launched. The navy's new generation catapult combat system has officially come to the stage, and the matching Naturally, catapult-type carrier-based aircraft also need to appear, and the J-15D, which was the first to appear, is just the beginning.
▲The launch of the Fujian ship is a landmark event
At present, the outside world generally believes that the next generation of catapult aircraft carriers of the Navy will be equipped with four main carriers: J-35, J-15B, J-15D and Kongjing-600 machine. Among them, the J-15D and J-15B are both upgraded models based on the development of the ordinary J-15, but the J-15D focuses more on the upgrade of electronic equipment, while the J-15B is generally considered to be a catapult version of the third and a half generation model. Theoretically speaking, when upgrading the two, they have J-16D and J-15 respectively as reference, and the technical difficulty is almost the same. However, since the J-15D was developed earlier and is therefore more mature, it is necessary to eventually test it on the Type 002 Shandong ship to verify the actual effect of being mounted on the aircraft carrier.
▲J-16D has entered into service with the Air Force
In the highly complex aircraft carrier-based aircraft field, any slight changes may affect its take-off, landing and operation on the aircraft carrier. The British Navy "Queen Elizabeth" aircraft carrier was preparing to return from its first overseas deployment in 2021. Even just because the staff did not remove the protective device of the engine port, the F-35B purchased at a high price crashed, becoming a global laughing stock. Therefore, when developing new immature equipment, it is a very reasonable choice to try to combine it with mature equipment to reduce project risks and eliminate other interference problems.
▲F-35B
on the "Queen Elizabeth" aircraft carrier. The "J-15D" model appeared on the Shandong ship. It is a typical combination of this new equipment and a mature platform, in order to solve the problem as soon as possible after the J-15D is put on the ship. potential problem. To ensure that when the Type 003 Fujian ship finishes outfitting and begins sea trials, the J-15D can adopt a truly mature attitude to discover some unreasonable aspects of the new electromagnetic catapult, instead of letting two immature equipment compete with each other. interference. In fact, this is not a process that only the J-15D will go through. The J-35, J-15B and Kongjing-600 will all have similar experiences. However, due to the different flight performance and characteristics of different carrier-based aircraft, their gradual verification In order to mature, even the degree of matching with the electromagnetic ejection system is not the same.
▲The biggest advantage of the Shandong ship is its maturity.
Among them, the J-15B is a third-generation semi-carrier-based aircraft. Most of its flight performance has been tested by the J-15, mainly verifying the new avionics system and active phased array. Radar has high reliability in high-salt and high-humidity environments, so relevant tests should be conducted following the J-15D in the future. As for the J-35 medium-sized stealth fighter that has attracted much attention, its technology has made a big leap and it is a completely new aircraft. Therefore, the verification subjects are many and difficult, and it is expected to take a long time. Incidentally, since catapult-type carrier-based aircraft bear greater impact, most catapult-type carrier-based aircraft can take off from a ski-jump aircraft carrier. For example, although the F/A-18E/F and "Rafale-M" of the U.S. and French navies are both catapult-type carrier-based aircraft, they have all participated in the bidding for the Indian Navy's aircraft carrier-based aircraft project, and have also completed the land-based aircraft project. Ski jump takeoff test. However, a carrier-based aircraft taking off in this state has limited fuel and ammunition and cannot fully exert its combat effectiveness. Therefore, it is expected to be mainly used for testing in China.
▲Ski-jump takeoff is not difficult for catapult-type carrier-based fighters
In this process, the J-15D and J-15B can mature with the support of the Shandong ship, and then use the status of mature equipment to test domestic electromagnetic catapults After the catapult is basically available after the test is completed, it can become a complete and mature help for the J-35 and the Air Police-600 to complete the final step of testing. This interlocking and mutual assistance to reduce stage development risks is a common operation in the development of the navies and air forces of various countries. It is also the only way for the development of our country's navy's new generation catapult carrier-based aircraft system. In this process, the Type 001 Liaoning and Type 002 Shandong played the most basic carrier-based aircraft inspection and basic testing roles. It is not even ruled out that the J-35 will take off in a classic ski jump on the two aircraft carriers. The possibility of a scene.
