In the past two days, photos of the latest version of the J-10 have been exposed. Because of its unique shape, it has aroused heated discussions. Many netizens are complaining about the ugly appearance of the new version of the J-10, but they do not know that there is a lot of mystery in it.
Just yesterday, photos of the new version of the J-10 fighter began to circulate on the Internet. This version of the J-10 is a modified and upgraded version of the J-10C. The most attractive thing about this J-10 is that it has an extra piece on the back, which makes it look a little bloated and dull. Many netizens expressed their disbelief after seeing the photos.
You can see from the picture that the new version of the J-10 has an extra spine, and the nozzle at the end of the engine has also been changed. The extra spine starts from the cockpit and extends to the tail of the fighter plane, and it has a certain thickness. Therefore, the impression given to everyone is not very ideal, and it looks very bulky.
However, since it is the latest version of the J-10, its performance will definitely be optimized based on the previous one. So what is the purpose of this extra back? There are currently two theories. The first guess is that this spine is used to hold an additional cabin for fuel.
The previous J-10 series fighters have always had a big flaw, that is, they were lacking in the ability to carry fuel. Therefore, by installing an extra spine on the new J-10, the space on the back can be used to enhance its ability to carry fuel. In addition, its range has been greatly improved.
Of course, the J-10 series is mainly equipment for export. In March this year, China has successfully delivered 6 J-10CEs to Pakistan . Therefore, a large part of the reason for increasing its fuel capacity is to meet the needs of foreign users like Pakistan.
After all, for the People's Liberation Army, the J-10 does not need to have a long range and excellent load capacity. The J-10 is generally only used for emergency interception missions. The People's Liberation Army only needs it to carry enough ammunition. But it's different for Pakistan. Pakistan's air force is not as complete as China's.
and cannot satisfy the need to use multiple aircraft models to complete tasks. This means that the J-10 fighter jets in Pakistan must not only complete some emergency interception tasks, but also complete some tasks that medium-sized aircraft should undertake. Therefore, if the range and load capacity of the J-10 cannot meet the requirements at this time, many problems will occur during mission execution.
Judging from the increased volume of the back, it should be able to fully accommodate the amount of fuel carried by the J-10C's ventral auxiliary fuel tank. In this way, there is extra space on the belly of the aircraft to mount some weapons. For this point, you can refer to the "Fierce Dragon Block III". A PL-15 medium-range air-to-air missile can be mounted on the belly of the aircraft. The -10 is larger than the " Xiaolong ". Once there is extra space in the belly, it is fully capable of mounting missiles similar to the PL-15, or even more than one.
This means that the combat effectiveness of the J-10 will be greatly improved. As a light fighter , it can achieve the load capacity of a heavy fighter. Doesn't this achieve the purpose of one aircraft having multiple uses? Due to its superior mounting capacity, the J-10 can carry out more attacks when facing enemy aircraft. Even if it cannot hit the enemy aircraft, it can still greatly interfere with its actions.
From this point of view, this back that has been criticized by netizens does have a lot of mystery, allowing the J-10 to achieve multi-purpose capabilities, whether it is performing daily tasks or used in combat, it is better than before.
Of course, in addition to saying that this spine is to increase the load capacity of the J-10, there is also a theory that it is an electronic equipment compartment. This statement is not a baseless guess, but a conclusion drawn with reference to Israeli F-16I and American F-16E/F fighter aircraft.
The F-16I fighter aircraft adds a spine based on the F-16DBlock 50/52, which is used to install electronic equipment such as new avionics systems. This improvement has improved the Israeli Air Force's combat capabilities a lot. Similarly, this type of design is also used in the US F-16E/F Block60 fighter jets.
And the J-10 was developed with reference to F-16 in many aspects. Initially, because the J-10 was only positioned to complete emergency interception missions at medium and high altitudes, there were still many limitations in the design. But the F-16 has transformed into a multi-purpose fighter through continuous updates.
The F-16's superior performance is largely due to its spine. The weight of the F-16I with the added spine has increased by nearly 1 ton compared to the previous one, and the newly added avionics equipment and interference bomb launcher installed in the new spine can give it more advantages in combat.
The back of the American F-16D Block30 fighter is mainly used to equip some avionics equipment, infrared/ chaff interference bombs and part of the fuel. After this change, quite good results were achieved. Since then, Israel has also imitated the United States and made similar changes.
The electronic equipment equipped in the back of the F-16I is upgraded on the basis of the F-15I. In addition to the communication system independently developed by Israel, they also added the Elisra SPS 3000 self-protection jammer. This This gives the F-16I more powerful electronic warfare capabilities.
In addition, although the F-16I's back is equipped with an avionics equipment compartment, it also leaves a certain amount of space for storing fuel, which is equivalent to improving the load capacity of the fighter aircraft. If it is used as an electronic equipment compartment, it will be easier to modify it later, but the original conformal fuel tank does not have the characteristics of quick disassembly.
Therefore, based on the above two opinions, in fact, the newly added spine of the J-10 is more likely to be the avionics equipment compartment. After all, such an improvement will be more complete than a simple conformal fuel tank. Of course, it is worth mentioning that the J-10 series is the first generation of Chinese domestic fighter jets, and China's air force was still very weak when it was developed, so there are still many problems, large and small.
However, in the development and updates over the years, the J-10 series has made great improvements. Starting from the J-10C, it has gradually developed towards a multi-purpose fighter. In addition to the latest version of the J-10 appearing in the public eye this time, there is also some good news from the Chinese Air Force.
The J-35 stealth carrier-based aircraft has also entered the end of testing, and the KJ-600 early warning aircraft is also actively preparing to board the "Fujian Ship". In addition, US media also reported that the People's Liberation Army is currently developing three bombers: JH-XX, H-20H-2 and a new aerospace bomber. It can be said that China's air force development has become more and more rapid in recent years, which will provide a stronger guarantee for China's national defense power.
