Speaking of J-20 and J-16 fighter , everyone is definitely familiar with it, but fighter jets are platforms, and what is attacking the opponent cannot be the fighter itself, but the advanced air-to-air weapons launched. This is also why in the military trade of fighter jets, advanced air-air weapons will occupy a large part of the cost. This is the case with India's introduction of Gust . After all, organic and non-aircraft are also fake. Recently, in addition to more reports on the J-20 in China, it also showed the latest domestic air-to-air weapon PL-17. This is the second domestic air-to-air weapon to be unveiled in China after PL-15. Its range may make Western PPTs a little unable to keep up.
According to public media reports, we have seen another ultra-long-distance air-air weapon debut after the PL-15, which is also another new missile in the domestic PL series. From the appearance, this PL-17 is also very special. The length of the bullet body is very slender, far exceeding the ordinary air-to-air missile . It extends a lot compared to the hanger, and it almost exceeds the area of the entire wing. This design may be to improve its range and achieve the purpose of directly "cutting the back row" of early warning aircraft in air combat.
In fact, the development process of domestic PL (Pili) air-changing weapons has also been full of twists and turns. The early PL series could only imitate the AIM-9B "Rattlesnake", which is the so-called "55 Project", and even imitation technology also faces many levels. As the PL-3 was not until after the PL-5, domestic mid-range air-air weapons gradually improved, and until the PL-11's range reached 75 kilometers, it basically met the requirements.
Then the Western AIM-120D appeared with powerful parameters, which surprised the country that the West actually improved so quickly. So we worked hard to develop a dual-pulse PL-15 with a range of no less than 150 kilometers. Only after the research and development was completed did we find that the Western 120D was still in the PPT stage. However, the pursuit of advanced medium-range air-air weapons will not stop. This is the case with the debut of the domestic PL-17. Its range has reached 300 kilometers. Compared with close-range combat bullets, this is equivalent to a sniper bullet in air combat.
However, everyone knows the old rules. The fact that the debut of PL-17 this time only shows that PL-15 is a conventional weapon of . PL-17 is considered advanced, but it already has a weapon with better performance. I wonder if the US and the West’s air-open weapons PPT can keep up? The emergence of PL-17 is not only a large-scale expansion of the range of air-air weapons, but also involves specific tactical changes.
At present, the domestic Flying Leopard J-H-7A (reported to be retired), J-20, J-16 can all carry PL-17. Taking advantage of the range advantage of this weapon, once the first warning aircraft obtains the information of the opponent's early warning aircraft in air combat, it can perform the A-fire and B-guidance relay mode. With the PL-17's range advantage of more than 300 kilometers, it can quickly attack the opponent's air combat command node, and quickly make the opponent lose the battlefield advantage at the beginning of the air combat. This is why the PL-17 is an air combat sniper bomb, which means that it will quickly attack the opponent's high-value air units as soon as it comes on the field and destroy the opponent's air combat command center.
Overall, the current debut of PL-17 is almost natural, and the development speed of domestic air-air weapons has been significantly ahead of the West. For example, the improved model of R-77 that Russia is proud of is about 150 kilometers, the US AIM-120C-7 is about 162 kilometers, and the French meter is still less than 100 kilometers. In other words, the current PPT in the West is about 150-200 kilometers, and the 300 kilometers of PL-17 is obviously too far ahead. This also gives domestic fighter jets more advantages in air combat. I believe that after this debut, the PPT of the West's air-air weapon will be greatly modified, and the difficulty of realization may be even greater. Let Western military workers worry.
