JH-7 Flying Leopard Fighting Bomber is a type of fighter bomber jointly developed and produced by my country's sea and air. However, the Air Force chose to withdraw from the different needs of the navy and air force (differences between series or parallel cockpits, etc.). The Air Force chose to withdraw in subsequent research and development. It coincided with the special circumstances. The Flying Leopard project has undergone many dismounting crises, and finally successfully tested the flight and mass production. At the second Zhuhai Air Show in 1998, the Chinese JH-7 Fighting Bomber made its first public debut and began to serve in 2000, mainly performing patrol and strike missions.
When it was born, my country's scientific research institutions focused on observing the Falkland War and noticed that the Argentine Air Force used a super-army flag fighter to carry the Flying Fish Air-fired anti-ship missile. However, after the successful development of the Flying Leopard, it has been a few years since the Falkland War, and our national defense pressure is more severe, and the design requirements must be improved. Moreover, as my country's first combat aircraft to be completely independently designed and built in service, it is also the first combat aircraft to completely get rid of the Soviet standards and use Western standards, which has a greater strategic significance.
Technical parameters
JH7 Flying Leopard Fighter Bomber Basic parameters , the length is 22 meters, the height is 6.57 meters, the wingspan is 12.7 meters, the maximum external weight is 9 tons, the maximum take-off weight is 28.4 tons, the power system is two MK202 turbofan engines, and the domestic imitation model turbofan 9 Qinling engine is subsequently replaced, with a composite swept upper single wing, the maximum flight speed is 1.75 Mach, and the transition range is 3650~4500 kilometers. , the combat radius is 1,600 kilometers, the total number of equipment is 280 aircraft,
avionics equipment is mainly 232H single-pulse multi-function fire control radar, ZJ-9 commander, 210 Doppler navigation radar, 265A radar altimeter, HZX-5 heading attitude system, etc. The aircraft uses the telex flight control system, the maximum detection distance for non-stealth fighters is 70-75 kilometers, and the target for large water surfaces is 160-175 kilometers.
turbofan-9 (WS-9) afterburner turbofan engine is produced by China based on the ying Chinese turbofan-9 (WS-9) engine technology license. Its prototype is the SB Mk202 engine with a maximum afterburner thrust of 91.25 kN, the engine weight is 1841 kg, the thrust-weight ratio is 6.5, and the maximum military thrust fuel consumption is 0.68.
Because of the different design concepts of the Navy and Air Force, Feibao has been in constant accidents during service. The various technologies originally designed for the Navy, the Air Force wanted it to undertake ground attack missions to carry out low-altitude penetration on land. In addition, the controversial ejection seats and ejection methods have higher casualties than other aircraft models. In 2008, a JH-7 fighter-bomber crashed during the Sino-Russian joint military exercise. Another JH-7 fighter-bomber crashed in the Russian-China joint military exercise in July 2009. A total of ten have crashed since service, causing 18 pilots to die, which is a pity.
subsequently improves and exits JH-7A type , installed JL10A pulse Doppler radar and 1553B data link, replaced the body skin with composite materials or new aviation alloy materials, cancelled the wing knives of the two aircraft, replaced the original windshield with curved support with the overall windshield, replaced the single ventral fin of the aircraft with double ventral fins, installed a new engine, installed a multi-functional electronic fire control system, a digital fly-by-wire control system, and installed a new high-definition monitor, which has stronger attack capabilities and data processing capabilities.
JL10A pulse Doppler radar has very complete ground (sea) functions, such as terrain tracking, real beam mapping, Doppler beam sharpening, synthetic aperture mapping, etc. It has a very powerful ground detection capability. Its detection distance for targets such as driving and protection is no less than 250 kilometers. It has stronger anti-surface waves and clutter capabilities compared to the past. It can detect 10 targets at the same time and track 4 of them, and can attack 2 targets at the same time at the same time.
Subsequently, in order to strengthen the depth blocking/penetrating attack of fighter aircraft, the ability to perform air defense suppression tasks under complex electromagnetic environment is the focus of improvement. With its powerful mounting capabilities, in addition to choosing various weapons, Flying Leopard can also mount various electronic pods, blue sky low-altitude navigation pods, photoelectric aiming pods, command transmission pods , and can perform a variety of enemy tasks.
main weapon is to be equipped with a Su-type 23mm cannon. The entire fuselage has 11 hanging points. The types of missiles can be selected, PL-5 air-to-air combat bombs, PL-8 short-range air-to-air missiles, Eagle Strike-83 anti-ship missiles, Air-to-88 air-to-ground missiles, Eagle Strike-81 anti-ship missiles, Eagle Strike-91 anti-radiation/ anti-ship missiles, K/YJG-500/500B laser-guided bombs, GB series small-diameter guided bombs, rocket launch nests, various models of aviation bombs, sub-fuel tanks, etc.
Eagle Strike-83KH anti-ship missile , missile is based on the US whaling fork missile and developed subsonic sea-sweeping anti-ship missile, which uses turbojet engine , infrared plus active radar dual-mode guide head, and can also manually lock the target according to the image sent back by the guidance head at the end of the flight. It has strong anti-interference ability, a maximum range of 285 kilometers, a cruise speed of 0.85 Mach and a sprint speed of 1.3 Mach.
air-to-ground 88 missile , adopts inertial guidance plus two-way data link plus terminal TV guidance, has all-weather combat capability, launch weight is 680 kilograms, and a maximum range of 280 kilometers. At the same time, the missile can also be installed with active infrared seekers according to combat needs. In addition to the JH 7, the H 6 series can be mounted on large aircraft, and the J-10C can also be mounted.
Eagle Strike-91 Anti-radiation/anti-ship missile , the missile weighs more than 800 kg, the warhead weighs 150 kg, the range exceeds 200 kilometers, and the maximum flight speed is Mach 3.5. It uses a single broad spectrum seeker, which can be used to strike the sea surface Aegis system. Its combat range and performance are ahead of the Russian-made KH-31 series missiles.
Compare the Russian Su-24 fencing fighter bomber , with a maximum load of 7,000 kg and a maximum take-off weight of 35,000 kg; the maximum flight speed M2.35, a transition range of 3,400 kilometers, and a combat radius of 1,200 kilometers; there are 8 pylons on the plane and two heavy pylons. After many modernization and upgrading, the radar detection distance of large targets is greater than 140 kilometers.
Su34 Platypus fighter bomber , the air weight reaches 22.5 tons, the normal take-off weight is 39 tons, the maximum take-off weight reaches 45.1 tons, when loading 8 tons of ammunition, the combat radius is 1,100 kilometers, the maximum flight speed is 1.8 Mach, there are 12 weapon hanging points, the nose is equipped with V004 passive phased array radar, and the detection distance of large ground targets is 250 kilometers. The latest Kh-35U anti-ship missile is mounted at a maximum range of 260 kilometers, but due to the Russian industrial level, it lacks the precision guided bomb .
Current status development
JH-7 Flying Leopard has also made frequent appearances this year. Before 17 o'clock on August 19, 7 JH-7 fighter bombers appeared near the strait. On that day, a new and improved model was exhibited at the Changchun Air Show. On November 6, a large number of fighter jets and special combat aircraft were active around the Taiwan Strait, including a Flying Leopard.
At this air show, the new Flying Leopard installed a larger missile mount. This model mount is the latest improved DF-4C type conductor. This type of equipment was previously mainly used for H6K medium- and long-range bomber , and is mainly used to carry K/AKD-20 air-to-ground missile (Changjian-20 air-to-ground missile) and YJ-12 anti-ship missile (Eagle Strike-21). After being installed on the Flying Leopard, it can carry larger ground ammunition.
. In the past few years and at the 2022 air show, Feibao was a J-H-7A2 model, which is the latest improved model of the Feibao family. This Feibao was equipped with the AKF-89A stealth spreader debuted to many people. This type of missile has the low detectability appearance characteristics of . Some netizens also think it is a stealth cruise missile. However, now our army has a relatively powerful supersonic anti-ship missile and anti-ship ballistic missile . It is not necessary to work hard to develop a missile similar to the US AGM158.
In addition to the improvement of aircraft bodies and stealth spreaders, this year's Cloud Arrow 1000-1 laser guided invasion bombs and AKF-088C extended-range air-to-ground missiles were also used to strike solid and permanent fortifications. Among them, Cloud Arrow 1000-1 can penetrate 70 cm steel plates, or 6-meter-thick steel and cement fortifications, or 60-meter-thick hard soil layer, with a maximum range of 20 kilometers and an error of less than 3 meters. It can excellently deal with command centers or underground hangars hidden under the rock formations. AKF-088C is an improved KD-88H type with a maximum range of more than 300 kilometers. These weapons have entered service.
During the landing, the improved Flying Leopard was equipped with the PL-5E air combat missile. is the third generation infrared air-to-air missile developed by my country. The maximum overload of reached 40g. has the ability to launch over shoulder. uses the advanced smoke-free propellant rocket engine , which reduces the launch signal characteristics and is also a standard fighting weapon for my country's advanced fighter jets.
