Reviewing The Chinese J 10 Fleet

Reviewing The Chinese J 10 Fleet

     The J 10 is one of the Chinese backbone Fighter jet to perform defensive mission inside Chinese Ai space. The Chinese Air force operates more than 250 J 10 variants which comprises more than twelve squadron of Fighter's with 70% of service availability at any given time. The J 10 is one of the best Chinese designed Fighter jets based on the cancelled Israeli Lavi program. J 10 is a single engine multi role, which can be modified in future with newer Radar and power plants. The J 10 is almost identical to the American F 16, Who is also a light multi role all weather Fighter jets.

     The important feature in the J 10 B is the Divert less supersonic air intake and the larger radome to house bigger AESA or phased array radar. The Aerospace engineers claim the DSI is used to control the fighter jet in Supersonic speed and superior boundary layer air flow. The DSI have one more advantage which is the reduced number of moving parts, who lightens the aircraft's weight. Normal air inlets has many moving parts, however the DSI has very few moving parts.

    DSI also known as for reducing the radar cross section in the air inlets. allows the Radar reflections to be absorbed between the diverter and aircraft body. It's only in the air intake sections of the Fighter jet. A complete stealth aircraft with DSI have almost invisible to Radars. However West, Russia and Americans evaluated the DSI long ago, But never used due to some unknown reasons. Currently the Chinese J 10 and Pakistani JF 17 has DSI air intakes.

     China says the J 10 houses home made multi mode radar, or an pulse Doppler radar. Chinese claimed the Radar can track ten targets at one time and allows simultaneously engage two targets using semi active radar missiles for short range no escape engagements. The Radar also capable of firing four long range active radar missile for long range interception. Mostly the PL 12 is used for long range interception. However no information's available about the Radar's tracking range and detection method.

The Claimed AESA Radar

    China actively working to  produce a electronically scanned array radar. which can be fitted in the J 10 B, However the western analyzers said Chinese may develop a phased array radar rather than the claimed active radars. The Chinese military officials rejected the western claim and said the J 10 B currently retrofitted with AESA Radars. The larger radome cone is a good example to accept their Claim. However The AESA requires huge power to operate this will further reduce the Range of J 10 B.

     Many claims the J 10 B also equipped with  Infrared tracking system same what westerners called as ISRT. Which allows to guide the Infrared guided missiles and laser guided Bombs. However the westerner think it just be a hoax, where China tries to fool the foreigners. The IRST allows the Fighter jets to engage targets with using the Radar for guidance. 

    J 10 B uses the AL 31 F engine. The same what being used in the Russian made Flankers operated by many countries include India. J 10 B uses the single AL 31 F engine with slight modification for better thrust. However the Chinese AL 31 don't have thrust vectoring like Indian and Russian Flankers who have the TVC for better maneuverability in high speeds. The Turbofan engine allows the J 10 B to reach Mach 2 speed in high altitude and supersonic speed in low altitude too. The J 10 B can fly at the height of some 60,000 feet.

    China almost modifying the J 10 B with home made WS 10 engines. which produces 12 tons of thrust. Sources claims China already mass producing the engines. which is slightly reverse engineered from the Russian AL 31 engines. Recently some of the photos emerged in online that J 10 B flying with improved WS 10 A Engines.

    The J 10 B is a good aircraft, However lacks of Combat radius, this can be further enhanced by in flight refueling and by carrying more drop tanks. The Officially claimed combat radius of the J 10 is some 500 kilometers. This makes a clear sight of Chinese Su 33 Flanker clones combat radius operated from Chinese Liaoning Aircraft carrier.

J 10 receiving fuel in Mid air

    J 10 B can carry some 7 tons of payload in it's external hard points, Which include missiles Bombs and drop tanks. The J 10 believed to carry YJ 9 Cruise missile for stand off range attack. J 10 B has eleven hard points. armed with short and medium range air to air missiles, which makes the J 10 B is a best combat air patrol and air interceptor same like the F 16.

  The J 10 B is what the IAF will faces in first run, If IAF tries to breach the Chinese air space. China may throw the twin engine long range fighters for offensive missions and uses the single engine high agile light fighter for defensive mission. with Radar superiority IAF MiG 29 or Mirage 2000 can shoot down the J 10 B very easily. However no one can underestimate the Chinese capability.  

The Chinese Chengdu J 20

The Chinese Chengdu J 20

    The J 20 program is the Chinese first fifth generation fighter program, that can designed to hunt down American stealth fighter jets and Bombers and gives an upper edge to the PLA Air force in aerial fighting, the actual program initiated later 1990's, with many ex Ukrainian aerospace engineers and downed American F 117 technologies, and many hacked source codes of American Joint Strike Fighter program, the J 20 appeared first in 2011, looks similar to the American F 22, with canards, and set a new milestone in global aerospace, the J 20 primarily designed as a Air superiority Fighter, by housing large number of sleek air to air missiles in it's three weapon bays.

    With bunch of resources, the Chinese almost managed to fast track the Fighter development program, after the first flight in 2011, within five years they almost build five more prototypes and using those for testing, even the new seventh prototype 2016 rolled out this month by performing aerial flight tests, six prototypes used for flight characteristics tests and one used for ground based tests, those appeared J 20 prototypes initially tested in long time, sometimes the test can go more than hours, that looks the J 20 has much long combat radius to perform long range missions and long period of aerial supremacy.

    The Chinese has only one major problem in the J 20 program is the Engines, they started the engine program way back 1990, still they are not matured enough to create a true turbo fan engines, countries like France, England, America and Russia are the only countries who developed a true fighter jet engines , and they keep the engine blades composite technology as secret, while China could able to absorb the tech, they tried the reverse engineered Russian AL 31 F engines dubbed as WS 10 in China, they used the WS 10 to build as much as Flanker clones,however the engine will not performed well in the J 20 test bed, so they plans to buy newer Engines from Russia. they tried to purchase the AL 41 117 engine who powers the Su 35 Super flankers and the prototype variants of PAK FA, Russia almost denied the Chinese request, how ever instead of selling the Engines, Russia prefer whole Su 35 Sale to China which gives more money to Russia rather just millions for some engines,  both of them almost signed the Contract, and earlier this year some media sources reported that Chinese Fighter pilots went to Russia for a Training mission to fly in the Su 35,

    The Chinese has a project based on the WS 10 to develop a improved version of AL 31 F, they concentrating the WS 15 engine to power the J 20, as per some leaked reports, Janes says the power output of the new engines is just 80 Kilo newtons, means twin engine provide some 160 kN, which is rated less powerful engine in the fifth generation fighter category,

    Same like other fifth generation fighter jets, the J 20 too comes with a  AESA Radar, China uses a much larger AESA compared to others with some 1856 modules for transmitting and receiving emitted signals, which is capable to detect and track targets up to some 200 kilo meters, however these are all come from Chinese media, not a analyzed or confirmed reports, because no one saw the Radar inside the J 20, foreign military watches aware of KLJ 5 AESA radar,while the real capabilities is unknown, unlike foreign AESA are usually X band LPI radars , means enemy radar warning receiver will not detect the radar waves emitted from such Low probability of intercept Radar, Radar's like AN/APG 77, RBE 2 and Byelka has such capabilities, It's believed Chinese AESA too has such LPI Characteristics,

   The real shocking is the J 20's Electro Optic Targeting system (EOTS) one of the most advanced technologies emerged from the known IRST, which allows the fighter detect and track, enemy low observable stealth aircraft's in long ranges, even without using the on board radar, the EOTS can allow the fighter to launch medium range IR guided missiles, means the hostile air craft even have no idea about, where those missiles are coming from. such modern systems are presents only in the F 35 fighter jet, the system known as EOTS and in the Rafale known as FSO- Front sector optroincs, even the PAK FA based IRST system too not much advanced than the above mentioned systems.

    With the use of J 20's modern Avionic suites, the J 20 can detect and engage Su 30 MKI fighters from long range, even without being detected by the Sukhoi Radar, due to the LPI capability and Stealth the IAF's ground based Radar's too don't have the capability to track such stealth planes, The Sukhoi too have IRST which can detect the Low observable stealth aircraft, however it can detect those fighters in very close ranges only. same like other EOTS the J 20 too guide the air ground missiles using it's EOTS, how ever the J 20's weapon bay will not accommodate heavy bombs, they need to carry those missile externally only.

    One more Shocking is, China almost completed J 20's trails, and planning to mass produce those fighters within next two years, as earlier planned 2016 deadline is almost is passing by, It's believed China will carryout weapon tests in coming days, before going to mass productions, and by 2017 Chinese Air force gets the J 20 in it's wings, the same year Russia too induct their PAK FA in it's VKS fleet.