"Military Sub-Plane" author: I am Ivan the Great
Recently, according to a report by the National Defense military channel of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, a certain brigade of the Air Force Aviation Corps, as the first ace unit of the People's Air Force to form, participate in the war, and win the first victory, has now reorganized and modified the domestically produced J-20 stealth fighter, and has made meritorious contributions in training and preparing for war.
Both sides of the confrontation flew J-20 fighters and both were "Golden Helmets"
Judging from the video of the CCTV military channel, the brigade has carried out night flights for the first time since the start of training in the new year, and four J-20 fighters have started to take off in the dark, and the two groups have become opponents of each other to carry out red and blue offensive and defensive exercises. After a round of fighting, after a brief review and commentary, the pilot of the brigade flew the fighter plane into the air again and conducted a new round of confrontation drills.
In coordination with ground guidance and radar, "shoot down" multiple batches of "attacking enemy aircraft"
According to Li Ling, commander of the brigade, after the start of the training in the new year, the brigade increased the difficulty and intensity of night flight training, and carried out actual combat training in the middle of the night and at dawn on a regular basis. At the same time, during a recent air combat exercise, under the cover of radar and ground guidance, the brigade also simulated shooting down a large number of "incoming enemy aircraft," reflecting the performance of the J-20 fighter and the brigade's strong combat effectiveness.
Night training takes off
Although the videos and photos released by the CCTV National Defense Military Channel this time are not very many, the details of equipment and training that we can see from it are quite a few. First of all, from the perspective of equipment, of course, it is the "ace unit" of this air force aviation unit as the protagonist.
"Ace Troops" in the Air War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
According to CCTV's "official announcement," the ministry was one of the first "ace units" to be formed, the first to participate in the war, and the first to win the victory in the air war to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
The glorious history of this force
This sentence alone, I believe that many military fans who know something about the military history of our air force can know which brigade of the air force aviation unit is. However, what Ivan the Great noticed was that the captain of the brigade's "Strong Army Pioneer Flying Brigade" appeared in the program , Gao Qiangqiang (at least when it was reported, the high brigade was the captain of the brigade, and it is not clear whether there is a change in the position now).
High School Strong appeared on the show
I remember the first time Captain Tall appeared in front of the camera, or the "Real Man" program "Air Force Chapter" of Mango Tv in 2016, when Captain Tall appeared on camera, he gave himself a very personal introduction: "My name is High School Strong, China's Middle, Strong Strong", "I will not teach you how to fly, but I will teach you how to use it (referring to the J-11B aircraft) to fight, this is a unit ready to fight."
High School Strong Captain
The short opening statement showed the self-confidence and heroism of the Pilots of the Chinese Air Force to the fullest, and in 2017, the unit where the high school was strong won the championship of the free air combat "SkyHawk Cup" that year, and the strong captain of the second high school also won the title of "Golden Helmet" of that year, which reflected the strong combat effectiveness of the aviation unit.
I remember that at that time, there were rumors among military fans that the High Brigade and this air force aviation unit were estimated to be about to fly the most advanced fighters in china. Of course, judging from the equipment of the J-20 fighters later, the first unit was still placed in the "Wang Hai Brigade", another heroic unit of the Chinese Air Force. Now with the official "official announcement" of the J-20 equipped with a certain brigade of the Air Force Aviation Corps, it seems that the military fan group rumored in the past few years that the powerful captain of the high school will soon fly on the J-20, and now it has finally become a reality.
J-20 fuselage details
Of course, as the "protagonist" of the CCTV report, everyone is most concerned about the J-20 fighter jet equipped in the ministry.
From the details, the J-20 fighters equipped in the ministry are the same as the two J-20 fighters that appeared at the Zhuhai Air Show in 2021, and some of the details of the appearance have been slightly changed. For example, the use of a new type of formation strip light, replaced by a new type of Lomber lens, in some of the surface gaps for a more delicate low detectability treatment, the use of black paste strip coating.
J-20 aero engine details
These J-20 fighters are the biggest subsystem upgrades we can see, and of course these aircraft all use an improved version of the FWS-10 "Taihang" turbofan engine. Compared with the FWS-10 "Taihang" engine used by the J-16D electronic warfare aircraft, which also appeared at the Zhuhai Airshow site, the "Taihang" improved version equipped with the J-20 fighter has the following significant technical improvement characteristics:
One was the reuse of the design of the piloted nozzle on the tail nozzle, which was only commonly used on the early FWS-10A engines. It seems to be a "design regression", but if the design is proper, it can reduce the infrared signal characteristics of the engine tail nozzle to a certain extent and enhance the concealment of the J-20 in the infrared band;
Second, the tail nozzle shows the characteristics of black and gray, in fact, this "black gray" tail nozzle has also appeared at the Scene of the Zhuhai Airshow in 2021 and on the booth of China Aviation Development. A closer look will find that the surface of this tail nozzle is not a typical metal material, but may be a carbon-based or ceramic matrix composite tail nozzle, which can reduce the weight to a certain extent compared to the metal tail nozzle, and on the other hand, can also reduce the radar reflection signal characteristics;
Ivan the Great at the 2021 Zhuhai Air Show
Finally, Ivan the Great has always believed that the FWS-10 engine improvement that appeared on the 2021 Zhuhai Air Show and the China Aviation Development Platform is actually the "Taihang" engine equipped with the J-20 fighter. According to the explanation of the hangfa professional boss at the scene, it is believed that compared with the early "Taihang", the overall design and most of the design details are much more reasonable, reflecting the technological progress of China's hangfa industry in the past ten years. It is conceivable that after being equipped with a new type of "Taihang" engine, the J-20 fighters of the brigade to which the "Vanguard Flight Brigade of the Strong Army" belongs may even surpass the J-20 fighters equipped by the "Wang Hai Brigade" and using AL-31FN-M1 engines in terms of overall performance, thus winning the title of "strongest J-20" of our air force.
J-20 pilot helmet
However, although the ministry's J-20 fighter, compared with other units of the J-20, is estimated to be more perfect in the details of low detectable performance, and the whole aircraft thrust-to-weight ratio is also stronger, the flight helmet used by the pilot of the brigade is a bit "conservative":
In some of the photos, we can see that Brigade Commander Li Ling, including captain Gao Gaoqiang, is still using the TK-12A flying helmet originally equipped with the J-11B fighter. This type of flying helmet is a product that imitates the SuZSh-7NAP flying helmet, which can support the Sh-3UM helmet sight, but does not support more advanced helmet displays;
In another part of the photo, we can see that the brigade commander Li Ling wore a new lightweight flight helmet with the name of "panda helmet" and equipped with the pilots of the third and half generations of our army's fighter jets. The technical advantage of this type of flight helmet is one word: "light", there is no mount of helmet sight on the top, nor does it support advanced joint helmet display equipment.
The joint helmet display supported by some fighters of our army
Through public reports, we know that the J-20 fighter has been equipped with an advanced joint helmet display, the joint helmet display in addition to displaying flight parameters, situational awareness, fire control weapons and other data, the future can even be linked with the distributed aperture system, to achieve a visual enhancement display effect, such as allowing pilots to "see through the floor" in flight.
At present, the ministry's J-20 fighters do not seem to be equipped with the advanced joint display helmet, which is most likely that the ministry's modification has not yet been finalized, especially the existence of the TK-12A flying helmet, which seems to indicate that the ministry should still have some J-11B fighters; it may also be purely for the sake of secrecy, but in any case, the ministry's equipment, and even the public appearance of our army's most advanced joint helmet display system, should not be far away.
J-20 night flight training
Finally, judging from the details of the brigade's training revealed by CCTV, the brigade soon practiced night flights after it started flying in the new year, especially in the middle of the night and at dawn.
The so-called "night flight", according to the provisions of aviation terminology, generally refers to the flight after the end of the nautical dawn to the flight before the appearance of the nautical twilight, at this time, the sky has been completely dark, flight preparation and flight support are implemented in accordance with the conditions of night flight; and "dawn time", according to the provisions of aviation terminology, is the appearance of nautical twilight, until the sun jumps out of the horizon before the flight, at this time the sky is gradually brightening, flight preparation and flight support are implemented according to daytime conditions.
From the perspective of "night navigation", on the one hand, for the J-20 fighter, which has low detectable performance, and has good situational awareness capabilities, and pilots can use the vision enhancement system, it can better play its advantages of strong situational awareness ability and good stealth performance under dark night conditions, and maximize the probability of the other party using visual or optical detection equipment to find the J-20 fighter;
On the other hand, night flights, especially between four and five o'clock in the morning in the middle of the night, are often the most tired, the least vigilant, the worst ability to act and judge, in this sense, night operations are the best cover for stealth fighters, and will also give us more tactical advantages.
And from the perspective of "dawn flight", although the sky is gradually brightening. However, our main hypothetical enemy, the US Air Force and Navy, often have the habit of attacking at dawn when carrying out joint naval and air campaigns. The main factor is that the sky has just brightened and the spirit of the personnel is still relatively tired, and the other is that after the carrier-based aircraft is released in the dark conditions of the night, it is just possible to take advantage of the twilight and even the conditions of the sunrise to recover the carrier-based aircraft.
Thus, when the U.S. Navy conducted the offensive campaign, the first large-scale attack wave of Battle Day was carried out near dawn. Since the main combat opponent is accustomed to making moves at dawn, we must not only "pick up the moves" at dawn, but also preemptively attack in the second half of the night and disrupt the opponent's offensive rhythm through the battle in the second half of the night. In this sense, when the brigade starts flying in the new year, it first trains night navigation and practices dawn, not only to "temper the will of the pilots" and train the pilots' level of continuous combat, but also to have a clear direction.
All in all, with the official opening of another J-20 fighter unit of our army, it means that the J-20 has taken a new step in our army's equipment, and in 2022, will there be a new J-20 unit that will continue to be open? Let's wait and see.