Foreword: Since the end of the last century, the United States' cutting-edge weapons design concept has been at the forefront of the world and has become a direction for other countries to emulate. Such as the F22 stealth fighter, the B2 stealth bomber and the V-22 tiltrotor, etc., have ushered in a new era of similar weapons and equipment. However, blindly pursuing pioneering technology ahead of the times, it is easy to step on too big and fall down. After the aging of the F16 and F15 fighters in the United States, its large number of advanced F35 joint attack aircraft were not able to pick up the beams, and the United States suddenly found that its once proud air support force had been followed by no one. At this time, the J-16 fighter on the other side of the Pacific has emerged, showing a strong strike capability, so that the arrogant United States also has to try to touch China to cross the river. (Given that it is too advanced, this article does not discuss the specific combat performance of the J-16 fighter)
When it comes to the US military, I believe that the first picture that comes to many people's minds is behind several flying fighters, raising a burst of red fireballs. Since World War II, the US Navy's aircraft carrier aircraft wing has shown its might, completely blowing up the era of giant ships and cannons into the dust of history, air support strike tactics have become the belief of the US military. With its good high-speed penetration capabilities and excellent maneuverability, the fighter-bomber has become the air darling of the US military.
The first Fighter-Bomber in the United States was a modification of the famous P40 Mustang fighter, and although it was not very professional, it also played a very important role at the end of World War II. In view of this, the U.S. military later developed the F-105, F-111 and F-15E fighter-bombers. Among them, the F-15E fighter was once touted by american fans as the world's strongest fighter-bomber, claiming that if it ranked second, no fighter-bomber dared to rank first. Indeed, in the Gulf War, the F15E fighter-bomber could almost be said to have hit the battlefield invincible, and 80% of the laser-guided bombs were dropped by it, destroying a large number of ground targets. And according to incomplete statistics, since the F15E fighter entered service, it has achieved an impressive record of shooting down hundreds of enemy aircraft in various wars, and none of them have crashed.
The F-15E fighter-bomber is an improvement on the F-15 multi-role heavy fighter. It was fitted with a more powerful F100-PW-229 engine and a conformal fuel tank on both sides of the air intakes under the belly, giving it a longer range and a larger bomb load. For the first time, the F-15E fighter-bomber also adopted a glass cockpit interface and replaced the previous analog control system with a newly developed digital three-degree fly-by-wire flight control system, providing a powerful ground-to-ground flight capability. The F-15E fighter-bomber can carry 8 air-to-air missiles and more than 10 aerial bombs to fly thousands of kilometers, and then drop bombs at the ultra-low altitude penetration enemy's air defense circle to complete the fatal blow to the ground target, and then lightly load to kill the enemy fighters who come to pursue, and finally return to the base safely.
It is precisely because the F-15E fighter is too powerful that the US military has the illusion of using a cattle knife in the recent battlefields, thus ignoring the research and development of a new generation of fighter-bombers, and only betting on the F35A stealth fighter. As a stealth fighter, the F35A's penetration capability is indeed much stronger than that of the F15-E, even if it is deep behind the enemy to destroy the enemy target, the other party may not be able to find its tracks. However, the F35A stealth fighter is only a medium fighter, and its mounting capacity is very limited, almost half of the F-15E fighter, and the strike capability is very limited. In addition, its internal oil volume is also small, and the combat radius may be less than 1,000 kilometers in a full load state.
The F35A combined attack aircraft is only used to bully and bully the air defense systems of small countries such as Iraq and Libya, but it is a bit inadequate to use it to raid the complete air defense systems of major countries. Under the threat of various anti-stealth radars and multi-layered anti-aircraft weapons in the distance, middle and near, it is difficult for the F35A stealth fighter to calmly lock on and drop bombs to attack targets. Even if the bombs are dropped, it is very likely that the number will be intercepted by the close defense guns, and it will basically expose its own body, and it is unlikely to return to the base safely. If it is to participate in large-scale air raid operations, the F35A stealth fighter is too low in terms of cost performance, the cost is huge, and the amount of bomb dropped is too small, which is really not worth the loss. More critically, the F35A fighter, like the F15E fighter, lacks effective means of attacking the sea. The F15E fighter is a fire control system that does not have the function of striking targets at sea surface, while the F35A fighter is unable to mount a large anti-ship missile, and can only look at the sea with tears in the eyes. Should we invest heavily in the development of a stealthy version of the fighter-bomber? The US military fell into confusion for a while.
China's fighter-bomber development started much later than the US military, and it was also much more anxious, but we came first and perfectly achieved a counterattack. China's first fighter-bomber was a strong 5 fighter developed in the 1960s on the basis of the J-6 fighter. It is a single-seat, twin-engine supersonic light fighter, which not only successfully carried out the task of dropping hydrogen bombs, but also became our first fighter to complete the export, and for a long time it was the main model of our army's ground strikes. Compared with the us F111A fighter of the same era, its performance is in a state of total backwardness in terms of maximum flight speed, maximum bomb carrying capacity, or maximum range. Although after our continuous improvement and replacement, and even the introduction of advanced technology from Western countries, it still cannot make up for its weakness of small bomb load and super range, and it has to regret to withdraw from active service.
In fact, after the 1970s, after the strong 5 strike aircraft entered service, we began the design and development of the J-7 fighter-bomber. However, due to the fact that the military industrial base is too weak, even if the British MK202 engine is directly adopted, the research and development of the J-7 fighter-bomber has lasted for more than 20 years, and it was not until the beginning of this century that the combat effectiveness was basically formed. Compared with the strong 5 fighters, the improvement of the J-7 fighter-bomber can be described as all-round. It adopts a modern avionics system and fire control system, and successfully extends the strike range of Chinese naval aviation to the second island chain. But the U.S. military was not idle at the time, and its new generation of F15E fighters also successfully joined the active service, once again ahead of our generation.
But that's okay, we immediately purchased more advanced Su-30 fighter-bombers from Russia. The Su-30 fighter-bomber was developed on the basis of the Su-27 fighter, which not only inherited the super maneuverability of the Su-27, but also replaced it with a more advanced fire control system and a more powerful weapon system. According to the sukhoi design bureau' assessment, the overall air combat effectiveness of the Su-30 fighter-bomber is 1.4 times that of the Su-27, and the comprehensive combat effectiveness is about 40% higher than that of the F-15E, and about 60% higher than that of the Mirage 2000-5. Regardless of whether this is suspected of selling melons and boasting about it, the performance of the Su-30 fighter-bomber is definitely at the same level as the F15E, and the Su-30 also has the ability to attack the sea that the F15E does not have. The Chinese Navy's air strike group, together with the J-7 fighter-bomber and the H-6H bomber, once deterred the U.S. aircraft carrier battle group.
After tasting the sweetness of the Su-30 fighter-bomber, we did not develop stealth fighters with the same enthusiasm as the US military, but began to use the foundation of the Su-30 combined with our latest fourth-generation fighter technology to develop the nationally produced J-16 fighter-bomber. The success of the J-16 fighter-bomber is unquestionable, and it has become the ace strike force of the Chinese Navy and Air Force. I believe that the pilots of the US military should have a clear and objective understanding of it after observing it at close range. It is precisely because of the presence of the J-16 fighter-bomber that the J-20 stealth fighter can concentrate more intently on its kicking skills, and we can more calmly improve and upgrade the FC31 stealth fighter.
And the US military, which likes to be one step ahead of everything, is not so HAPPY this time. The first was the arrogant closure of the F22 stealth fighter production line, and the result was a cold sweat by the Su-57 and J-20 stealth fighters. After surviving until the F35 combined attack aircraft grew to size, it turned out that it seemed to have gone astray, misestimating the war mode of the twenty-first century. The originally wealthy U.S. military has been squeezed out of its wallet by the expensive F35 combined attack aircraft, and there is no more money left to develop a new fighter-bomber. In the face of reality, the US military had to learn from our experience and began to apply the technology of the fourth generation stealth fighter to upgrade the F15E fighter-bomber and develop the so-called F15EX Advanced Eagle.
Some media reports that the F15EX fighter-bomber may be equipped with a single engine with a thrust of up to 13 tons, which will further enhance its mounting capacity and maneuverability. According to the U.S. military, the F15EX fighter-bomber can carry up to 22 AIM-120D medium-range air-to-air missiles, and few third-generation fighters can escape its attack. In addition to the detection system, the F-15EX is equipped with a new active phased array radar that can detect and track multiple batches of air-to-ground targets at a long distance; in terms of flight control system, it uses a digital cockpit control system, equipped with an advanced display core processor and new combat flight software, and uses the "open mission system" architecture to further enhance the adaptability and flexibility of the airframe; in terms of electronic warfare, it replaces the old electronic warfare system with a new passive/active early warning survival system and integrates radar/ Infrared early warning and electronic countermeasures functions can automatically detect and identify air threats and implement electronic suppression, and the comprehensive combat capability has been comprehensively improved.
At first glance, the F15EX fighter-bomber is likely to accomplish the feat of surpassing the J-16, after all, it has the advantage of being a latecomer, and all the performance parameters look very intimidating. But don't worry too much, the F15EX fighter inherits the consistent good tradition of the US fighter, that is, the dead are not worth their lives. According to foreign media reports, the cost of the US military to purchase an F15EX fighter-bomber is as high as 85 million US dollars, and if the logistics support cost is included, it will exceed 100 million US dollars, which has exceeded the current unit price of the F35 joint attack aircraft. In order to share the cost, the US military can't wait to push the F15EX fighter jet to the world arms market. When the U.S. military will be able to scrape together the cost to purchase as many F15EX as the Chinese J-16 fighter-bombers is really far away. Then there is that we still have not stopped advancing, whether the J-16 fighter will continue to improve and upgrade, and whether the J-20 stealth fighter will develop a fighter-bomber version, which is full of unknowns and full of hope.
Perhaps when the F15EX fighter bomber finally has enough to find the J-16 fighter bomber to break the wrist, it will be sadly discovered that countless Oriental Dragons have already shown their claws and are ready to tear them to pieces!
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