Recently, a number of Y-20 large transport planes carrying plausible medical units of the People's Liberation Army have arrived at Shanghai Airport, which has aroused widespread concern among netizens. While constantly running to fight the domestic epidemic, a number of Y-20 transport aircraft have gone out of the country and appeared in Eastern Europe, thousands of miles away, which has once again aroused heated discussion.
The Y-20 arrives in Shanghai
According to the latest information disclosed by the world civil route system, on April 9, local time, six large Y-20 transport aircraft of the Chinese Air Force landed at Batanica Air Base in Serbia, and the six Y-20 fuselages were numbered 20041, 20042, 20045, 20047, 20049 and 20142. If the news is true, then this is the first time that the continental Y-20 transport aircraft has appeared in Eastern Europe in the form of 6 aircraft, demonstrating the strong strategic delivery capability of the Chinese Air Force.
Six Y-20 transport aircraft arrived in Serbia
Y-20 transport aircraft
In terms of distance, the straight-line distance from Beijing to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, is about 7400 kilometers, which means that the single-line voyage of the six Y-20 transport aircraft exceeds 8000 km, which has reached the upper limit of the maximum voyage, giving full play to the performance advantages of the large voyage of the Y-20 transport aircraft. At the end of January this year, two Y-20 flights carrying a large number of relief supplies arrived in Tonga, 10,000 kilometers away, after three transfers, refreshing the record for a single voyage of the Y-20 transport aircraft.
Straight-line distance from Beijing to Belgrade
As early as August 31 last year, at the press conference of the 13th Zhuhai Airshow, Colonel Shen Jinke, spokesman of the Mainland Air Force, told the media that the Chinese Air Force has historically stepped into the threshold of the strategic air force, and the strategic delivery capability played by the Y-20 transport aircraft is a very important part of the strategic air force.
The Y-20 delivers anti-epidemic materials abroad
According to the popular definition, the strategic air force needs to meet three conditions: First, strategic defense, that is, the ability to defend its own territory, airspace, and territorial waters from infringement by other countries; second, strategic strikes, that is, being able to break through the enemy's defense at a relatively long distance and carry out precision strikes against the enemy's strategic objectives; and third, strategic projection, that is, being able to project the entire combat force of the entire structure to a relatively far established position in a relatively short period of time.
J-20 fighter
At present, the strategic defense and strategic strike capabilities of the Continental Air Force have been formed. In terms of strategic defense, as the mainland's J-20, J-16, and J-10C fighters have been incorporated into the air force units, the overall strength of the mainland's air fighters has formed a certain qualitative advantage over the US Air Force, and it is completely possible to defend the mainland's territorial waters and airspace from being invaded by foreign forces. In terms of strategic strikes, the combat radius of the H-6K and H-6N bombers has been increased to more than 3500 km, and after carrying the KD-20 cruise missile, the strike radius can be as far as 5000 km, and the entire military base of the second island chain is within the range of the firepower of the H-6/N bomber, it can be said that even if there is no H-20, the H-6K/N bomber can meet the needs of strategic strikes.
H-6K bomber
With the Y-20 transport aircraft entering service in batches and performing transnational heavy-duty transport missions many times, the strategic delivery capability of the Continental Air Force has been formed, and the overall strength has approached the Russian Air Force. At the beginning of this year, Russia assembled 70 Il-76 large transport aircraft and 5 An-124 strategic transport aircraft in a short period of time, and delivered the formed stability maintenance force to Kazakhstan, demonstrating the strong strategic delivery capability of the Russian Air Force. Today, the number of Y-20 transport aircraft in service has exceeded 50, and with a batch of Il-76 transport aircraft previously imported from Russia, the mainland also has the ability to assemble 70 large transport aircraft for strategic delivery in a short period of time.
Russian Il-76 transport aircraft
The Y-20 is a large transport aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of 220 tons and a maximum load of 66 tons, which has more advantages than Russia's Il-76 transport aircraft in terms of performance indicators, and can fully meet the rapid delivery capability of the mainland army within a range of 4,000 kilometers, and can quickly deliver combat personnel, equipment and equipment and logistics support materials to the front line of operations, which is crucial for winning a modern war. As the new batch of Y-20 begins to replace the WS-20 large-scale bypass ratio engine with greater thrust and lower fuel consumption, the power problems that restrict the Y-20 transport aircraft have ceased to exist, and the performance has been significantly improved, which has made the Y-20 gain a foothold in the world's large transport fleet.
Y-20B transport aircraft equipped with WS-20 engines
The six Y-20s flew to Serbia in Eastern Europe after a long journey, and it can be said that they once again completed the transnational transportation task excellently, demonstrating the strong strategic delivery capability of the continental air force. It is reported that the 6 Y-20s handed over the FK-3 medium- and long-range air defense missile system to Serbia.
It is reported that in August 2020, Serbia ordered a batch of FK-3 air defense missile systems from China, and according to the delivery cycle, the Y-20 is most likely to transport this batch of FK-3 air defense missiles.
FK-3 anti-aircraft missile launch mode
The FK-3 air defense missile is a low-cost medium- and long-range air defense missile put by the mainland to the international market, and is an export model of the mainland's "Hongqi" -22 air defense missile, and the main target customers are countries with limited economic conditions and great demand for medium- and long-range air defense missiles. The FK-3 uses the same quadruple launcher as the Continental Red Flag-9 air defense missile, and the launch method has become inclined launch, which is more adaptable to the battlefield and faster to react. In order to control the cost, the overall performance of the FK-3 is not very prominent, the effective range is 5 to 100 kilometers, the maximum shooting height is 27 kilometers, and the composite guidance mode of command + semi-active radar seek is adopted, which can effectively strike fixed-wing aircraft, cruise missiles, air-to-ground missiles and gunships.
FK-3 anti-aircraft missile system
Although there is a big gap between the performance of the FK-3 air defense missile and the Hongqi-9 air defense missile, it is enough for Serbia that lacks long-range air defense capabilities, and the maximum range of 100 kilometers can effectively cover Serbia's territorial airspace, which can greatly improve Serbia's homeland air defense capabilities.
President Vucic of Serbia
In the field of international military trade, many large-scale military equipment are transported by the An-124 and even An-225 transport aircraft of the Ukrainian Antonov Company, but the recent war in Ukraine has affected many Antonov's Andonov and the only An-225 strategic transport aircraft.
An-124 strategic transport aircraft transporting Su-24 fighters
In order to enable Serbia to use the advanced air defense missiles made by China as soon as possible, the mainland dispatched 6 Y-20 transport aircraft at a time, which shows how deep the friendship between China and Serbia is, and also reflects the mainland's willingness to deepen military cooperation with Serbia, and once again tests the strategic delivery capability of the Y-20 large transport aircraft.