"Military Sub-Plane" by Ivan the Great
Recently, the "Military Documentary" program of the National Defense military channel of the Central Radio and Television Corporation reported on the deeds of a certain J-7A "Flying Leopard" fighter-bomber of the Air Force Aviation Corps of the Southern Theater carrying anti-ship missiles, flying to the South China Sea area, and driving away from a certain foreign warship that "rubbed the edge ball" near the baseline of our territorial waters.
According to reports, after receiving the battle order from its superiors, the ministry quickly dispatched J-7A fighter-bombers carrying YJ-83K anti-ship missiles to the predetermined sea area to search for and find enemy ships. After shouting on the public channel and flying over the enemy ship, after displaying the live anti-ship missiles it carried, the enemy ship was forced to turn around and leave the baseline of China's territorial waters.
The development of the J-7A
Referring to the J-7A fighter-bomber, this type of fighter is the only fighter-bomber independently developed by China's aviation industry since the reform and opening up. As early as the beginning of the development is an absolute legend, in 1999, the 50th anniversary of the National Day military parade, the first appearance of the Chinese Navy J-7 fighter-bomber is the focus of the whole field.
After all, at that time, the missileization of the sea was a completely new topic for the Chinese Navy. Previously, only single-digit H-6D campaign bombers could be completed, and the emergence of the J-7 fighter-bomber added new blood to the Chinese Navy's aviation and sea operations, and suddenly stepped onto a new level.
Interior cockpit view
At the same time, after entering the new century, the J-7 fighter-bomber also implemented an "I-to-change II technical improvement", mainly replacing a new type of plane gap array full-wave fire control radar, the third-generation integrated avionics and fire control system, etc., replacing the original second-generation semi-fire control radar and avionics system, and integrating such as YJ-83K, K/AKD-88 air-surface missiles and LT series precision-guided munitions.
Mount precision-guided missiles
After improvement, the J-7A fighter-bomber has become a kind of "air-sea universal" fighter-bomber, with a stronger aviation sea control and surface precision strike capabilities than the J-7 aircraft, and some special improved models also carry electronic warfare pods, with stronger electronic countermeasures and anti-radiation capabilities. If the earliest J-7 is just an anti-ship missile attack aircraft with the color of "rushing to the chapter", then the J-7A fighter-bomber, in the first 15 years of this century, and the J-10A and J-11B two typical three-generation fighters cooperated with each other and formed a system, which is the previous generation of "three musketeers" models for the Chinese Navy and Air Force.
The J-10, J-16 and J-20 three-plane formations from the perspective of the tail cabin
However, we still say that in the past ten years, the main battle equipment of the Chinese Air Force and naval aviation has indeed improved a little too fast. From the official equipment of the third-generation fighter J-10 to the first flight of the fourth-generation J-20 fighter, there was only less than 6 years in between; from the formation of the complete combat effectiveness of the J-11B fighter to the initial formation of the combat effectiveness of the J-16 fighter, there was only a gap of about 6 years in the middle.
The scale of the J-7A equipment is actually very large
Relatively speaking, the J-7A, as a model with the performance of some third-generation fighters, under the squeeze of a large number of third-and-a-half-generation or even fourth-generation fighters, the original sense of existence is gradually declining, and it has encountered the squeeze of new combat forces such as gunships and dia-UAVs. When the Chinese Air Force fully retired the Qiang-5 fighter after the military reform, the discussion on whether the J-7A is suitable for the future battlefield seems to have not stopped for a moment in the military fan group.
Is the J-7A obsolete?
So, as a model that appeared at the turn of the century, the current sense of existence is gradually declining, and compared with the J-16 and J-10C models that appear "a bit earthy", is the J-7A fighter-bomber obsolete and no longer suitable for the needs of the future battlefield, and does the future Chinese navy and air force still need similar models? Ivan the Great believes that at least from the reports of the National Defense Military Channel on the J-7A fighter-bomber, this type of aircraft still has a fairly tenacious vitality in the field of aviation and sea control, and it is far from obsolete.
After all, we all know that according to the division of sea-dominating operations of the Soviet Red Navy, sea-making and anti-ship operations include tactical-class anti-ships and campaign-class anti-ships:
The main operational objectives of tactical anti-ship focus on daily patrol control of the coastal area, and the use of small anti-ship missiles to attack or deter individual and small groups of targets with weak defenses is equivalent to clearing smaller threats by hand;
The main combat objectives of the campaign-class anti-ship are concentrated in large-scale maritime battles and fleet decisive battles, and the use of heavy anti-ship missiles to carry out intensive missile assaults on the main ships such as aircraft carriers and cruisers that are closely defended by the other side, and the results of the operation directly determine the outcome of the campaign and the ownership of sea control.
Judging from the system of anti-ship operations of our army, it is basically divided into two levels: campaign and tactics:
Represented by anti-ship ballistic missiles and ship-launched hypersonic vehicles, it is the campaign-class anti-ship missile; represented by the YJ-12A and YJ-18A, it is the campaign-tactical anti-ship missile; and the YJ-83A/K and YJ-91A are the tactical-class anti-ship missiles.
Compared with the bulky campaign and campaign tactical anti-ship missiles, anti-ship missiles such as YJ-83K and YJ-91A have a higher advantage in cost performance when attacking small ships and weakly defended ships, after all, not all targets need to be hit with large anti-ship missiles;
The J-7A is also far cheaper than using the J-16 model, such as airspace police patrol and tactical-level aviation and sea control tasks. After all, one is an old model that has been used for 20 years, and the other is a high-end version of the new model, which determines that in some combat scenarios, when the J-7A carries out the aviation and sea-making mission, it has its own place of use, and the key is to see how the equipment is used.
In addition to continuing to carry out aviation and sea-controlling missions, the J-7A, as a fighter-bomber of the Air Force, believes that Ivan the Great may be more useful than previously imagined in the field of air surface blocking and ground attack. We all thought that the fighter-bomber is a model that is gradually declining on the battlefield, and its several typical types of tactical tasks: close air interception and close air support, tactical and campaign depth interception, etc., are being gradually divided up by helicopter gunships, Tatat integrated unmanned aerial vehicles and dual-mission fighters.
China's uncorrected -7 drone
However, from the experience of the Ukrainian battlefield, including the US military in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places, whether it is a helicopter gunship or a Tchatha integrated UAV, there are relatively big problems when carrying out the corresponding tasks:
The Ukrainian TB-2 drone in the early days of the war did bring a lot of trouble to the Russian army...
In the case of the integrated UAV, the UAV that is currently put into the battlefield generally has the defects of relatively slow speed and relatively low viability on the battlefield. The most typical example is Ukraine's TB-2 UAV, before the war, the Ukrainian army according to the experience of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, the UAV has high hopes, many military fans have also hoped that TB-2 can "continue to be brilliant", completely prove that "tanks are steel coffins".
Under the complete field air defense, the Ukrainian TB-2 UAV has been almost exhausted by the Russian army, which is why the Ukrainian army's TB-2 UAV has not been heard of for some days.
Unexpectedly, in the face of opponents with strong field air defense capabilities, the TB-2 UAV almost did not win anything, and even the Ukrainian official had to admit that the TB-2 "did not play as expected", which proved the limitations of the actual combat use of the Tatta integrated UAV.
The Soviet ZSU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, which are largely maintained in the Middle East
The same is true for helicopter gunships, as early as the Afghan battlefield, we mentioned that the US military's 2002 forest hopper operation once set a record of being destroyed within 2 days, or scrapping 5 helicopters after forced landing, all of which were the main FORCES AH-64A and CH-47. The Afghan Taliban, which has achieved this record, only has a very limited DShK machine gun and ZSU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, and under the support of the superior air-to-ground fire of the US military, it can only fight one round and have to abandon the anti-aircraft guns and run, otherwise it will be covered by rapid firepower.
As of now, the Russian army has lost 10 Ka-52, 1 Mi-28N, 4 to 5 Mi-8AMTSh helicopters, a large number of helicopter gunships, all of which were shot down by portable anti-aircraft fire during the near-Earth assault and the implementation of close air support.
On the contrary, fixed-wing fighters, front-line bombers, fighter-bombers, etc., have reflected a relatively strong battlefield viability and strike efficiency in the operation: in terms of battlefield losses, the Current Russian Air and Space Force has lost 1 Su-30SM and Su-35S, the Su-34 has lost about 5, and the Su-25SM does not even have a clear loss record.
At the same time, the ammunition carrying capacity and strike efficiency of these models are at least comparable to those of helicopter gunship units. Helicopter gunship units have a certain advantage only in short-range anti-tank operations, and they are still inferior to fixed-wing fighter-bombers and strikes in the air, especially against strong fortifications.
Su-30MKK and J-7A
Therefore, in terms of campaign and tactical depth of interruption, the fighter-bomber represented by the J-7A has at least a stronger battlefield survivability than the Tsatchater-UAVs, especially in the face of opponents with strong field air defense capabilities. The best strategy is to rely on the J-16D, J-16 and J-7A to carry out electromagnetic suppression with the Cha-16D with the cha-and-16D.
A multi-aircraft hybrid strike formation similar to the U.S. military
In terms of shallow and deep interception and close air support, the J-7A, a fixed-wing aircraft with precision strike capability, can at least drop bombs in the air under the cover of electronic warfare aircraft, rather than going down to a dangerous low altitude and competing with man-portable air defense missiles running all over the ground;
At the same time, as we said before, the J-7A is a "relatively cheap" and cost-effective aircraft, and it is even more suitable for "grinding meat" in shallow and deep depth than the advanced J-16 fighter. Relying on a high equipment proper rate to achieve a high dispatch rate, resulting in excellent firepower delivery efficiency and high mission cost performance.
All in all, although the conflict in Ukraine is still going on, there is a lot of common sense that we usually think very well, and we don't know that it is that thing until we actually go to the battlefield. For example, the types of strike aircraft and front-line bombers are not paid much attention to in peacetime, and who could have imagined that the best performance of the ground attack in this Ukrainian conflict is these two types?
Considering the similarity of the future combat environment between the Chinese and Russian armies, from this point of view: not to mention that the story of the J-7A is not over, whether there will be a successor model of the J-7A in the future, or even a model similar to the Su-34, is a completely discussable issue.