In addition to the Wing Loong-2 UAV appeared in the Russian "Army-2023" international military-technical forum, the Y-20B large transport aircraft model also appeared in the military forum, this transport aircraft is China's independent development of transport aircraft, ending China's shortcomings in large transport aircraft, and most importantly, ending the history of relying on Russian-made Il-76 transport aircraft.
In the 90s of last century, China has introduced more than 10 Russian-made Il-76 large transport aircraft, basically made in the Soviet era, equivalent to China's purchase of second-hand Il-76 transport aircraft, this transport aircraft compared with the Y-8 medium transport aircraft, there are advantages such as strong transportation capacity and simple maintenance, the maximum load capacity reaches 50 tons, with a strong carrying capacity, is the only long-term strategic transport aircraft of the Chinese Air Force.
As a classic transport aircraft, the Il-76 transport aircraft has excellent overall performance and has played an important role in the Chinese Air Force, while Russia has carried out a major innovation in the Il-76 transport aircraft, launching a new Il-76MD-90A transport aircraft, the airframe mechanism continues the predecessor Il-76 transport aircraft, compared with the predecessor performance significantly improved.
Russia launched a new model, rooted in the backward avionics system of the Il-76 transport aircraft, poor economy, backward avionics is a common problem of Soviet transport aircraft, in solving the problems of Il-76 transport aircraft performance and production system, the Russian Air Force is also eager to update the modern transport aircraft fleet, make up for the shortcomings of the old version, while adopting new technologies and new equipment, core equipment such as avionics and power system has been improved, which makes the Il-76MD-90A transport aircraft payload increased to 60 tons.
When Russia launched a new version of the transport aircraft, China also built the Y-20 transport aircraft, and the two are very close in carrying capacity and performance. The Y-20 transport aircraft, codenamed "Kunpeng", has a maximum take-off weight of 220 tons and a maximum carrying capacity of 66 tons, which is an important guarantee for China's air force to build modernization and strong combat effectiveness, and can realize long-range and rapid transportation of strategic materials and large-scale equipment, and directly and quickly deliver them directly and quickly to the battlefield from strategic depth, fundamentally changing the shortcomings of China's air force's strategic projection.
The Y-20 transport aircraft embodies China's "national symbol" in large transport aircraft, and is an important embodiment of the strategic air force. There is currently a significant difference between the demand for large transport aircraft and the annual manufacturing speed between China and Russia, which is far lower than the number of Y-20 transport aircraft built in China. Earlier this month, 20 Chinese Y-20 transport planes appeared in the same frame, which is also the largest transport aircraft formation, indicating that the number of Y-20 transport aircraft has increased sharply in the Chinese Air Force.
Russia built the latest version of the Il-76MD-90A transport aircraft, replacing it with PS-90A large-bypass turbofan engines, but the speed of transport aircraft manufacturing delayed progress. In the past, China purchased more than 0 second-hand Il-76TD/MD transport aircraft from CIS countries, which is only a temporary transition model, coupled with China's emphasis on strategic transport aircraft, the focus has shifted to the Y-20 transport aircraft project.
In 2013, the Y-20 took a leap into the sky, ushering in a new chapter of China's large transport aircraft, using digital design and manufacturing technology to shorten the manufacturing cycle. As the most difficult "hard bone" in the manufacturing process, the Y-20 transport aircraft is the first to adopt the CNC machining and shot peening process of large integral ribbed wing wall panels, which surpasses Russia. After ten years of development, the Y-20 transport aircraft ended its early climbing period and entered full production at full speed.
With the accelerated manufacturing of the Y-20 transport aircraft, it means that Russia has little chance of exporting the Il-76 transport aircraft to China, and in the early stage, China and Russia have strengthened cooperation in parts and other systems, using Russian-made D-30KP-2 engines, with a total purchase quantity of 809 units, in addition to equipping the third-generation H-6 bombers, including H-6K, H-6J and H-6N bombers, but also equipped with Y-20A transport aircraft.
After more than 30 years of efforts, significant progress has been made in the field of engines, the development of Taihang engine and turbofan-18 engine, of which turbofan-18 engine is a domestic version of the Russian-made D-30KP-2 engine, the overall thrust reaches 13.2 tons, an increase of 0.7 tons compared with the former, and the current Y-20 transport aircraft is fully replaced with turbofan-18 engines.
In addition to the turbofan-18 engine, the "China Heart" turbofan-20 engine is also being tested, which will be equipped with the Y-20B transport aircraft, with a maximum thrust of 14 tons, which is important to eliminate the dependence on Russian-made engines and fully exploit the potential of the Y-20 transport aircraft. Building the Y-20 tanker on the basis of the Y-20 means that the Chinese Air Force is equipped with the Y-20A, the Y-20A, and it is likely to derive the Y-20 special model.
It is reported that the Chinese Air Force is equipped with at least 60 aircraft at this stage, plus building a strategic air force. China has a strong demand for the Y-20 series models, and with the pulsating production line, the Y-20 series is likely to be built more than 30 aircraft a year, which is far faster than Russia and 6 times faster.
China is about to usher in the Y-20B transport aircraft, replace the turbofan-20 engine, fully meet the original design goals, surpass the new version of the Il-76MD-90A transport aircraft, marking China's full entry into the Y-20B transport aircraft era, the new Y-20 series will be built at least 100 aircraft, while the annual manufacturing quantity remains at 20-30 aircraft. Although the Chinese Air Force has a gap between the United States and Russia in terms of transport aircraft fleet, the US military is equipped with more than 50 C-5 "Galaxy" heavy transport aircraft and more than 220 C-17 "Globemaster III" large transport aircraft, while Russia is equipped with 120 Il-76/78 large transport aircraft and 20 An-124 heavy transport aircraft.
In 2025, China will surpass the Russian transport aircraft fleet and hold the second position in the world, equipped with 100 Y-20 series transport aircraft and 30 Il-76 large transport aircraft, and the final number is likely to exceed 200, ranking second in the world.
In general, Russia still continues to eat the old Soviet Union, the Il-76MD-90A transport aircraft has a new bottle of old wine similar to the Su-35 fighter, change the soup without changing the strategy, coupled with Russia's deep involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the number of future purchases has also been reduced to 27. As the saying goes: a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, and the Russian Air Force transport aircraft formation is still in second place, but this situation will be broken by China, with the Y-20A / B to quickly catch up with or even surpass Russia.
In terms of large transport aircraft, China will also build a 400-ton large transport aircraft, positioned similar to the An-124 strategic transport aircraft, with a load of up to 150 tons, which are two Y-20B transport aircraft. In the future, we will gradually see 300-ton and 400-ton strategic transport aircraft, and overtaking Russia will be just around the corner.