Military fans' discussions about the painting of Chinese weapons and equipment have never stopped. From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the present, no matter what equipment, even if it is very advanced equipment in the military, it always feels that it is not as "tall" as foreign equipment looks.
Once the "green head and white body" livery of the Chinese Air Force J-7, it is indeed very "earthy"
In fact, there are various reasons for this, but after years of accumulation of technology and experience, the development and progress of China's painting in recent years has been very rapid, and it has approached or even surpassed the advanced level of foreign militaries.
The J-7 fighter of the Bangladesh Air Force looks much better in a different livery
Speaking of painting, the first thing to make clear is that the coating is born for camouflage, the coating is like the camouflage clothing on the human body, the camouflage effect is the first, and the equipment with good painting can be integrated with the battlefield background, improve concealment and adaptability, and effectively ensure the implementation of combat and their own safety.
The livery is to serve the camouflage, and the picture shows the F-16 of the Israeli Air Force painting is well integrated into the desert environment of the Middle East
But some people also believe that the painting of equipment is an overflow of advanced combat performance, the more "tall" the better, good-looking painting can not only bring more "sense of identity" to the user, but also bring a deterrent effect to the enemy
The shark's beak livery of the P-40 fighter of the American Volunteer Air Force (Flying Tigers) caused careless pressure on the Japanese pilots
The United States, which has the deepest research on painting in the world, is definitely on the list, and the US military equipment is not only tough in line, but also unique in terms of coating and color.
Dark gray livery of the B-2 bomber
For example, the Air Force generally uses a color or approximate color different grayscale changes, such as the U.S. Air Force f-15 gray air excellent livery and f-22 gradient gray camouflage coating, such a coating will not have a large area of bright or too strong contrast combination, not only the overall texture is better, the camouflage effect is also very good.
Air superiority livery of the U.S. F-15 fighter
Most of the ships of the U.S. Navy also choose light gray ocean-going paint, which is very close to the background color of the ocean from a distance, so it is widely adopted by the United States, Japan, Australia and other countries.
The Sea of Japan was single-handedly erected by the US military after the war, and the painting style is basically the same as that of the US military
Compared with the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy's aircraft are more "commotion", on the basis of gray paint, using a contrasting tail and lines, so that the fighter has a better recognition, but also a visual display of the cultural traditions of each squadron.
U.S. Navy f/a-18 livery, pay attention to the design of the hanging tail
For a long time since the founding of China, there has been no concept of painting, and the army has painted all green paint, mainly because eastern China is mainly plains and hilly areas, with lush vegetation, green equipment is conducive to camouflage, which can increase the difficulty of enemy bombing.
Early Chinese tanks had only one layer of green paint
Since the 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese Army equipment coating began to gradually catch up with the world trend, and The Chinese equipment began to be painted with yellow, black and green camouflage, which is very similar to the jungle camouflage style of NATO equipment, and has a good camouflage effect in the jungle area of eastern China.
This yellow-green camouflage is suitable for areas with sparse vegetation, but it is still somewhat pronounced
Later, China unveiled two green digital camouflage liveries in the military parade, although they were good-looking, but because the outline of the color block was too obvious, it was not widely popularized.
The Chinese Air Force, on the other hand, has not been painted for a long time, and it is all metallic skin primary color. The sunlight at high altitude is very dazzling, which is not conducive to concealment, nor is it conducive to the coordinated operation of fighter formations.
Early Chinese shiny fighters with big red numbers, no camouflage to speak of, pictured is the Chinese J-5 jet trainer
In the 1960s and 1970s, after the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations, Air Force fighters began to adopt white fuselage, green nose livery, which is said to be better integrated into the high-altitude environment.
It is also said that this kind of coating is prepared for nuclear war, because white can reflect a part of the light radiation after the explosion of the nuclear bomb, and can effectively protect the fighter from being damaged by absorbing the high temperature of light radiation. In short, the green-headed and white-body livery became the mainstream livery of the Chinese Air Force in the 1970s and 1980s, and it is still used by some models today.
The J-8 white (white finger daytime type, only for daytime combat) entered service in 1980 has a classic green nose white fuselage livery
As for why the nose painting is green, this problem is still a matter of opinion, and a more reliable theory is that the reason why the nose is painted green is related to the performance of domestic airborne radar and the technical level of the coating at that time.
Simply put, it was not that there was a problem with the designers' aesthetics, but that only green paint could meet the transmittance of the fighter radar at that time, which was a last resort.
Early J-8 fighters took off
With the progress of China's coating technology, at the end of the 80s with graphite components of the nose (radome) paint successfully developed, the fighter can finally be replaced by a black nose coating, until the end of the 90s, a variety of light-colored transparent paint was successfully developed, the coating of Chinese fighters has completely changed.
Developed in 1998 and delivered to the troops in 2002, the J-8f is painted with a black nose, and its appearance has increased
Although there are many internal factors, this kind of white body and green head livery does not look very good, and it is reasonable to be disliked by the majority of military fans. Therefore, this classic camouflage has also been jokingly called "green-headed fly" by many netizens.
However, there are still some J-8s still in service with green nose paint
In the 21st century, light gray low visibility painting has begun to popularize, and the machine head coating has also changed from pure black to light gray, and the value of the face is much higher
The Chinese Navy has long been small boats and small ships, emphasizing close combat, so they have adopted a gray-blue color that is closer to the color of the sea, the purpose is to minimize the distance of being discovered by the enemy.
Early Chinese naval warships were all gray-blue
After the 1990s, Chinese naval vessels gradually became gray-white and white, and because of the development of long-range attack weapons, it was no longer necessary to rely on concealed painting to engage the enemy. Second, in the ocean environment, white can better reflect the color of the surrounding visible light, so that the hull has a certain visual "color change" function under different lighting conditions.
Display chinese warships of different colors under different lighting conditions
In the new century, the speed of upgrading China's weapons and equipment has been greatly accelerated, and the painting has become more "foreign" as well. For example, the much-anticipated J-20 fighter, in addition to the yellow factory coating, there are also all-black livery, all-gray livery, split two-color gray camouflage coating, colorful two-color gray camouflage and the latest two-color gray curved edge camouflage.
The J-20 fighter's split two-color gray camouflage
The two-tone gray-edged camouflage currently in use is very similar to the livery of the F-22 fighter
The cutting-edge J-16 fighter is also equipped with gray air superiority livery and low visibility insignia, which looks more like the style of a major air force.
Even the Air Force insignia, which used to be dominated by red and yellow, has undergone low visualization
In the army, the Chinese army, which is closer to the actual combat, bid farewell to the same camouflage style in the past, and instead formed the corresponding type of coating in what landform, so as to maximize the integration of weapons into the geomorphological environment, so as to adapt to the needs of actual combat, so the painting is much better.
Strong American equipment atmosphere
The Navy maintained a white livery, but changed the contrasting black hull to a white hull with a black substrate that was more similar to the United States, becoming more "Western-style".
The U.S.-China hull livery is now remarkably similar
In addition, the maturity of China's new generation of military photographers and the advancement of drone aerial photography technology, in recent years, the three armed forces have a series of wonderful equipment photos have come out, and the "stereotype" of Chinese weapons in people's minds is gradually being changed.
Painting is also combat effectiveness. Although the coating of weapons mainly serves concealment, beautiful painting can often make the outside world have a good impact on the judgment of the weapon. Nowadays, China's livery design is catching up with the world trend, constantly broadening its horizons, increasing the combat effectiveness of Chinese weapons, and completely bidding farewell to the image of "soil".