The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 651 Fighter Development

A seminar was held in Guifei that afternoon.

This is a seminar on modern air combat.

Air combat has changed a lot in recent decades.

Before, air combat mainly consisted of close-range combat, ground strafing, and ground bombing.

Later, with the development of missiles, air combat has undergone great changes. The reason why the third-generation aircraft still retains airborne cannons is more to be prepared for emergencies, and they are actually not used in most situations.

Because now air combat has developed from close-range combat to beyond visual range.

Fighter jets must not only have good maneuverability, but also have stronger battlefield situation awareness capabilities, advanced airborne radar and avionics systems, and long-range attack systems in order to achieve victory.

And this leads to the emergence of the third generation of fighter jets.

The characteristics of the third-generation fighter jets are improved maneuverability and electronic systems, as well as the experimental use of some stealth.

Of course, the United States and the Soviet Union disagreed on the standards for classifying fighter jets.

In the late 20s, the United States and the Soviet Union almost simultaneously equipped their first mature jet fighters, the F-40 and the MiG-86. At that time, neither side made any generational divisions in their fighters, after all, there was only one generation.

It wasn't until the first practical supersonic fighter, the F-100, appeared that the United States called it a second-generation jet fighter, leaving the Soviet Union behind not only in technology but also in name.

In that era, this was absolutely unbearable.

Therefore, the Soviet Union immediately responded with the MiG-19, also calling it a second-generation jet fighter, to show that it was not lagging behind the United States.

The emergence of second-generation aircraft meant that the F-86 and MiG-15 naturally became the first-generation jet fighters, thus opening the era of generational division of jet fighters. At the same time, two parallel division standards were also produced - the American standard and the Soviet standard.

Then with the development of fighter jets, differences began to emerge between the third-generation fighter jets based on American standards and those based on Soviet standards.

According to Soviet standards, the third-generation fighter jets specifically refer to fighter jets with variable sweep wing design, represented by the MiG-23 and F-4.

However, this standard is only early in the US standard. The US standard has a broader definition of the third-generation aircraft, referring to multi-purpose fighter jets based on the second-generation aircraft with enhanced power and improved flight control and avionics capabilities. Representative models include F14, F15, F16, F/A-18, MiG-29, Su-27, MiG-31, etc., which are classified as fourth-generation aircraft in the Soviet standard.

In other words, the third-generation aircraft by American standards is actually the fourth-generation aircraft by Soviet standards.

Because China's relationship with the United States has entered a honeymoon period over the past decade, it has switched from implementing Soviet standards to American standards.

The development of fighter jets has also evolved from previous attack aircraft, interceptor aircraft, and fighter jets to current fighter jets that emphasize multi-purpose use.

This can be regarded as the development of missiles affecting the development of fighter jets.

As fighter jets become more and more advanced, the requirements become higher and higher, which leads to the fact that the number of countries in the world that can develop third-generation fighter jets is far less than the number of countries that can develop second-generation fighter jets.

"Dear leaders, with the continuous improvement of the J-7 and J-8, the production of the J-5 and J-6 fighter jets has been stopped, and the original basic models of the J-7 and J-8 have been discontinued. Currently, the main models in production are the improved J-7 and J-8. With the successful development of the J-10 and J-11 fighter jets, the Chinese Air Force will focus on the J-10 and J-11 fighter jets in the future. The J-5 and J-6 will be retired or exported one after another, and the J-7 and J-8 series fighter jets will not be mass-produced. Only small-scale production and improvements will be maintained, and the export will be the main focus." Liu Tao said: "The focus of fighter jet development now is to form a development team to digest and improve the technology of the J-10 and J-11." With the J-10 and J-11 fighter jets, there is no need to mass-produce the J-7 series fighter jets and the J-8 series fighter jets.

Because no matter how much the J-7 and J-8 fighter jets are improved, they cannot reach the standard of third-generation aircraft, at most they are two and a half generations.

The improved versions of the J-7 and J-8 can be produced on a small scale to tap the potential of these two fighter jets, but they are not suitable for large-scale production.

Of course, this does not mean that the improved versions of the J-7 and J-8 are useless. They also have obvious advantages, that is, they are cheap and can avoid waste.

Over the years, China has produced quite a few J-7 and J-8 fighter jets. It would be a pity to retire them like this. It is necessary to make technical improvements to them and enhance their combat effectiveness.

Just like the current air forces of the United States and the Soviet Union, they are equipped with thousands of third-generation aircraft, but there are more second-generation aircraft, and they have not directly retired the second-generation aircraft.

Equipment updates are always a gradual process.

Unless there is a buyer who can take over and sell it at a good price.

This meeting determined the future development direction of the Chinese Air Force and lasted for three hours before it ended.

The next morning, Liu Tao accompanied the leaders to inspect the 011 Aviation Industrial Base. Although it is under construction and its appearance cannot be seen yet, as a project invested heavily by Panshan Group, the 011 Aviation Industrial Base will become one of the core areas of China's aviation industry, and various types of military and civilian aircraft will be produced here in the future.

011 Aviation Industry is located in your province, in the southwest, which can be said to be in the heart of China. It is much safer than in the north or coastal areas.

Liu Tao was holding the overall planning map and reporting to the leaders.

It can be said that with the advancement of the 011 Aviation Industrial Base, the entire city will evolve into a city dependent on the China Southwest Aviation Industry Group Corporation, which is somewhat similar to some cities in the three northeastern provinces.

"When it comes to safety, you must be extremely cautious and never take it lightly!" the leader warned.

The aviation industry base is so concentrated and so large.

Even if a war breaks out, we will inevitably become the main target of enemy attack, so safety is naturally extremely important.

Liu Tao said: "An air defense battalion will be deployed nearby, which will surely make the entire southwest air defense impregnable!"

Here, there will be quite a few air defense missile battalions, and the protected targets will not only be military factories and aviation industrial bases, but also large reservoirs and hydropower stations, as well as the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River in the future.

For example, the Three Gorges Dam project was designed with anti-strike capability in mind. The entire Three Gorges Dam uses a total of 2700 million tons of concrete, 60 tons of steel bars and steel plates, and has a very strong anti-strike capability. If a medium-range ballistic missile carrying a warhead of hundreds of kilograms hits the dam directly, its effect is minimal; a ground-penetrating missile weighing several tons accurately hits the dam, but it cannot penetrate it at all; even a 500-2000-pound bomb directly hits it, at most it will make a pit, not to mention the precision-guided missiles carried by fighter jets.

In addition, a strict air defense system will be deployed in its surrounding areas.

By then, multiple air defense networks and tens of thousands of various types of air defense missiles will be deployed in the southeast and central-south regions, as well as more than a dozen fighter divisions, forming the outermost air defense system of the dam. In the inner air defense system, phased array radars, high-altitude detection radars and various electronic warfare systems will also be deployed. The inner layer will have three air defense networks, consisting of long-range, mid-range and short-range air defense missiles.

On the southwest side, the air defense network set up on the border will form an air defense network in the southwest direction.

(End of this chapter)