must be nice to have 90% of your design and R&D done for free..
Posted on 05/27/2016 3:30:20 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The Hongdu Aviation Industries Group celebrated its 65th anniversary by unveiling an advanced L-15 Falcon trainer jet equipped with bombs and radar, thought to be a passive electronically scanned array (PSEA), that will help accuracy in airborne combat.
The Falcon has not been known to carry weapons, until the Hongdu video was released and made the rounds on Chinese websites earlier this month. In the video, the jet can be seen with a centered-fuselage pod carrying a 23 mm cannon, PL-5II air-to-air missiles, and underwing fuel tanks.
Hongdu, a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), had originally developed the L-15 as a lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT), and according to company literature that version featured "afterburning engines, high-performance fire control radar, and weapons-carrying capacity for combat missions."
According to airforce-technology.com, the current iteration of the Falcon is a little over a decade in the making.
"The initial prototype was rolled out in September 2005 and took its maiden flight in March 2006," the site states. "The second prototype completed its first flight in May 2008. The first and second prototypes are powered by two ZMKB-Progress (Lotarev) DV-2 engines. An improved version, the DV-2F, which boasts of afterburner capabilities, was fitted in the third model. Ukraine's Ivchenko-Progress AI-222K-25F turbofan engines with afterburner are incorporated in the later L-15 versions."
At the Singapore Airshow in February, International Assessment and Strategy Center senior fellow Richard Fisher said the LIFT was already being redesigned as a multirole craft. The model seen at the airshow had a Luoyang SD-10 self-guided medium range air-to-air missile (AAM) and a PL-5 short-range AAM, along with a precision-guided bomb.
"As the chined nose of the L-15 has not been modified on this model, it could also be that AVIC/Hongdu intend to equip the L-15 with a small active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, which would boost its combat potential," he said, adding that the Falcon currently comes with pulse-doppler radar.
The craft will be used by the China's People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) under the name JL-10. The PLAAF first ordered four Hongdu L-15 trainer aircraft in April 2006. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has expressed interest in the L-15 as a replacement for its K-8 Karakorum jet trainer. Venezuela recently announced plans to order 24 of the craft, and the Zambian Air Force ordered 6.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160527/1040326659/armed-jet-filmed-at-anniversary.html#ixzz49qoYorq2
yeah but are 20 percent of the pilots gonna be gay? That’s all that really matters :)
It’s cute! I want one! I bet I could land it in my back yard.
Venezuela? LMAO
“yeah but are 20 percent of the pilots gonna be gay? That’s all that really matters :)”
And they don’t have enough women and minority pilots, they are sure going to LOSE.
must be nice to have 90% of your design and R&D done for free..
I wonder how things are going with with the J-20? This article says it's in low-rate production, with operational status possible as early as 2018 - perhaps on par with the F-35. Too bad we have so few F-22s.
The J-20 isn't a bad looking plane:
China has tried to build a 737 copycat airliner and it is years late.
They seem to be having difficulty copying a 50 year old airliner design.
They are not even buying the jet engines, but buying them from the west.
Comac C919 (738 - A320 copycat airliner)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comac_C919
I worked for a major defense contractor for 35 years.
It seems that in the last decade many other countries have more heavily invested in advancing the state of their military forces, while the USA just continues to decrease the budget for the DoD and give out more handouts to illegals and people who refuse to work.
Our active military forces are having to raid aircraft bone yards and museums for components to keep very old aircraft flying! .........The Dems took control of Congress in 2006 and then Obama arrived in 2008. Military spending for new products was severely cut and the GOP control of Congress in the past couple of years hasn’t forced any change.
Our armed forces are weaker than they have been since before WWII. ....Sure, there’s some new technology being employed, but the delays/failures of the F-22 and F-35 as well as the Navy’s Littoral ships take too long to deploy to service and are costing far too much. .....Blame falls on the DoD idiots who recommend such products and all of the red tape wrapped around the contractors.
Other countries are kicking our butts in terms of producing large numbers of military weaponry, while our people sit at a computer and dream of designing a perfect missile, aircraft, boat, ship, etc., knowing we no longer have the manufacturing facilities or capabilities we had a few decades ago.
Apologies for the little rant.
We are so screwed.
While I share some of your concerns, that is simply nonsense.
For instance, at the onset of WW II, there were other navies that were close to parity with the US. Now....
"....Sure, there’s some new technology being employed, but the delays/failures of the F-22 and F-35 as well as the Navy’s Littoral ships take too long to deploy to service and are costing far too much. ....."
The F-22 has been operational for years. Granted, we didn't build as many as we should have, and some capabilities have been delayed to fund the F-35 program.
The littoral ships have been cut back, and probably weren't a great idea in the first place.
The F-35 program is indeed a poster child for bad planning and inefficiency, but is mostly back on track and will eventually produce serviceable aircraft.
"Blame falls on the DoD idiots who recommend such products and all of the red tape wrapped around the contractors."
Where I do agree with you is on the lack of value we're getting for our defense dollar. That said, the US spends as much as the next seven nations combined... China has certainly bumped up its spending though, it's now over 1/3 of the US budget.
Thailand???
Thanks for the reply and some factual data.
My posting was about the big reductions in military personnel, base closings, smaller Navy and Air Force and the inability to maintain the ships and aircraft. To me, that indicates we’re becoming a 2nd class military force.
For perspective on my views, I served prior to Viet Nam when we had a much larger military presence in the world.
Canards, always a sign of a weak design and not stealthy. They are a crutch.
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