Not long ago, the J-16 mounted PL17 ultra-long-range air-to-air missile, the PL17 in the picture adopts a very concise wingless layout, and is also sprayed with the blue paint commonly used in training bombs, which indicates that a major breakthrough has been made in its development work. By using a two-pulse or three-pulse solid rocket engine, the PL17 has a maximum range of about 450 km, but the most difficult thing to solve is not the range, but how to guide the missile to hit an air target at a distance of 450 km.
Originally, the guidance method of long-range air-to-air missiles pursued by various countries was A-launch and B-missile, and the so-called A-launch B-missile is a guidance method in which the launch platform of the missile is separated from the guidance platform. The corresponding guidance method is relatively simple in technology, with strong anti-jamming capabilities and relatively reliable anti-jamming capabilities. However, after all, the situational awareness capability of a single platform is limited, and after the range of missiles increases sharply, it will be difficult for A-launched and A-missiles to play their due role. For PL17, A-launch B guidance is to use early warning aircraft, fifth-generation aircraft or UAVs to relay guidance to the PL17 launched by the J-16, but this guidance method is also very difficult.
The main difficulty lies in the difficulty of ensuring strict synchronization of the launch platform with the guidance platform in time. Usually medium and long-range air-to-air missiles use a composite guidance mode composed of inertial navigation + command + active radar, if it is a launch and a guide, the launch of the missile, the installation of inertial navigation data and the transmission of guidance instructions are completed by the same platform, and the process is relatively simple. However, the A-launch and B-missile are different, not only is it not the same platform that detects the target, sets the inertial navigation data, and launches the missile, but also the guidance platform must take over the relay guidance of the missile as soon as the inertial navigation is over.
But this is very difficult to do, assuming that the J-16 is a launch platform and the Air Police 500 is a guidance platform, it is difficult for them to achieve time synchronization of the A launch and B guidance.
One case is the premature launch of the J-16. The AWACS aircraft may have not completed the tracking and locking, and the missile was launched from the launch platform, and the hit rate could not be counted on.
Another scenario is that the J-16 was launched late. The Air Police 500 was ready for guidance, but the J-16 was not launched, so the fighter was missed.
This is only the situation in a simple electromagnetic environment, in a complex electromagnetic environment, the smooth communication between the J-16 and the Air Police 500 is a problem, and it is even more difficult to complete the cooperation of the A launch and B guide. Therefore, although the tactic of shooting A and guiding B seems very good, it is not practical.
Is there a guidance method that has both the advantages of high reliability of A-shot and A-guide, and the advantage of long guidance distance of A-shot B-guide?There really is, that is, gallium nitride radar, gallium nitride can withstand a high temperature of 1700, silicon-based materials can generally only withstand 200, gallium arsenide is only about 600, and the breakdown voltage of gallium nitride material itself is as high as 100V. This determines that the power of gallium nitride elements is much greater than that of gallium arsenide materials, with the power of the T R unit using gallium arsenide material being 8-10 watts, while the power of the gallium nitride T R unit is an order of magnitude higher. In 2008, the power of a single GaN T R unit in China reached 119 watts, which is more than 10 times that of GaA.
This results in an active phased array radar using the GaN T R unit having a detection range of up to 77 percent longer than the active phased array radar of the GaN T R unit. In addition, the aperture of the J-16 active phased array antenna is about 1 meter, and it does not have to be installed at an angle like the J-20, so the detection distance is farther than the J-20, and the line-of-sight distance for large targets is about 350 kilometers, which means that after replacing the gallium nitride radar, the detection range of the J-16 can reach 600 kilometers, which is enough to complete the launch and guidance of the P17 by itself.
In this way, after the use of gallium nitride radar, the launch and guidance platform of PL17 can be combined on the J-16, and the reliability and anti-jamming ability of this guidance mode are not comparable to A-launch and B-guide. It should be emphasized that although the J-16's gallium nitride radar can reach a detection range of 600 kilometers, this is achieved in a single-target tracking mode with a needle-like beam, and it still needs the command and guidance of the AWACS aircraft.
All in all, although the A-launch B missile looks beautiful, due to various limitations, it is not very practical, and the gallium nitride radar offers a new and more promising solution for the guidance of the PL17. However, the J-16 has to overcome many unprecedented challenges in order to reliably discover, track, identify, and lock on to targets from a distance of five or six hundred kilometers.
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