Air-to-air missiles are divided into two categories: over-the-horizon and close-range combat, of which the key to over-the-horizon missiles lies in long-range strikes to ensure that the range is increased as much as possible on the premise of maintaining accuracy, so as to gain the advantage of preemptive strike. In modern air combat, the range of mainstream over-the-horizon missiles generally exceeds 150 kilometers, including China's Thunderbolt-15, the United States' AIM-120D, and Russia's R-37M.
China has reached the world's leading level in the field of over-the-horizon missiles, such as the main over-the-horizon missile Thunderbolt-15 carried by J-20 and J-16 fighters. The missile is designed with a twin-pulse engine and has a maximum range of more than 200 km. The J-20 is a stealth fighter carrying the Thunderbolt-15, which can effectively strike at the best targets, such as early warning aircraft. But is it possible to develop missiles with a longer range, so that third-generation fighters like the J-16 can also complete strikes against the most valuable targets?Recently, the J-16 fighter training released by "China ** Network" answered this question.
In this **, four J-16 fighters flew in formation, two of which used standard air superiority mounts, and up to 10 different types of air-to-air missiles were mounted without using composite pylons. However, by zooming in**, you can see that two of the J-16 fighters each have a "giant" air-to-air missile under the left wing. Why are they called giant missiles?Compared with the J-16 mounted Thunderbolt-10 combat missile and Thunderbolt-15 long-range missile, this new missile is larger, with the Thunderbolt-15 length of nearly 4 meters as a reference, the length of this new missile is at least more than 5 meters, which is actually a "giant missile" in air-to-air missiles.
The new missile mounted on the J-16 seems to be a training missile, however, considering that the training missile already exists and is released by the authority, it is likely that this new missile has officially entered service. The outside world is quite curious about the identity and performance of this missile.
Back a few years ago, a J-16 was equipped with a large white air-to-air missile, at that time, this missile was considered to be a longer-range over-the-horizon missile developed by China, and was jokingly called Thunderbolt-17 or Thunderbolt-21 by netizens. The missile mounted on the J-16 this time may be the final mass-produced version of the white missile, and it may be the missile called the Thunderbolt-17.
The missile mounted and publicly displayed by the J-16 is most likely the first official appearance of the Thunderbolt-17 air-to-air missile. For the performance characteristics of this missile, the first thing to note is that it has no wings, only a tail, which is significantly different from the Thunderbolt-15.
China's Thunderbolt-15 is already equipped with a datalink system, and considering the latest development direction of the current air-to-air missile and China's achievements in this area, the Thunderbolt-17 may be equipped with a two-way datalink system. This means that it can achieve "A launch and B guidance", that is, the early warning aircraft will transmit information such as target coordinates to the J-16 fighter after detecting the target hundreds of kilometers away, and the J-16 fighter will carry out relay guidance by the early warning aircraft and large UAVs after launching the Thunderbolt-17, which effectively solves the problem that the radar detection distance of the fighter cannot keep up with the range of the missile.
In terms of range, considering that China's Thunderbolt-15 long-range air-to-air missile has successfully broken through the range limit of 200 kilometers, and the length of the Thunderbolt-17 significantly exceeds that of the Thunderbolt-15, the range of the Thunderbolt-17 is expected to reach about 400 kilometers. This range surpasses the Russian Air Force's R-37M air-to-air missile, leaving the US Air Force far behind. When the US Air Force was developing the AIM-120D, it was announced that the missile would use a dual-pulse engine with a range of more than 200 kilometers.
But the final AIM-120D did not have a dual-pulse engine and failed to reach a range of 200 km. The Thunderbolt-15 uses a dual-pulse engine and has surpassed the AIM-120D in range. At a time when the new generation AIM-260 of the US Air Force has not yet been developed, China quickly unveiled the Thunderbolt-17, demonstrating China's great strength in the field of air-to-air missiles.
The range of 400 km will undoubtedly greatly enhance the over-the-horizon air combat capability of our air force. At present, the detection range of mainstream early warning aircraft for large air targets is about 400 kilometers, while for fighters such as J-16 with a certain stealth design, their detection range is often less than 400 kilometers. If the J-16 is equipped with the Thunderbolt-17 with a range of 400 kilometers, it can attack outside the effective detection range of the opponent's AWACS aircraft.
This combination poses a serious challenge to the effective early warning capability of AWACS. Of course, the more combat-powerful mount mode is carried by the J-20 fighter. Even if the J-20 is equipped with the Thunderbolt-17 under the wing, its overall stealth effect is far greater than that of the third-generation fighter, and it can launch more unexpected strikes against AWACS aircraft.
However, ultra-long-range air-to-air missiles such as the Thunderbolt-17 need to be supported by relay guidance and guidance of the early warning system in actual combat. As far as China is concerned, this is not a problem, and our air force has been equipped with dozens of air police-500 early warning aircraft equipped with digital array phased array radars, and at the same time, it also has a long-endurance large reconnaissance and early warning unmanned aerial vehicle. These aircraft are fully capable of providing adequate support for the Thunderbolt-17's operations. China's official release of the Thunderbolt-17 ultra-long-range air-to-air missile is also a clear warning to some countries with ill intentions: China's air force has a large number of advanced fighters, advanced air-to-air missiles, early warning aircraft, and other equipment, and has sufficient strength to defeat any opponent who dares to provoke.