The accelerating militarization of the South China and East China Seas by the fleets of the United States, Japan and Vietnam, as well as the sharply aggravated global military-strategic situation in the entire Indo-Asia-Pacific region is pushing the Chinese defense industry to take immediate action, giving a weighty asymmetric response to a comprehensive blockade and its well-founded regional ambitions.
The design of a stealthy supersonic medium-range missile-carrying bomber, as well as a strategic missile carrier capable of operating both over sea and over land theaters of military operations, are the highest priority programs underway for the PLA's equality or domination not only at home borders, but also in the most remote sections of the APR. After all, sowing fear in the heads of the command of the US Armed Forces with H-6K subsonic jet bombers in the 21st century is already almost impossible, especially considering that with an average range of 3,500 km and a range of strategic CJ-10A missile launchers of 3,000 km, the reach will not exceed 6,500 km. This is not enough even to launch a missile strike at the base of the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii or conduct a similar operation against US facilities deployed deep in Alaska. And this is not taking into account the well-developed actions of the US Air Force fighter aircraft operating in the NORAD air defense identification zone of the North American continent, which will destroy Chinese bombers and part of cruise missiles in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
But no less important is the renewal of carrier-based aircraft, which in the near future will be based on two aircraft carriers. Serious work is underway under the program of the highly maneuverable carrier-based multipurpose fighter J-15S. Equipped with a promising airborne radar with AFAR, the two-seater "palubnik" has fighting qualities comparable to the Indian Su-30MKI (except for OVT and super-maneuverability): it is capable of breaking through the AUG air defense system and performing the functions of an AWACS aircraft, as well as anti-ship operations. But its large RCS within 12-15 m2 still does not make it possible to approach the American AUG unnoticed at a distance that allows launching anti-ship missiles, since E-3D detects such targets for 400-450 km. It is for this reason that the Chinese corporation "Chengdu" was instructed to begin a program to adapt the stealthy tactical fighter-bombers J-20 to deck-based.
At the end of August, a photograph was published on the Chinese Internet with a brief technical plate for the program of the carrier-based version of the Chinese 5th generation multirole fighter J-20. In the sketches of the vehicle in various projections, the landing hook and the folding wing are clearly visible - the main attributes of the ship-based. The main tactical and technical characteristics are also indicated, which are slightly different from the ground-based version of the "Black Eagle". The deck vehicle will receive a 10.2% larger wingspan (14.2 m), 0.7 m shorter fuselage length (19.5 m), as well as 2500 kg greater dry weight (19500 kg). The increase in mass was facilitated by the strengthening of power units and structural elements, including landing gear struts, mechanisms for its release, a more massive wing (due to additional mechanization in the folding section) and other features. Increasing the wingspan will allow you to at least slightly increase its area, and, of course, keep the maneuverability of the heavier machine within the normal range. But for their complete preservation, an important detail in the chain of fine-tuning the deck version will be the installation of more powerful and turbofan WS-15 with a total thrust of about 34 tons. These engines have not yet been brought to a usable level, and their resource absolutely does not correspond to the level of the 5th generation, so for some time you will have to be content with the WS-10G turbofan engine and an extremely low thrust-to-weight ratio for modern deck vehicles of 0.7 - 0.75 As has often been reported, the J-20 is not a highly maneuverable fighter and is not capable of close combat with such machines as the F / A-18E / F "Super Hornet", but it is perfect for breaking through the naval air defense of American AUGs, which have available " Aegis Ships ", as well as for long-range air combat.
The maximum speed of the J-20 ranges from 1950 to 2200 km / h at altitudes of about 11000 m and up to 1400 km / h at low altitudes. Equipped with an airborne radar with AFAR and various passive electronic sensors, the Chinese vehicle is capable of intercepting air targets at ranges over 100-150 km using the PL-21 long-range missile defense missile system with a ramjet engine (analogue of RVV-AE-PD and MBDA "Meteor "). In terms of the quality of combat beyond visual visibility, the J-20 will surpass the Super Hornet by an order of magnitude and must correspond to the F-35B / C. On the other hand, the combat radius of 1500-1600 km will surpass by 50% the American deck-based vehicles of the "4 ++" and "5" generation. It is worth noting that the J-20 will become a real headache for American carrier-based fighters: its speed is higher, and its RCS is approximately commensurate with the F-35B. It will be extremely difficult for the Americans to overcome this car in pursuit. The point for the Americans here was the decommissioning of the high-speed 2, 3-stroke deck interceptors of the 4+ generation F-14D Super Tomcat.
In addition to hunting for deck aircraft AWACS "Advanced Hawkeye" and very dangerous "all-seeing" anti-submarine "Orions", deck "Black Eagles" of the PRC Navy can perfectly perform anti-radar missions. Taking advantage of the long range and low radar signature, heavy J-20s with shock "equipment" will be able to sneak up as close as possible to American AUG or individual warships at medium and low altitudes and launch modernized supersonic anti-radar missiles of the PL-16 type (speed 2, 7M, range over 80 km) and SM-102 (speed about 3.5M, and range up to 150 km). A massive strike by these missiles is capable of breaking through the missile defense of American ships, and the rupture of even one warhead over an Arley Burke-class URO destroyer is capable of knocking out the AN / SPY-1D multifunctional radar with shrapnel. After that, the ship can be easily destroyed even by several subsonic or supersonic anti-ship missiles of the YJ-91 types (analogous to the Kh-31AD) and YJ-62A.
It is well known that the Aegis has excellent ballistic target interception capability, and the use of the DF-21D ballistic anti-ship missiles (CSS-5 Mod-4) absolutely does not guarantee success in breaking through the defenses carried out by dozens of RIM-161A / B interceptors, and here is a new The J-20 is ready to provide the Chinese Navy with its own advanced reserve concept of fighting the American fleet, taking advantage of all the weaknesses of the current Aegis system.
