Abstract
At the end of last year, the first images of China's new sixth-generation stealth aircraft appeared. They are two very different aircraft in size and shape and are designed on two distinct platforms: the first is the "Nansuo platform" developed by the Nanjing Institute of Technology (North Institute) and the second is the "Beisuo platform" of the South Institute of Technology (Southern Institute).
Chinese military analysts have analyzed the design and design choices of the two next-generation combat platforms. Furthermore, they predicted the possible missions and tactical tasks of the two new stealth aircraft.
For them, the institutes of the North and the South have very different projects. But, what are the underlying considerations? Chinese military analysts believe that what the different positioning of the new generation platform between the North and the South reflects depends, in particular, on the users behind the two design institutes.
How will the two institutes' next-generation Air Force combat platforms constitute the Chinese Air Force's combat system in the future?
The Beisuo next-generation platform will be primarily responsible for attacking US military bases in the first island chain, while the Nansuo will be responsible for the second island chain; but if the Beisuo were mounted on an aircraft carrier and used as an embarked aircraft, the carrier could be deployed between the first and second island chains, thus ensuring that its combat radius could be extended to the second island chain, taking on the mission to attack US military targets present there together with the Nansuo platform. In that case, the mission will be to escort the Nansuo platform and even carry out coordinated operations between the two under the command of the Nansuo platform's autonomous computational power center. The design difference therefore derives from the different focus on performance, which also arises from the different programmed tasks to be undertaken, which will integrate to strike simultaneously. One thing is certain: the different performances that the platforms will have will serve for a new generation of air combat operations of the People's Liberation Army air force mainly against the United States and its allies.
Design differences between north and south
Judging from the Nanjing Institute of Technology's next-generation combat platform (the Nansuo platform), Beijing analysts believe that there is no doubt that this is a very large aircraft. Its length and wingspan are much larger than the J-20S fighter aircraft, and its maximum take-off weight is uniformly higher than that of the world's heaviest fighter aircraft - the MiG-31BM interceptor.
At the same time, the aircraft adopts a bent-line wing design. The leading edge of the wing is designed with maneuverable leading edge flaps. The trailing edge is designed with multiple trailing edge flaps and double-slotted drag rudders on the wingtips, combined with an upper spoiler. With the presence of tape-out and vectored thrust engines, the aerodynamic design of Nansuo's next-generation combat platform would seem a bit ingenious.
Rely on the huge wing area and lift-to-drag ratio performance to ensure autonomy; rely on the enormous volume of the body to ensure autonomy and bomb load; rely on the powerful performance of the three engines and low wing loading to maintain high energy; characteristics and strong maneuverability.
This type of design, which seems simple and crude, but is actually more efficient and offers greater overall benefits, has only been seen in the history of the development of the F-15 fighter aircraft.
Obviously, Nanjing Institute of Technology's next-generation air combat platform is designed with a large body size, large wingspan, large wing area, high lift-to-drag ratio, low wing loading and high thrust/weight ratio. Its advantages include:
A huge reach. There is still controversy over the range of the Nansuo platform, but it is generally believed that its transition range cannot be less than 6,000 kilometers when traveling at subsonic speeds. American analysts even estimate that it could be tens of thousands of kilometers long.
Good maneuverability. Western analysts believed that the Nansuo platform was a fighter-bomber; However, Chinese analysts believe that judging by the fact that it uses three engines to ensure a thrust-to-weight ratio, combined with its complex aerodynamic surface design, vectored thrust engines and low wings, with the payload, it cannot be a very bulky platform and its maneuverability will not even be inferior to that of the J-20 fighter.
Huge bomb load capacity. The bomb bay of the Nansuo platform is enormous. Even the most conservative estimate is that its main bomb bay can carry very long-range air-to-air missiles and tactical weapons. A high-level hypersonic aircraft can reach a strike range of around 1,000 kilometers.
Supersonic cruise is better than all fifth-generation fighter aircraft currently in service. It can achieve operating performance from double 2 to double 2.5. It has abundant energy and can carry large-scale computing power equipment with high power consumption.
In contrast, the South Institute's Beisuo combat platform, in addition to its extremely strange appearance, like a real alien fighter plane, is slightly smaller in size.
In terms of aerodynamic design, the aerodynamic shape of the Beisuo platform is more complex, using diamond-shaped nose stripes, lambda wings, fully movable wingtips and variable body configuration design (tailless/double V vertical tail switching).
Compared with Nansuo's design, this design focuses on the supersonic speed section, and it can be said that it also takes into account the maneuverability of the full-speed section.
For example, it can be adapted to a tailless configuration in the supersonic cruise state and a V-tail layout in the high maneuverability state, in addition to the rhombus-shaped side stripes of the nose and full-motion wingtips, as well as the same uniaxial thrust binary. Considering the vectored engine design, the overall maneuverability of the Nansuo at full speed is likely to surpass that of the Beisuo platform.
Of course, because the Beisuo platform is slightly smaller than the Nansuo platform, it does not use the simple, crude and unconventional three-thrust engine design of the Nansuo platform, but adopts a similar design to that of the J-20: the twin-engine design high-thrust fighter aircraft.
To ensure the aircraft's thrust-to-weight ratio, even the most advanced and powerful small-bypass ratio turbofan engine will need additional thrust.
Furthermore, from the size of Beisuo's platform, Chinese military analysts believe that it cannot use a bomb bay as large as Nansuo's. Someone compared photos of the Beisuo platform and J-20 fighter planes and found that the size of the Beisuo bomb bay may be the same. Of course, the depth of its bomb bay may be better than that of the J-20 fighter, and it can carry some strike payloads, but it is unlikely that it can carry a strike payload as large as the Nansuo platform, such as a launched hypersonic aircraft from the air.
Design convergence Nansuo-Beisuo
However, as this is a new generation of combat platforms, whether it is one or the other, some designs are always the same.
First, they all adopt a tailless, vectored thrust engine design. It can be said that tailless and thrust vectoring are an indispensable technical point for a new generation of combat platforms.
After all, to achieve omnidirectional broadband stealth performance, you need to manage a signal reflection source as large as the vertical tail. The best way to handle it is to cancel it. After canceling it, the heading stability and yaw performance of the aircraft will be improved. To compensate it is necessary to use thrust vectoring engines, complex aerodynamic surface design, mature flight control design, etc.
In this regard, the South Institute and the North Institute have partially achieved design convergence, eliminating the vertical fin and using thrust vectoring engines. In terms of aerodynamic surface control, one uses a broken drag rudder, and the other uses a full wing tip + variable body structure movement.
Secondly, they all have broadband stealth performance. It goes without saying in this regard that the new generation combat platform can not only effectively fight against long wavelength L, P and other band radars.
Furthermore, it will also be necessary to achieve low detectability in the infrared band to combat multi-model photoelectric radars that are now equipped with larger scales, as well as large-aperture infrared optoelectronic systems that have started to be installed on ships and machines.
The performance that the platforms must have will be used for a new generation of combat operations.
Third, they all have strong onboard computing capabilities. In addition to forming the basis for the aircraft's AI-assisted decision making, the onboard computing power can, more importantly, be equipped with highly confidential data links to command loyal wingmen - this is unique to aircraft of sixth generation. Another harsh performance indicator.
Therefore, in terms of overall evaluation, the design of Nansuo's next-generation platform is ingenious. It has a huge body, a huge combat radius and a huge bomb bay. It can carry large air-to-air bombs and air-to-surface munitions. It uses three motors with abundant power and energy, and can support large-scale computing power. The main equipment is on board and the handling focuses on supersonic and subsonic performance. The performance in the speed range is slightly weaker; Beisuo's next generation platform design is very amazing. The Lambda wing design, fully movable wing tips, variable body configuration and single-axis binary thrust vectoring engine are very radical; the volume is moderate, and the bomb bay is estimated to be slightly larger than the J-20 fighter aircraft, and the combat radius and in-flight computing power are slightly smaller than the Nansuo platform.
Design considerations for the north and south
For them, the institutes of the North and the South have very different projects. But, what are the underlying considerations? Chinese military analysts believe that this reflects the different positioning of the new generation platform between the North and the South, depending, in particular, on the users behind the two design institutes.
But one thing is certain: the performance that the platforms must have will be used for a new generation of air combat operations of the People's Liberation Army air force.
There is no doubt that the Nansuo platform is a strike fighter capable of long-range operations. For long-range operations, the combat radius plus attack radius of hypersonic aircraft in flight should reach US military bases on the second island chain, namely Guam, Saipan and Tinian, which are 2,800 kilometers from the mainland, as well as Palau , including the US military base in Singapore, which is 2,200 kilometers from the mainland.
As a tactical aircraft, the Nansuo platform has the following performance requirements:
the first is that it can actually pose an effective threat to the aforementioned US military bases.
The second is the ability to engage in dogfights with the U.S. Air Force's fifth-generation aircraft and future sixth-generation aircraft over the Pacific. Since China's information support capabilities are weak in the vast waters of the Pacific, the Nansuo platform will have to fill the gap.
The third is that it has a high repeat capacity of daily flights. But it is impossible to be like the US Army's B-1B because the use of a tactical aircraft is more problematic than that of a strategic bomber.
Therefore, with so many performance requirements, the Chinese believe that the Nansuo combat platform is indeed the optimal solution at the moment: it has the combat radius, strike capability, air combat performance and size. The computing power of this machine is quite large. While subsonic maneuverability may be poor, for a long-range attack model, the price paid for performance is acceptable.
What about the Beisuo platform? Generalization is relatively better.
On the one hand, with the size of the Beisuo platform, it is impossible for it to undertake the mission of attacking US military bases in the second island chain like the Nansuo platform. The most practical performance is that it can undertake the attack mission against US military bases in the first archipelago mission.
On the other hand, the Beisuo platform is approximately the same size as the J-20 fighter aircraft, which also determines that its suitability would be better than that of the Nansuo. The cost is also cheaper and is suitable for a large number of equipment, especially for aircraft carriers where space is a valuable operating environment.
When the Beisuo platform is mounted on an aircraft carrier and used as an embarked aircraft, the aircraft carrier can be deployed between the first and second island chains, thus ensuring that its combat radius can be extended to the second island chain, taking on the mission to attack US military targets in the second island chain together with the Nansuo platform.
Compared with the Beisuo platform, which is still specialized in supersonic performance and relatively weak subsonic performance, the Nansuo platform is expected to have stronger maneuverability at all speeds, and therefore the tasks it can perform are different, including air control, attack on land, sea attack and other tasks.
Therefore, compared to the tasks assigned to the Nansuo platform - large range, large bomb load, independent operations and attack on the US military base in the second island chain, the tasks assigned by the Beisuo platform are relatively diverse.
The range is not very large, but it can be carrier based. Even when it is carrier-based, it can cooperate with the Nansuo platform to attack the US military base on the second island chain, but it could also undertake the task of attacking the opposite side, beyond visual range. The interception capability is essentially passable; However, compared to the Nansuo, which has a relatively strong independent combat capability, the Beisuo Platform can completely rely on land-based computing power or naval computing power.
This is the design difference between the North and the South on the next generation combat platform. The design difference derives from the different focus on performance, which also derives from the different scheduled tasks to be undertaken.
The future system built by the two platforms
How will the two institutes' next-generation Air Force combat platforms constitute the Chinese Air Force's combat system in the future?
From a strategic point of view, there is no doubt that the simultaneous appearance of two types of combat platforms reflects one of the basic Chinese military strategic thoughts, namely the need to effectively control and attack the second island chain.
Previously, the Chinese could only attack the second island chain through medium-range cruise missiles (DF-26 and DF-27) and medium-range bombers. No matter how big the attack, there was still a limit: Expensive, medium-sized bombers couldn't launch multiple times a day like fighter planes. With the emergence of a new generation of combat platforms, the combat radius of Chinese fighter aircraft will be extended to the second island chain, and the intensity of attacks on the second island chain will be greatly increased because the aircraft will also be extended to the second archipelago of islands.
Therefore, the biggest strategic advantage of the new generation combat platform is to ensure that the attack range of Beijing's tactical aircraft fleet can reach the second island chain. At this point, the second island chain is no longer safe. The intensity of attacks against the US military on the second island chain will be many times higher than before.
Operationally and tactically, the Air Force's next-generation combat platforms have different operational missions.
The new generation Nansuo platform will be mainly responsible for the offensive missions of the air campaign, and it will be a long-range offensive mission that will have to attack the US military bases on the second island chain from the mainland, and at the same time also attack the enemy ones between the second and first island chains where US planes trying to attack mainland China will infiltrate, as well as tankers, escort fighter planes, etc., will directly confront the incoming sixth-generation planes. by the US Army.
The next-generation Beisuo platform will, however, be primarily responsible for attacking US military bases in the first island chain, as well as other targets in the first island chain. This mission can be completed together with the J-20 or J-16 fighter. As for hitting targets on the second island chain, that shouldn't be its primary mission when used as a land fighter.
But if it were used as a carrier-borne aircraft and the carrier was deployed between the first and second island chains, then the Beisuo platform could naturally also take on the responsibility of cooperating with the Nansuo platform and attacking targets in the second island chain. The mission is to escort the Nansuo platform and even carry out coordinated operations between the two under the command of the Nansuo platform's computational power center.
At the same time, Beisuo also carries out both attack and defense activities. The Nansuo platform is obviously a highly offensive platform that is unlikely to be able to carry out air defense interception tasks, while the other is not capable of carrying out this task, and it is very versatile and can not only attack, but also carry out air defense and interception . It can be called a new generation Air Force combat platform with both attack and defense.
All in all, with the emergence of new-generation combat platforms in the north and south, the construction of the Chinese Air Force's next-generation combat system has been fully initiated. This generation of combat systems should be finalized between 2030 and 2040, or who knows maybe even earlier.
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