Chapter 1205 Attack or Defense?

At first glance, the plan proposed by Institute 601 does seem a bit strange.

However, everyone at the scene was an expert who was very familiar with the aircraft wing layout, and they reacted quickly.

"Semi-tailless layout?"

There was a buzz of discussion in the meeting hall.

Even Chang Haonan, who thought he had expected this, showed an expression of surprise on his face.

The so-called semi-tailless layout is simply to combine the aircraft's horizontal tail and vertical tail into one, using a set of large-angle V-shaped wing surfaces to simultaneously serve as pitch/heading control and stabilizer.

The most typical example is of course the YF22 fighter, which once competed with the YF23 in the ATF competition but ultimately lost because its proposal was too radical.

However, perhaps having learned from the lessons of Ordovician Grumman, the design on the screen in front of us adopts a semi-tailless layout, but its other design features are not as radical as those of YF23.

Overall, it still has the conventional appearance of air intakes on both sides, diamond-shaped upper wings, full-span leading edge flaps, outer ailerons on the trailing edge, and inner flaperons.

However, the distance between the two engines is significantly larger than the canard solution of the 611 Institute, resulting in the two ammunition bays changing from a parallel layout to a serial layout.

And, although there is no scale, it is not difficult to see that this scheme has a shorter axial dimension and an increased spanwise dimension, so it appears to be more solid.

Fortunately, the height of the fuselage was still controlled and it did not become the uncoordinated fat duck shape like the F35.

Several representatives from the 601 Institute had apparently anticipated that this plan would have a certain impact on the scene, so they did not start introducing it immediately, but instead left some time to give others a buffer.

It was not until a few minutes later that the scene gradually calmed down again.

The attention of many participants was also refocused on the seats of the representatives of Institute 601.

"As Comrade Yang just said, if we just follow the technical ideas of the F22, it is impossible to truly obtain a product that exceeds its performance."

As soon as Sun Cong opened his mouth, he responded with a tit-for-tat response, directly starting with what the other party had said:

"From a technical point of view, while the wing surface provides the basis for the aircraft's flight, it also increases the aerodynamic drag and radar reflection area. The interaction between different wing surfaces is also the focus and difficulty in the field of aircraft stealth design. Therefore, we tried to reduce the number and area of ​​wing surfaces without affecting lift and control capabilities, and finally obtained this technical solution with a semi-tailless layout."

"As for this layout itself, I think everyone here should be familiar with it. In addition to the most typical YF23 plan, the X32 verification aircraft launched by Boeing in the JSF project, although strictly speaking, it belongs to the conventional layout of a tailless large delta wing plus double vertical tails, but the idea of ​​improving stealth performance by reducing the number of wing surfaces is consistent..."

"Although our country has never officially put into service a semi-tailless aircraft, we have acquired certain design experience through our research on the Dark Sword unmanned aircraft concept, and have conducted multiple rounds of ground tests on the control logic of this layout..."

"..."

Although Sun Cong's introduction was also quite exciting, it was not difficult for Chang Haonan to see that the atmosphere on the scene seemed to be more inclined towards the previous plan of Institute 611.

After all, the solutions proposed by both sides are unconventional and have very high requirements for wing surface relationships and flight control.

However, the 611 Institute has already verified the feasibility of the canard + large delta wing layout on the J-10, and now it can be considered a familiar approach to come up with a second similar plan.

In comparison, the semi-tailless layout of Institute 601 seems a bit unstable.

Of course, you can say that when the J-10 was being developed, the risks faced by that plan were no less than today's semi-tailless layout.

But times have changed after all.

In 2005, China had passed the stage where it had to take the risk of making a triple jump to catch up with the world's leading level.

Seeking stability while making targeted designs is the option most people would prefer.

However, Sun Cong, who was making an impassioned speech, could not just stop like that.

A radical solution will naturally lead to radical performance.

After a brief pause, he turned to the next section of the PPT on his computer:

"I have read the report made by the Air Force comrades last month. Although the dual-base radar detected the presence of the enemy's stealth fighter very early, allowing the commander to make preparations in the right direction in advance, the actual capture of the specific location of the F22 still took advantage of the opportunity when the enemy pulled up at a large angle and prepared to face our interceptor."

"According to our calculations and simulation tests, after reducing a set of wing surfaces, although it will not have a significant impact on the minimum RCS paper value in front, it can reduce the RCS value from the 60° direction above and below the front hemisphere by about 40%, significantly improving the possibility of the aircraft being detected during turns, climbs or dives, and improving the tactical flexibility of stealth aircraft during use."

"I would like to draw your attention to the fact that although our air force is still mainly responsible for national air defense, the people's army still has a historical mission to complete. The new generation of main combat equipment should gradually abandon the purely defensive combat thinking and start to consider the combat environment that may be faced in offensive missions..."

"In addition to better stealth capabilities, this semi-tailless layout also provides a greater depth of ammunition bay, allowing the aircraft to carry larger diameter air-to-surface weapons while maintaining stealth, without the need to specially develop small-yield, small-size ammunition like SDB. This is also one of the original intentions of the US military to develop the JSF fighter..."

This statement actually pulled the balance back a lot, which had been seriously tilted just now.

Especially the part about "the unfinished historical mission of the people's army...", which directly struck the hearts of several military representatives.

The sound of discussion once again filled the conference hall.

Lu Guang frowned and thought for a while, then turned to look at Li Jianqiang, who had not expressed his opinion before:

"Old Li, what do you think... if a long-range early warning radar like the AN/FPS-115 is used to carry out anti-stealth operations, what will be the effect?"

Although Lu Guang is the head of the Air Force Equipment Research Institute, his main expertise is still in the aviation field.

As for air defense and anti-missile, the latter is more professional.

Li Jianqiang was stunned after hearing this:

"You mean Pave Paws?"

But before Lu Guang could answer, he quickly understood the meaning of the other party's question -

Since Sun Cong has just mentioned the topic related to offensive missions, it is natural to take into account the air defense equipment of the main hypothetical enemy in the future.

Anti-aircraft systems like the Hawk or Skybow are nothing to be feared, but if those two Pave Claws are actually built and put into use, they still have to be respected to some extent.

"Our country currently does not have similar equipment, so it is difficult for me to draw a conclusion directly..."

After thinking for a moment, Li Jianqiang issued a disclaimer and then replied:

"The original design of Pave Paws was for high-precision anti-missile early warning, so the array has a large elevation angle, which is not conducive to observing aerodynamic targets flying at long distances, medium and low altitudes."

"Of course, this radar has a theoretical detection range of more than 10 kilometers for a target with an RCS of 5000 square meters, and it uses the UHF band, which is not in the comfort zone of stealth aircraft... So even if these unfavorable factors are taken into account, without considering low-altitude penetration or electromagnetic interference, the threat to general stealth targets cannot be underestimated."

Just when everyone around him thought that this was the final conclusion, he suddenly changed the subject:

"But then again... Pave Paws is a fixed target after all. Even if the Air Force can't handle it, we still have the Second Artillery's ballistic missiles... And President Lu, don't forget that the focus of our future combat plans is not how to capture the target, but how to conduct area denial..."

This answer brought Lu Guang's thoughts back to normal, as he was almost led astray.

What the Air Force needs now is a fourth-generation aircraft that can form combat effectiveness as soon as possible to fight against the F22 and the larger number of F35s in the future.

After holding on to this idea, it is not difficult to analyze that the solution of Institute 611 is the most suitable one at present.

Even if other solutions such as three-wing or conventional layout are put forward, it is difficult to have more advantages than the canard + large delta wing layout.

At the same time, the aviation industry has also begun to pay attention to some specific technical issues of the semi-tailless layout...

"Academician Chang, the semi-tailless layout needs to be combined with thrust vectoring technology to achieve the same controllability and maneuverability as other wing layouts. What is the research status of the Aviation Power Group in this regard?"

As expected, someone soon took the initiative to bring the topic to Chang Haonan.

To be honest, Chang Haonan himself is really interested in this semi-tailless layout.

But interests are interests, and he cannot simply influence the fairness of the results because of personal likes and dislikes.

"Our group is currently conducting ground control tests on a WS-10 engine's vector nozzle, and we expect it to enter the flight verification phase by next year at the latest..."

Chang Haonan first briefly mentioned the research and development progress on his side:

"However, the semi-tailless layout requires omnidirectional thrust vectoring technology. The structure of this vector nozzle is very complex, and its service life will be much shorter than the engine itself... Of course, under normal circumstances, the vector nozzle is effective for a very short time, so it is acceptable, but if the thrust vector is to be frequently involved in flight control, this problem must be considered..."

Aircraft research and development, in the final analysis, cannot be separated from power.

Therefore, Chang Haonan's remarks, to some extent, set the tone for the entire seminar.

Combined with the opinions of the aviation force, any discerning person can see that the 611 institute should be the one having the last laugh.

It's just that the level of this meeting is not high enough, so no formal decision can be made...