Chapter 651 Fighter Development

That afternoon, a seminar was held at Guifei.

This was a seminar on modern air combat.

Air combat has changed a lot in the past few decades.

Before, air combat was mainly close-range combat, ground strafing, and ground bombing.

Later, with the development of missiles, air combat has changed a lot. The reason why the third-generation aircraft still retains airborne cannons is more to prevent emergencies, and most of the time they are actually not used.

Because now air combat has developed from close-range combat to beyond visual range.

Fighters must not only have good maneuverability, but also have stronger battlefield situation awareness, advanced airborne radar and avionics systems, and long-range attack systems to achieve victory.

And this leads to the emergence of the third-generation fighter.

The characteristics of the third-generation fighter are the improvement of maneuverability and electronic systems, as well as the trial use of some stealth.

Of course, the United States and the Soviet Union are inconsistent on the standards for fighter generation.

In the late 1940s, the United States and the Soviet Union were almost simultaneously equipped with the first mature jet fighters, the F-86 and the MiG-15. At that time, the two sides did not divide the fighters into generations, after all, there was only one generation.

Until the first practical supersonic fighter F-100 appeared, the United States called it the second-generation jet fighter, leaving the Soviet Union behind not only in technology but also in name.

In that era, this was absolutely unbearable.

So, the Soviet Union immediately responded with the MiG-19, also called it the second-generation jet fighter, to show that it was not behind the United States.

The emergence of the second-generation aircraft means that the F-86 and MiG-15 naturally became the first-generation jet fighters, and the era of jet fighter generation division has been opened since then, and two parallel division standards have also been generated-the American standard and the Soviet standard.

Then with the development of fighters, the third-generation fighters of the American standard and the third-generation fighters of the Soviet standard began to differ.

In the Soviet standard, the third-generation fighter refers specifically to fighters with variable sweep wing design, represented by the MiG-23 and F-4.

However, this standard is only early in the US standard. The US standard has a broader definition of the third-generation aircraft, which refers to multi-purpose fighters based on the second-generation aircraft with enhanced power and improved flight control and avionics capabilities. Representative models include F14, F15, F16, F/A-18, MiG-29, Su-27, MiG-31, etc., which are classified as fourth-generation aircraft in the Soviet standard.

In other words, the third-generation aircraft of the US standard is actually the fourth-generation aircraft of the Soviet standard.

Because China has entered a honeymoon period with the United States in the past ten years, it has changed from implementing Soviet standards to implementing American standards.

The development of fighter jets has also changed from previous attack aircraft, interceptor aircraft, fighter jets, etc. to the current emphasis on multi-purpose fighter jets.

This can also be regarded as the development of fighter jets with the development of missiles.

The more advanced fighter jets are, the higher the requirements are, which leads to far fewer countries in the world that can develop third-generation fighter jets than those that can develop second-generation fighter jets.

"Leaders, as the J-7 and J-8 are continuously improved, the J-5 and J-6 fighters are no longer produced, and the original J-7 and J-8 basic models are no longer produced. Currently, the J-7 and J-8 improved models are mainly produced. With the successful development of the J-10 and J-11 fighters, the Chinese Air Force will focus on the J-10 and J-11 fighters in the future. The J-5 and J-6 will be retired or exported one after another. The J-7 and J-8 series fighters will not be mass-produced, but only small-scale production and improvement will be maintained, and they will be mainly exported." Liu Tao said: "The focus of fighter development now is to form a development team to digest and improve the technology of the J-10 and J-11."

With the J-10 and J-11 fighters, there is no need to mass-produce the J-7 and J-8 series fighters.

Because no matter how much the J-7 and J-8 fighters are improved, they cannot reach the third-generation standard, at most two and a half generations.

The improved J-7 and J-8 can be produced on a small scale to tap the potential of these two fighters, but they are not suitable for mass production.

Of course, it does not mean that the improved J-7 and J-8 are useless. They also have obvious advantages, that is, they are cheap and can avoid waste.

Over the years, China has produced many J-7 and J-8 fighters. It would be a pity to retire them like this. It is necessary to improve their technology and enhance their combat effectiveness.

Just like the current US and Soviet air forces, they are equipped with thousands of third-generation aircraft, but there are more second-generation aircraft, and they have not directly retired the second-generation aircraft.

Equipment updates have always been cyclical and gradual.

Unless there is a buyer who can take over and sell at a good price.

This meeting determines the future development direction of the Chinese Air Force. It lasted for three hours before the meeting ended.

The next morning, Liu Tao accompanied the leaders to inspect the 011 Aviation Industrial Base. Although it is under construction and cannot be seen yet, as a heavy investment by Panshan Group, the 011 Aviation Industrial Base will become one of the cores of China's aviation industry. Various types of military and civilian aircraft will be produced here in the future.

011 Aviation Industry is located in Guizhou Province, in the southwest, and can be said to be in the heart of China. It is much safer than being in the north or the coast.

Liu Tao was reporting to the leaders with the overall planning map.

It can be said that with the advancement of the 011 Aviation Industry Base, the entire city will evolve into a city dependent on the Southwest Aviation Industry Group Corporation of China, which is somewhat like some cities in the three northeastern provinces.

"In terms of safety, you must be extremely cautious and never take it lightly!" The leader warned.

The aviation industry base is so concentrated and so large.

Even if a war breaks out, it will inevitably become the focus of the enemy's attack, and safety is naturally extremely important.

Liu Tao said: "An air defense battalion will be deployed nearby, which will inevitably make the entire southwest air defense impregnable!"

Here, there will be many air defense missile battalions at that time, and the protection targets will not only be military factories and aviation industry bases, but also large reservoirs and hydropower stations, and the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River in the future.

For example, the Three Gorges project has taken into account the ability to resist strikes since the design stage. The entire Three Gorges Dam uses a total of 27 million tons of concrete, 600,000 tons of steel bars and steel plates, and has a very strong ability to resist strikes. If a medium-range ballistic missile carrying hundreds of kilograms of warhead hits the dam directly, its effect is minimal; a ground-penetrating missile weighing several tons accurately hits the dam, but it cannot penetrate it at all; even a 500-2000 pound bomb directly hits it, at most it will make a pit, not to mention the precision-guided missiles carried by fighter jets.

In addition, a strict air defense system will be deployed in its surrounding areas.

At that time, multiple air defense networks and tens of thousands of various types of air defense missiles will be deployed in the southeast and central-south regions, and there will be more than a dozen fighter divisions, forming the outermost air defense system of the dam. In the inner air defense system, phased array radars, high-altitude detection radars and various electronic warfare systems will also be deployed. The inner layer is equipped with three air defense networks, which are composed of long-range, medium-level and short-range air defense missiles.

In the southwest, the air defense network set up at the border will form an air defense network in the southwest direction.