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Chapter 292 J-7-1 Fighter

New China's jet fighter development started with the J-5, followed by the J-6, and then the J-7

The reason why Xu Le skipped the J-6 was not because the J-6 was not good. At least it was much stronger than the J-5. However, its maximum flight speed was only 1490 kilometers per hour. If he faced the same kind of enemy encirclement and suicide attack as before, he was afraid that this speed would not be enough.

Although the J-6 can carry rockets, its basic model can only carry 57mm air-to-air rockets and cannot carry air-to-ground rockets.

Although it can also carry the PL-1 air-to-air missile, it cannot carry the PL-2 air-to-air missile with better performance.

The subsequently improved J-6 can carry air-to-ground rockets and PL-2 missiles, but the price of the modified version is a bit more expensive than the basic model of the J-7, so it is better to buy the J-7 directly.

He can't bring out another transitional fighter, it would be a complete waste!

The J-7, a fighter jet finalized by New China in 1966, is a single-seat, single-engine, second-generation supersonic fighter with a maximum flight speed of over 2400 kilometers per hour, or Mach 2.

The aircraft is 14 meters long, 4 meters wide, with a wingspan of 7 meters. Its empty weight is 5200 kilograms, maximum take-off weight is 8600 kilograms, and maximum bomb load is 1000 kilograms.

The maximum range is 18 km if it relies on internal fuel alone, and the combat radius is 1480 km, 5 km more than the 400 km of the J-200. If it carries auxiliary fuel tanks, the maximum range can reach 600 km.

In terms of climb rate, the J-7 not only far surpasses the J-5, but also surpasses the Q-5, reaching 180 meters per second.

The reason why the Q-5 had such a low loss ratio when facing more than 300 Japanese fighter planes was mostly due to its high climb rate, which enabled it to instantly increase its altitude when encountering a cluster of suicide attacks by the Japanese.

The highest climb rate of propeller fighter jets in the world today does not exceed 20 meters per second, so the J-7's super high climb rate solved the problem of being surrounded by the Japanese.

Coupled with the supersonic speed of Mach 2, the combination of the two can easily deal with clusters of fighter jets and ensure its own safety!

Finally, there are onboard weapons. Machine guns are definitely present. Even for 21st century fighter jets, machine guns are standard.

The J-7 has a 30mm machine gun with 150 rounds of ammunition. In an era of rapid development of air-to-air missiles, the machine gun is only a backup weapon.

In addition, the J-7 has five external racks, one on the belly for carrying heavy bombs or missiles, and two on each wing for carrying air-to-air rockets and air-to-ground rockets, or four air-to-air missiles.

The price of the basic model of the J-7 is 10 military merit points per aircraft. However, what Xu Le wants to buy is not the basic model, but the J-2-I model that can carry the PL-7 air-to-air missile, which is the first improved version of the J-7. It costs 11 military merit points per aircraft and also has two machine guns.

However, the system's standard weapon is rockets, so although the rocket launcher is free, both rockets and thunderbolt missiles require extra military merit points to purchase.

Especially the missiles. The PL-1 air-to-air missile is 2.5 meters long, weighs 82 kilograms, has a maximum range of 6 kilometers, and costs 200 military merit points per missile.

The size and weight of the PL-2 air-to-air missile are similar to those of the PL-1. Its maximum range reaches 7600 meters and its maximum overload reaches 10G, so it is much more maneuverable than the PL-1 and can more easily track enemy aircraft.

In fact, both PL-1 and PL-2 have very poor performance when facing jet fighters, weak anti-interference capabilities, and insufficient maneuverability.

But it is different when facing piston propeller fighters. The propeller fighters have too slow flying speed and poor maneuverability, which in turn enhances the performance of these two missiles.

The guidance method of the PL-2 missile is infrared guidance. The missile needs to capture the heat emitted by the enemy aircraft to lock it. Basically, it locks on the high-temperature flame at the tail of the fighter. However, the engine of the propeller fighter has less heat, so it is more difficult to capture. But there is no problem attacking large aircraft such as bombers, and there is no interference in this era.

The guidance method of the PL-1 missile is radar beam guidance. The tail radio directional antenna of the missile receives the illumination beam signal from the airborne radar, and converts it into a guidance signal proportional to the offset and offset speed of the missile's deviation from the equal-strength signal line through the on-board computing device, and transmits it to the steering gear device to control the corresponding movement of the canard rudder surface, so that the missile flies towards the target along the beam direction of the airborne radar illuminating the target.

PL-1 has a serious weakness, that is, the fighter's radar must always illuminate the enemy aircraft to guide the missile, so the fighter has to continue tracking the enemy aircraft after launching the missile.

But it is different with PL-2. After the fighter jet is launched, you don’t have to worry about it and can perform other flight maneuvers without affecting the missile guidance.

So, strictly speaking, PL-1 is more suitable for fighting against propeller fighters.

However, Thunderbolt 2 also has its own uses, and the price is 300 military merit points each.

[The following uses J-7 to refer to J-7-I]

Of the 40 J-7s purchased, in addition to equipping three squadrons with 3, the remaining four were kept at the airport as backup to avoid the need to temporarily rush over for replenishment in case of future loss.

Purchase 1 PL-1000 air-to-air missiles and 2 PL-500 air-to-air missiles, and use the remaining rockets from the J-5, as there are still several thousand of them.

A total of 475 million military merit points were spent, with a balance of 3225 million.

Although the maximum speed of the J-7 reaches Mach 2, all pilots have tested supersonic flight on the Q-5, so there is no problem of being unable to control it. As for whether it can withstand Mach 2, Xu Le dare not guarantee it, but there are definitely people who cannot adapt to it.

But there is no other way but to let the pilots adapt slowly on their own, and the situations where they can fly at Mach 2 are probably very rare.

Xu Le now regrets buying so many J-5 trainers as they cannot conduct supersonic training and there are still 20 of them in the system space that have never been used.

The J-7 is too expensive, so we will have to add the J-6 as a trainer aircraft in the future.

"Alas, I have once again realized why so many countries in the past could not afford to build a large-scale air force. The cost is not small at all!"

Looking at the 40 J-7s and hundreds of boxes of missiles neatly arranged in front of him, Xu Le held his chin with one hand, revealing an expression of despair.

But Xu Le didn't know that several countries had already started to work together to develop jet fighters to deal with Xu's army.

It’s just that these countries don’t have the technology in this area, and developing it in a short period of time is as difficult as climbing to the sky.

Another day passed, and the pilots returning from Dali were naturally shocked by the brand new J-7, especially after hearing about the PL air-to-air missile. The shock was even more exaggerated than when they first saw the J-5.

There is no missile in the world that has been put into actual combat yet. Facing propeller aircraft, the PL-1 missile has a hit rate of up to %, which is tantamount to opening the door to a new world for pilots.

So, an intense training began again. They not only had to adapt to the J-7's greater overload capacity, but also had to be proficient in using the airborne radar with a detection range of 30 kilometers.

While the fighter squadron was training, the other three squadrons were not idle and began bombing Xingwei City.

The remaining Japanese troops of Guigai retreated here and established several defense lines together with the Japanese troops on the original Xingwei defense line, including the 55th Division and the 112th Division, as well as the 18th Independent Mixed Brigade, the 14th Independent Tank Brigade and the 28th Independent Artillery Regiment.

The total number of troops is nearly 10, with nearly 300 tanks and armored vehicles and more than 70 cannons with a caliber of 150 mm or above.