Chinese air to air missiles

[siegecrossbow]

No, they don't have engines, they are just like USAF's CATM - Captive Air Training Missiles. They are used for training pilots in target acquisition and lock-on procedures, and no actual launch.

I figured as much. The motor is more expensive than the other components.

 

[plawolf]

I remember seeing planes with white missiles without any fins before.

Maybe they are using live missiles for training due to training rounds being unavailable for some reason, and just didn’t install the front fins.

It could be that aggressive manoeuvres put a lot of stress on the fins and motors, so they decided to remove the fins during training to avoid unnecessary wear and tear. As for why the back fins are still attached, I cannot say, maybe those are not as easily removable?

 

[lcloo]

There is another thing. imported Russian missiles for SU-27/MKK/MK2 have different color scheme. Their training missiles are painted in white and marked by 3 blue color bands. So for non-PL series imported Russian training missiles on PLAAF/PLANAF's imported Russian made aircraft, the training rounds are same as those in Russian airforce, white missile with 3 blue color bands.

 

[Tomboy]

This slide claims 300km+ range w/ two way datalink for PL-16, though what is more interesting is that it claims PL-16 uses variable thrust solid rocket booster.

 

[Totoro]

All nice and good but where is the slide from? How official and credible is it?

 

[siegecrossbow]

View attachment 175974
This slide claims 300km+ range w/ two way datalink for PL-16, though what is more interesting is that it claims PL-16 uses variable thrust solid rocket booster.

How does variable thrust solid rocket booster work? What’s the mechanism for controlling how fast solid fuel burns?

 

[Blitzo]

View attachment 175974
This slide claims 300km+ range w/ two way datalink for PL-16, though what is more interesting is that it claims PL-16 uses variable thrust solid rocket booster.

As I mentioned elsewhere, leaving aside the obvious question of "where is it from" (and thus how real is it), one observation is the fact they dont' mention a two way datalink for PL-15 given that was a baseline feature for PL-15 to start with.

I'd treat with a bit of caution, even if lots of this "looks" reasonable.

 

[Totoro]

Perhaps it's not much worth but still, here's a machine translated attempt for the same image.

 

[Confusionism]

No offense, but the layout and content of this slide are just too AI-like.

 

[Blitzo]

No offense, but the layout and content of this slide are just too AI-like.

I don't think one needs AI to create a generic looking slide populated with a summary of some of the cumulative rumours we've had for PL-16.

There are reasons to question and be wary of its credibility but the format of the slide isn't really one of them imo.