PLAAF Munitions

As I have mentioned many, many times. I served in the USN for 20 years. For 11 of those years I was an Avation Ordanceman. Also know as an "AO" or Ordie. We loaded munitions on aircraft. Handled ship & shore air launched munitions. Maintained ship & shore magazines. And many other duties.

The USN has been using precision guided munitions for many years. In the late 60's it was the "Walleye" Tv guided bombs.



In the early 70's it was the first Laser Guided bomb. It was connected to a system called "Pave Knife"



I went to find out what sort of precision guided muntions that the PLAAF has and found very little information... ..

Does anyone have any confirmation or info on what precision guided weapons that the PLAAF loads on it's aircraft?..Any links or stories, pics etc would be most intresting! Thanks!

Here's a pic of some USN "Ordies" at work on the Double "R"..USS Ronald Reagan CVN-76..

Persian Gulf (Feb. 28, 2006) - Aviation Ordnancemen assigned to the “Eagles” of Strike Fighter Squadron One One Five (VFA-115) prepare to load a laser guided bomb onto an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).

Re: PLAAF precision guided munitions

I think you can find most of the stuff here

I guess we got some from the Russians in the form of KAB-1500 and KAB-500.
There has also been the indigenous LGB. I remember reading an article on this on kanwa, need to find it. I will put it up later.

Another page that provides good stuff is


A little more, this one at least seems to be indigenous

The development of the new Q-5E/F variants finally fulfilled PLAAF's requirement to deliver PGMs (mainly LGBs). The exact status of this project is unknown even though prototypes have been seen flying. Due to the limited payload the aircraft can deliver, a typical CAS mission is accomplished by both variants: at least one Q-5F carrying a FLIR/LT pod either semi-recessed into or underneath its belly and several Q-5Es each carrying two LS-500J 500kg LGBs (comparable to American PAVEWAY I) under its wings. A small fairing is seen underneath the nose which may house an ALR-1 laser rangefinder to achieve better bombing accuracy. It was speculated that Q-5E/F can also carry anti-radiation missiles as well for SEAD missions.

Re: PLAAF precision guided munitions

Thanks Tphuang!

I've read and seen all the info at sino defence. I will check the new links.

Any pics of PLAAF aircraft flying with or delivering those or any type weapons? How about it swimmer? Thanks again!

I checked those pics on that first link..I saw that knock off of a Mk-46 torpedo..Man oh man! I use to teach loading Mk-46 torpedo on the old H-2 helo. Looks almost identical to me!..Brings back some memories....from back in the day!

Re: PLAAF precision guided munitions

bd popeye said:

Thanks Tphuang!

I've read and seen all the info at sino defence. I will check the new links.

Any pics of PLAAF aircraft flying with or delivering those or any type weapons? How about it swimmer? Thanks again!

I checked those pics on that first link..I saw that knock off of a Mk-46 torpedo..Man oh man! I use to teach loading Mk-46 torpedo on the old H-2 helo. Looks almost identical to me!..Brings back some memories....from back in the day!

[qimg]http://mil.jschina.com.cn/huitong/missiles/Yu-7.jpg[/qimg]

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I guess this is the other interesting part on LGBs

An LGB was seen carried by a Q-5F attack aircraft. This 250kg (LS-250J?) LGB has its control fins attached to the forward section of the bomb unit, a design feature simlar to that of Russian KAB series LGBs rather than American GBU series LGBs which have the control fins attached to the guidiance unit. This suggests Ruissian assistance may have been sought as China lacked the technology and experience in developing LGBs. This type of LGB (250kg & 500kg) may be used together with the FLIR/Laser Targeting pod developed by the 613 Institute, while both can be carried by JH-7A and Q-5E/F.

I really wish I can translate that stupid kanwa article on the capability of the pod, but I can't understand those terms!!!!!

Anyhow, the part about the torpedoe just shows how far back China's ASW capability is.

Re: PLAAF precision guided munitions

Tphuang, when do you think will China have the capability to produce a satelite-guided bomb similar to the US military's JDAM?

Re: PLAAF precision guided munitions

Su-34 said:

Tphuang, when do you think will China have the capability to produce a satelite-guided bomb similar to the US military's JDAM?

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The main barrier for that is China's lack of Global Positioning Sattellites. US owns the GPS system, the nearest competitor is European (I forgot the name) and its unlikely they will allow China to use it for military purposes.

Re: PLAAF precision guided munitions

For years now various articles claim that chinese anti ship and land attack cruise missiles use gps guidance. Is that true gps - american one, or do they mean gps like network like the russian glonass, its hard to tell. Galileo isnt fully operational yet but chinese and eu have signed a contract of cooperation concerning it. us has protested about it but so far it has remained just a protest.

Thing is - one doesn't need permission to use the civilian signal. If chinese missiles are using that US would need to shut down good part of the whole network, denying the signal to other users too. Of course, civilian signal is not as precise as the one us military uses, i believe i read civ gps signal has accuracy of being no more than 10 m away from the target. That's good enough for getting the missile/bomb over the target but one would wanna use some kind of additional terminal electrooptical guidance in case of armored targets.

Galileo signal, as far as i know, will have just one quality, no military and civilian usage differentiation, and it will be more precise than current civilian gps one. It has been said that US will allow for more precise civilian use gps signal then, so it remains economically competitive.

Of course, there's always the indigenous satellite network china is working on, but that will cover only the general southeast asia area, and will not be a true global network. I believe they said they have two sats up by now and need 2 more to make it operationial plus 2 more for backup. (am not 100% sure bout these numbers so you might wanna google it yourself) Of course, such a private, military sat network is going to be first to be targeted in any war with the US.

Re: PLAAF precision guided munitions

IDonT said:

The main barrier for that is China's lack of Global Positioning Sattellites. US owns the GPS system, the nearest competitor is European (I forgot the name) and its unlikely they will allow China to use it for military purposes.

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Blocking China out of the GPS system would not stop them from building a satellite-guided bomb - they could always use the Russian GLONASS system. In around 20-30 years time, China could build its own satellite syatem, given the rapid development of its economy and space programme.
I've also got a question of my own - how good would the Chinese LGBs be? Would they be comparable to U.S. systems, or is China still far behind?

Re: PLAAF precision guided munitions

IDonT said:

The main barrier for that is China's lack of Global Positioning Sattellites. US owns the GPS system, the nearest competitor is European (I forgot the name) and its unlikely they will allow China to use it for military purposes.

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China does not need GPS. It will have the European Gallileo(is that what ur thnking of?), Which is accurate up to one meter, making it even more accurate than modernized GPS sattelites. what more is that this system is offered to all, including the military(maybe not terrorists...). The constelation should be operational by 2008. Europe has already guarenteed China it will not block Gallileo transmission in the event of war. China has already been generous to foot 20% of the cost for the project, and is an active participater in the program. China will soon have almost as much influence on Europe as America does, so Europe will not easily give in to U.S demands for shutting down the sattelites. America, of course, could shoot them down, but that would only piss off the europeans and worsen U.s/europe relations.

To bakc gallileo, there is still the russian glonass, and the indigenous Beidou. After the launch of the fourth Beidou sattelite, the small constelation will have an accuracy of roughly 6-8 meters.

Re: PLAAF precision guided munitions

I'd like to point out that precision-guided munitions do not always require satellite/GPS guidence. For example, laser-guided bombs (LGB) and TV-guided bombs. Also, most of the earth's surface has been mapped and photographed from space. It is possible to use terrian-following radar to guide cruise missiles to stationary targets. Even in US JDAM munitions, which use GPS guidence, it fallbacks to inertial navigation if GPS is jammed.