Is it feasible to add on conformal fuel tank on J-7G??

Kilo636

Banned Idiot
J-7 is too shortlegged and carry external fuel tank will really causes plenty of drag and degrade dog-fight capapabilites. I don think J-7 will really fly around China or coastel area without external fuel tank. Shall a conformal fuel being design for J-7 as conformal proven to cause less drag and increase range? Then new J-7 with conformal tank most of the time will perform better than a J-7 with external fuel tank. Of cos a J-7 with conformal and external tank will really degrade its performance but its a either option u pick and not both unless in some critical situation where u really needs range!

I know many people will say why waste time on J-7 and not J-10! Cause i see a more urgent need on J-7 as J-7 is more shortlegged than J-10. Plus J-7 plane is considered a fully matured plane ,more or less everything have already stabilised..
 

eecsmaster

Junior Member
and there is your problem. J-7 was never meant for long range missions. It was meant for point defense and short range intercepts. If you add CFTs and deploy them like CFT equiped planes are meant to, you are, in effect, tossing a plane which must rely on ground control (and flies like a pig) into situations the plane cannot handle.
 

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
ite interesting as there was some time ago a CG of a J-7G with conformal tanks !

Enjoy ...

j7gconformalfueltankhr0.jpg


Cheers, Deino :D
 

ahho

Junior Member
those tank look like the one that are used for the F-16.
i got a few questions

1) the belly hardpoint, can they mount missile in there or only bombs and drop tank.

2) can you mount bvr missile on the j-7g but for other plane to launch it like flankers, fc-1, j-10 (awacs???)

3) i am wondering if anyone have though about using the belly hardpoint to mount a radar to launch bvr missile???
 

adeptitus

Captain
VIP Professional
There are several MiG-21 upgrade packages on the market, MiG-21-2000, MiG-21 Lancer, MiG-21-93 (Bison), etc. China also makes many MiG-21 upgraded variants.

But, none of them have conformal fuel tanks. The MiG-21 is known to have short legs, if conformal fuel tanks was a good option, I think they prolly would've installed it already. The fact that it hasn't, prolly means it'd degrade the aircraft performance too much.
 

Elite-Pilot

New Member
Registered Member
those tank look like the one that are used for the F-16.
i got a few questions

1) the belly hardpoint, can they mount missile in there or only bombs and drop tank.

2) can you mount bvr missile on the j-7g but for other plane to launch it like flankers, fc-1, j-10 (awacs???)

3) i am wondering if anyone have though about using the belly hardpoint to mount a radar to launch bvr missile???

1) no, only air to surface missles can be carried on the middle belly hardpoint
2) no, it is just simpy not possible. The aircraft need to see the target itself. However the aircraft can data link to the Awacs.
3) no, not possible. No country is willing to do this either
 

ahho

Junior Member
About those conformal fuel tank. Is it a bit more dangerous for the plane to go in flames if they get shot at or there is no added danger??
 

Elite-Pilot

New Member
Registered Member
well yea, but military aircraft tend to carry special fuel whihc is higher in cost and does not burn as quickly as petrol. Which is the exact reason to why most aircraft survive cannon fire from an opposing plane.
 

ahho

Junior Member
about the original question that should this be added, i would say no, since (IF remember correctly) all interception using J-7 would be within chinese land area. Also, given this plane doesn't have BVR and such age (eventhough it is mature) i dun think it would be wise. Maybe if it was added to the FC-1 or J-10.
 

cabbageman

New Member
You cannot drop CFT. So you would be trading combat performance and upgrade cost for range and two extra AAMs. For CAP missions, CFT probably increase endurance from 40 min. to about 1 hr. Nice to have, but a low priority considering Su-27s and J-10s could probably CAP for 2~3 hrs at longer range anyway. Two extra IR AAMs doubles target engagement of J-7, but does that really improve the overall combat effectiveness against potential enemies?
 
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