Ask anything Thread (Air Force)

davidau

Senior Member
Registered Member
I think G stands for Gai or modified

This may not be the right place to ask this question:
Why do some planes have pitot tube, others don't? I know it is for measuring speed. It has to be folded for carrier use eg J15s. What are the reasons?
 

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
Surely a bit off topic, but could it be that
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shows images now only after sign-in?
 

tamsen_ikard

Junior Member
Registered Member
How good is China's ground based air defense vs a large foe like US. How many SAM systems does China have? Does it number say a few thousand? I believe number of systems is an important factor if you are dealing with an enemy with a huge number of planes.

Suppose US brings 1000 4th gen planes plus 100 5th gen planes to attack China in a Taiwan scenario. Suppose Chinese ground attack missiles could not deter those US planes from arriving air bases in Okinawa or Taiwan. So, now US wants to gain air superiority over Chinese land in order to perform ground strikes. How good and dense is China's SAM systems to deal with such a large force?
 

gelgoog

Brigadier
Registered Member
How good is China's ground based air defense vs a large foe like US. How many SAM systems does China have? Does it number say a few thousand? I believe number of systems is an important factor if you are dealing with an enemy with a huge number of planes.

Suppose US brings 1000 4th gen planes plus 100 5th gen planes to attack China in a Taiwan scenario. Suppose Chinese ground attack missiles could not deter those US planes from arriving air bases in Okinawa or Taiwan. So, now US wants to gain air superiority over Chinese land in order to perform ground strikes. How good and dense is China's SAM systems to deal with such a large force?

Better than US systems would be in that situation at least. The HQ-9 family is basically a clone of the S-300 with Chinese electronics and radar. i.e. the electronics and radar are probably better than those in the S-400. Now that China has the S-400 it's a matter of time until they reverse engineer the new missiles in it and put them to use.
 

Tam

Brigadier
Registered Member
How good is China's ground based air defense vs a large foe like US. How many SAM systems does China have? Does it number say a few thousand? I believe number of systems is an important factor if you are dealing with an enemy with a huge number of planes.

Suppose US brings 1000 4th gen planes plus 100 5th gen planes to attack China in a Taiwan scenario. Suppose Chinese ground attack missiles could not deter those US planes from arriving air bases in Okinawa or Taiwan. So, now US wants to gain air superiority over Chinese land in order to perform ground strikes. How good and dense is China's SAM systems to deal with such a large force?


Multilayered. It will be like a minefield over a minefield over a minefield.

Like they use multiple radars. Your ARM equipped SEAD aircraft will go after the search radars, but the fire control radars are not integrated with the search radars and are separate. So you may be able to take out the search radars but not the fire control radars which can lay hidden and light up under you as a surprise. Even if you try to take out the search radars, some are going to be fakes and phonies, and some separate their arrays from the main systems. So if you take out the array, they can quickly set up another one.

Jamming is another issue. Many SAM radars are frequency agile, and use AESAs which can make them LPI or low probability of intercept. This means you may have difficulty detecting their radars. China also has ESM units that acts like passive radar, so they can instead, detect and track your radar.

In terms of SAMs, larger units like S-300 and HQ-9 may also be covered by smaller units like HQ-16 and down the ring such as HQ-7 and HQ-17 that will protect radar sites and larger SAM batteries. These SAMs can intercept other missiles and even glide bombs. As the smaller units also have their own separate sets of search and fire control radars, so the SEAD has its work cut out for it. Not to mention you have to deal with the jungle of civilian emissions.
 

gelgoog

Brigadier
Registered Member
Well the radar is basically taking a picture of the aircraft. So it is going to look at it from one side only. So saying it is 5% of the surface area is a simplification. Also aircraft typically operate level at cruise.
 

halflife3

Junior Member
Registered Member
The C-17, Il-76, and Y-20 are close equivalents. However, there are notable differences in landing gear design among them.
The C-17 landing gear configuration is 1 frontal (2 wheels), 4 rear (grouped in 3); 14 wheels total.
The Il-76 landing gear configuration is 1 frontal (4 wheels), 4 rear (grouped in 4); 20 wheels total.
The Y-20 landing gear configuration is 1 frontal (2 wheels), 6 rear, (grouped in 2); 14 wheels total.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each arrangement and why does the Il-76 have so many wheels on its landing gears? Does this have to do with Russia's landing gear technology being behind that of US and China?
 

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