Chinese MALE, HALE (and rotary, small, suicide) UAV/UCAV

BoraTas

Major
Registered Member
I believe that is the land-based variant with initial booster rocket.
There are different variants listed with launch weights of 1100-1800kg




And if they produce a variant with a stronger set of innermost pylon weights?

At this point in time, there's a lot of possibilities that still to be tested out.

We'll just have to wait and see.
Why are you trying to press an aircraft lighter than the J-10C and slower than the Y-9 into the strategic bomber role? It obviously isn't going to work. There is nothing to wait and see. The Jiutian will never be used like the H-6.
 

BoraTas

Major
Registered Member
Because it's not as simple as "uprating" weapon pylon capacity.

There's the frame, ribs and spars, i.e the "skeleton" of any aircraft which holds everything together (alongside holding the underwing weapon pylons as previously mentioned) which need to be considered, alongside the skins, i.e. "shell" of the aircraft which also bears certain amount of loads experienced by the aircraft.

A payload weight increase from ~1-1.5 tons to ≥2 tons is no small matter - That's at least ~50-100% increase in load-bearing requirement that needs to be taken into account. That is, the structural limits must never be exceeded in order to avoid unnecessarily reducing airframe life, if not outright resulting in structural failure and destruction of the aircraft itself.

Moreover, given that the CJ-20/A isn't exactly a small-sized missile - There's also the CFD and wind tunnel simulations required to determine whether paylod of such physical sizes could negatively impact the airflow characteristics and performances of the aircraft as a whole, among other things.



And those missile are in a different weight category than the CJ-20/A.

The Chinese A2G missiles in the corresponding category as JASSM and Storm Shadow would be the likes of the AKF-98 and Co.
Aero of the Jiutian would get destroyed if you hung 4 H-6 munitions to it. The extra structural elements and the munitions would send the wing loading and Cd to the high heavens. I don't like being vindictive but it is almost like a light fighter sized aircraft cannot act as a bomber.
 
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