Ladakh Flash Point

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crash8pilot

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"The high altitude of Chinese air bases in Tibet and Xinjiang, plus the generally difficult geographic and weather conditions of the region, means that Chinese fighters are limited to carrying around half their design payload and fuel," the study claims. Can this limitation be remedied by installing catapult launching system on the runways to increase the aircrafts' take off momentum?
theoretically yes with J-15s, but I don't recall any country constructing "land carriers" as operational military bases. I think cost could be one of the reasons.
Perhaps a more sensible and cost effective solution might be to launch fighters with their normal loadout and enough contingent fuel to return to base (just in case), then have the fighters rendezvous with a tanker to top up on gas enroute before proceeding to the area of operation?

Just basing this on what the British RAF do - while the RAF doesn't have the same issue with performance and altitude, their Typhoons don't exactly have the fuel capacity to intercept Russian warplanes in the North Sea and return to base after. Based on what I know the RAF seemingly scramble the Typhoons, and a Voyager is sent to meet them north of Scotland to refuel once they've achieved their mission objective.
 

Bright Sword

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theoretically yes with J-15s, but I don't recall any country constructing "land carriers" as operational military bases. I think cost could be one of the reasons.
Not confirmed but it is believed that Swiss Air Force used F-18A Hornets with arrestor hooks for short landings on high altitude mountain airstrips.
Rocket assisted take offs have been used to get heavily loaded aircraft into the air on shorter airstrips (or no airstrips), or airstrips at altitudes as you can see from the dramatic Soviet era video:
 

Sardaukar20

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May be off topic. But an interesting video of Daocheng Yading Airport (4411m ASL) for aviation enthusiasts who wanna see high altitude flights (albeit commercial) in action. Though I would recommend to watch the entire video (there are landing and take off sequences). You may skip to the 12 minute mark to see the takeoff action of a Chengdu Airlines A320 with relatively full passenger load. Longer takeoff than usual, but very much doable and quite routine. No need for lighter capacity, catapults, rocket assist, or any of that stuff.


No Indian media will ever show any of this. Chinese pilots, commercial and military have vast experience with high altitude flying. Its no sweat for them. No bragging, no chest thumping, no "we are the best" statements. Indian and many international defence analyst can never give the Chinese people any credit.
 

MwRYum

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theoretically yes with J-15s, but I don't recall any country constructing "land carriers" as operational military bases. I think cost could be one of the reasons.
Installing land-based catapult takes some thing like 6 months to a year if we go by what the Chinese did in their carrier aviation training base, and do remember that was an operational airbase to begin with, meanwhile most other places it's just simpler to lay a longer runway to get the job done...if not, RATO kit has been around for more than 50 years, remember that.

Agree entirely. India thinks it can do the same to China as with Pakistan and the results are likely to be even more unfortunate.
It is likely to happen though. War hysteria is at a fever pitch in India. See my post above about some way to avoid the conflict.
Public Opinion against a conflict is a very potent deterrence.
Meanwhile, India is everything the opposite, a public that is eager for a war, been for months promised a swift and victorious total war against China.
 

Bright Sword

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Installing land-based catapult takes some thing like 6 months to a year if we go by what the Chinese did in their carrier aviation training base, and do remember that was an operational airbase to begin with, meanwhile most other places it's just simpler to lay a longer runway to get the job done...if not, RATO kit has been around for more than 50'years
Some pretty interesting footage of heavily loaded C-130s using RATO. The opening footage shows a ski equipped C-130 taking off from a high altitude frozen lake or glacier ringed with mountains ( this may be in Alaska or Bavaria). There is an un-identified delta wing combat aircraft using RATO

 
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Kancil

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There may also be other technologies such as jettison enabled rockets assisting take off ( a vintage technology but may still be in use).


Don't know if oxygen infusion would help though this would use a large quantity of oxygen and the oxygen tanks would take up weight and space and would have to able to be jettisoned.
Or catapult on the runway to increase the take off momentum.
 

TD739

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The Indian soldiers are from lower class and India elites feel the lower class people worth little and can be sacrificed for greater good of the country, that's acquiring more lands. That's why India always push so many soldiers upfront
 

Temstar

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"The high altitude of Chinese air bases in Tibet and Xinjiang, plus the generally difficult geographic and weather conditions of the region, means that Chinese fighters are limited to carrying around half their design payload and fuel," the study claims. Can this limitation be remedied by installing catapult launching system on the runways to increase the aircrafts' take off momentum?
I've heard this idea before, but wouldn't this only work on J-15? And new J-15 intended for 003 no less not the current ones.
 
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