Chapter 522
: Why bother with the 5th and a half generation fighter? Go straight to the 6th generatio
Many people have a tacit understanding of China's technological development.
That is to produce one generation, reserve one generation, and research and develop one generation.
To put it in the simplest terms, the products that have just been released are not the most advanced, and the most advanced things are always under development.
As long as we are sure that it is not the most advanced one when we take it out.
If you put it on the J-20, it would be like this.
The J-90 was proposed in the 611s. In the competition for my country's future stealth fighter jets, the radical tailless delta-wing canard layout, V-shaped all-moving vertical tail, and DSI air intake scheme proposed by the Shudu 601 Institute directly defeated the conservative three-wing scheme launched by the Shenyang Institute and entered into substantive development.
2011年1月11日中午12时5分进行首次升空飞行测试，13时08分成功着陆，历时18分钟。
After that, a new improved model will be launched every year.
From the information leaked on the Internet, we can also observe that the J-20 is constantly being improved, and the equipment it carries is becoming more and more advanced, almost all of which are the most advanced equipment at the time.
It is worth mentioning that when the J-20 was originally designed, the matching engine used was the "Emei" engine, but because the development speed was far behind that of the aircraft, the prototype and pre-production models were all installed with the Russian AL-31F engine.
The aircraft released last month used this type of engine.
At this moment, it was very clear why the leaders above invited Wang Donglai here.
The excellent performance of the Hercules rocket engine can be used not only in space rockets, but also in fighter jets.
Secondly, it is the proof of the NS equation, which can also be optimized further on the original basis.
Wang Donglai had already figured it all out when his leader mentioned him.
Without hesitation, Wang Donglai stood up immediately.
"Leader, if you want to improve the J-20 model, I can do it!"
Wang Donglai first gave a definite answer, which made several leaders and people present nod.
No one doubted that Wang Donglai did not have this ability, so they were not surprised, but instead felt it was natural.
However, Wang Donglai did not stop.
The next sentence immediately changed everyone's expression.
"but!"
"Leader, I have an idea, but I don't know if I should mention it."
Although what Wang Dong said was a question, the tone was affirmative.
Everyone present could hear it and immediately became interested. They wondered what Wang Donglai would think.
So everyone turned their eyes to Wang Donglai.
Several leaders had not expected such a sudden change. They looked at each other.
It was Chief Hu from the military who took the lead in expressing his opinion: "Academician Wang is a scientific researcher and our technical support. If you have any ideas, you can definitely raise them!"
With Chief Hu taking the lead, several other leaders also nodded in agreement.
Wang Donglai was not timid. He organized his words and said, "Leader, I think that with the development of technology, fighter jets need to be improved and optimized according to the progress of technology. This is very necessary."
"Every day, every day, I will be renewed!"
"If you improve and optimize little by little, in the end, it will produce huge results."
"But I think sometimes we can be bolder."
"For example, the J-20 fighter jet is obviously my country's fifth-generation fighter jet."
"I am confident that through my understanding and application of the NS equation, this fighter jet will become even better. In addition, it can be equipped with the Hercules engine developed by me, and the Elephant Array radar can be upgraded."
"I believe that with the application of these technologies, the performance of the J-20 can be taken to a higher level, and it can even be called a fifth-generation and a half fighter."
"Looking around the world, not many countries have fifth-generation fighter jets, and even fewer countries can independently design and produce them."
"Logically speaking, we should be satisfied to be able to do this."
“But I think this is far from enough!”
"Whether it is a fifth-generation fighter or a fifth-generation and a half fighter, it is a fifth-generation fighter."
"The Bald Eagle and the Great East Japan will be shocked by our design and production of the fifth-generation fighter, but it will definitely not change their attitude towards us, the reason is very simple, because they also have the fifth-generation fighter."
"We want to rise peacefully and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results with other countries and regions, but this is just our beautiful idea."
"Westerners will not agree to this. They will only feel that with our rise, their lives are becoming increasingly difficult, and the days when they could make money without doing anything are gone forever."
“Conflict of interests is the essence of the confrontation between the East and the West, not differences in ideas.”
"Therefore, we must have more powerful and more advanced weapons and equipment."
"Only when we bring out weapons and equipment that they are far inferior to can we completely dispel their delusions and make them learn to respect us."
"So, I firmly believe that we should not focus on the fifth-generation fighter, but should develop the sixth-generation fighter."
As Wang Donglai spoke, the expressions of the other people present changed differently.
Some people disagreed, some fell into deep thought, and some shook their heads, not agreeing with Wang Donglai's idea at all.
Because many of the things Wang Donglai mentioned were related to the military, they aroused the interest of Chief Hu, who was wearing a military uniform, and he asked with interest: "Academician Wang, I heard that you are not going to continue to develop fifth-generation fighters, but to invest your energy in sixth-generation fighters. So what do you know about sixth-generation fighters?"
The meeting room was completely silent. Chief Hu's question was not that difficult, but it was quite profound.
If Wang Donglai couldn't answer, it would prove that what he said was just nonsense and had no value at all.
However, if Wang Donglai can answer the question, we can also understand the extent of his understanding through the depth of his answer, and thus judge where Wang Donglai's confidence comes from.
Wang Donglai naturally understood this and was not worried at all.
After taking a deep breath, Wang Donglai said, "To talk about the sixth-generation fighter, I think we should start with the fourth-generation fighter."
"Due to the improvement of missile and radar technology, the fourth-generation fighter jets no longer pursue the advantage of rapid performance, but emphasize medium- and low-altitude, subsonic/transonic energy maneuvers, pursue high overload and high angle of attack characteristics, use large pulse Doppler radars with medium-range radar-guided air-to-air missiles, plus omnidirectional attack infrared missiles, and design the air battlefield scenario to first conduct medium-range head-on interception, and then conduct medium- and low-altitude close-range combat. In air combat, they can often crush the third-generation aircraft with a very large exchange ratio."
"The fifth-generation fighter jets have added stealth capabilities to the fourth-generation fighter jets, which has created a huge gap in combat capability compared to the previous generation of aircraft, and created an amazing record of 144:0 in confrontation exercises."
"The fourth-generation fighter jets and the fifth-generation fighter jets seem to differ only in stealth performance, but the difference between the two is completely unreasonable."
"Even if the fourth-generation fighter jets rely on minor repairs, radar-absorbing coatings, metal coatings on the canopy, etc., they cannot compete head-on with the real fifth-generation aircraft."
"The reason is simple. Technically speaking, it is technically bad. You can't make up for the real technical gap by using small tricks."
"The fourth-generation aircraft's frontal radar transmission cross-sectional area is between 3 and 10 square meters. The ground-based long-range air warning radar can detect it 400 kilometers away, the three-coordinate air guidance radar can detect it 300 kilometers away, and the fighter's airborne radar can detect it 100 kilometers away. If the radar transmission cross-sectional area decreases tenfold, the radar detection distance will be reduced by 2/3. Even if the energy aperture product increases tenfold, the detection distance can only be increased by half."
“一台发射功率30千瓦、天线波束宽度2.2度、噪音系数3分贝、系统损耗9分贝、搜索范围水平90度、垂直30度，搜索时间10秒的S波段有源相控阵雷达在无电子干扰条件下可发现147千米外0.008平米的目标，在电子干扰条件下会缩小到约50千米，四代战斗机的战斗机机载雷达对0.001平米的雷达发射截面隐身战斗机搜索距离只有30~50千米，电子干扰环境下缩小到5~20千米，即使隐身战斗机被四代战斗机飞行员目视发现，四代战斗机的机载雷达也无法锁定隐身战斗机。”
"The fifth-generation aircraft has the tactical advantage of 'detecting the enemy first, locking the enemy first, firing first, and disengaging first' beyond the detection range of the fourth-generation aircraft, which can make the battlefield one-way transparent and present a one-sided situation."
"Therefore, based on the leading advantages of the fifth-generation aircraft compared to the fourth-generation aircraft, plus the effects they have shown, the sixth-generation fighter must have a relatively special and overwhelming performance feature that can bring about subversive changes in equipment systems, troop organization, and tactics and methods."
"I know very well that the cost of developing a fighter jet is extremely high, ranging from tens of billions to hundreds of billions. If we force development without strong enough advantages and bright future prospects, it would be a huge waste."
"At present, we have developed the J-20 fighter jet, which is a huge success under the current circumstances."
"I also believe that the organization must have already established a research and development plan for the sixth-generation aircraft."
"I am even more confident that we will complete this plan on time, or even earlier and better."
"I would boldly speculate that it may be 2024, or even earlier!"
"I am very clear about all this, but I still think we can shorten the development time of the fifth-generation and a half fighter and invest time and money in the sixth-generation fighter."
"For the sixth-generation fighter, I think the design concept of the sixth-generation aircraft should be aimed at the future battlefield penetrating air control operations and the needs of anti-access and area denial, that is, the pursuit of long range, high speed, omnidirectional and full-frequency stealth and bomb load, with good penetrating air control capability, flying wing layout with good stealth performance, reducing the discontinuous surface of the fuselage and the scattering area of the independent structure, so as to have better omnidirectional stealth capability against L and S band early warning radars."
"Of course, the core of a fighter is still the engine. The sixth-generation fighter must be equipped with a more powerful engine with vector thrust. To achieve hypersonic flight, it must have a good design to reduce air resistance."
"At present, the flight altitude of existing fighter jets is only more than 10,000 meters, so the flight altitude of the sixth-generation aircraft must reach more than 20,000 meters, because the air above 20,000 meters is thin and the resistance is small."
"The air at this altitude simply cannot support the operation of traditional turbofan engines. Only variable cycle and scramjet engines can do this. The use of variable cycle technology can reduce fuel consumption by about 30% and increase thrust by almost 50%."
"The SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft of that year was a turbojet engine that was modified into a variable cycle engine. However, after the speed increased to Mach 3, the turbojet engine was limited by overheating and often could not work. Only the scramjet engine could provide the power required for hypersonic flight."
"The ramjet engine has no moving parts, is simple in structure and lightweight, and has a minimum starting speed of more than Mach 2, so from a technical perspective, it is absolutely qualified."
"If that's all, it can't show the power of the sixth-generation aircraft."
"All countries can see the benefits of the stealth performance of fifth-generation aircraft, so they will continue to invest in stealth performance in the research and development of new fighter jets. As a result, a situation will arise where even if they are all fifth-generation aircraft, no one can detect each other."
"This situation is very likely to occur, and in response to this situation, I think we can improve the informationization capability of fighter jets and make it the main performance."
"Everyone should know that Galaxy Technology has developed drone business. Drones were originally used for military purposes, and later became civilian uses."
"When developing the sixth-generation aircraft, we can also be bolder, for example, by allowing drones with certain image and video autonomous processing capabilities to serve as nodes in a distributed system, allowing combat units to make autonomous decisions and then integrate with the sixth-generation aircraft."
"At present, with our country's communication technology, it is not difficult to achieve distributed combat. We can load stealth drones carrying artillery shells on fighter jets. Drones do not have high-end phased array radars and avionics. They are small in size, have no cockpit, and their radar launch cross-sectional area is several orders of magnitude smaller than that of fighter jets. During combat, drones carrying several missiles will pop out in advance and occupy a favorable launch position. Then, the fighter jets will guide them to achieve A-shooting-B-guiding. In this way, a fighter jet can have the firepower of hundreds of missiles, or even more."
"Rather than calling the sixth-generation aircraft a fighter jet, I would rather call it a combat platform composed of the Internet of Things, just like an aircraft carrier at sea."
"With the development of modern technology, military strength is no longer simply a matter of thicker gun barrels, heavier shells, and larger aircraft."
“The sharp updating of concepts, coupled with continuous breakthroughs in technology, are the basic requirements for a country with strong military capabilities.”
"In addition, the sixth-generation aircraft should also have disruptive radar technology. In this regard, there are terahertz radar and microwave photon radar to choose from. Terahertz radar can pass through the stealth coating to obtain the metal image under the coating. It can not only detect stealth targets, but also underwater targets and camouflaged targets."
"Microwave photon radar is also a disruptive radar technology. It has the characteristics of long detection distance, strong target recognition ability, strong anti-interference ability, small system size and light weight."
"As far as I know, China has already invested in the research of these two technologies, and just this year China Electronics Technology Group Corporation successfully developed the first all-solid-state terahertz imaging radar. In addition, the Institute of Electronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences seems to have achieved results in microwave photon radar, and success is not far away."
"So, the radar problem has almost cleared the biggest obstacle. The follow-up only requires dealing with miniaturization and fighter adaptability."
"..."
As Wang Donglai spoke, the faces of many academicians in the conference room changed, as well as several leaders.
The concept of the sixth-generation aircraft proposed by Wang Donglai really opened everyone's eyes.
No one expected that the sixth-generation aircraft could be designed in this way.
Wang Donglai's words immediately gave everyone a feeling of enlightenment.
It turns out that the sixth-generation aircraft can be designed in this way.
Apart from that, he couldn't suppress his surprise at Wang Donglai.
Wang Donglai knows so many things.
Judging from his words, he sounds more like an old veteran who has been deeply involved in fighter jet design and development for decades, and does not seem like a young man at all.
However, from the various advanced and radical concepts in the design of the sixth-generation aircraft, one can also clearly feel the arrogant and confident vitality of young people. (End of this chapter)