JH-7AII [Jianhong Fighter-Bomber]
Long-range missiles can only function if their long-range sensors can "see" the target from a distance, and the long-range sensors can see through the interference to the JH-7. This may explain why the JH-7AII upgrade may mainly focus on improving the radar computer post-processing to achieve better integration with the jammer. The jammer itself may have been updated to a more powerful KG800 model.
Compared with other models, although the JH-7A II is not very different from the basic model in shape, it may be upgraded with radar and avionics. Compared with the JH-7A, the JH-7AII is able to carry a variety of new electronic warfare pods and launch more new missiles after the avionics upgrade. At the same time, the survivability of this new bomber has also been greatly improved.
It is reported that the Air Force-type JH-7AII was first delivered to the troops in 2017 and participated in the Red Sword-2017 military exercise. The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) dispatched a new variant of its JH-7A fighter-bomber 06 August 2019 to the Aviadarts competition in Russia. A total of four teams from China, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will compete in the "Aviadarts". The Chinese Air Force’s J-10A fighters, JH-7AII fighter-bombers, H-6K bombers, IL-76 and Y-9 transport aircraft, as well as the Chinese Naval aviation force’s JH-7A fighter-bombers will participate in four individual events of the fighter aviation, fighter-bomber aviation, long-range aviation and military transport aviation.
However, analysts struggled to figure out what the new improvements are, or why they were made. According to a report by Xinhua on August 6, a new variant of the Xian JH-7A, dubbed the JH-7AII, was sent earlier in the month to the International Army Games 2019 competition, a sort of annual “military vehicle Olympics” held near Moscow, featuring dozens of participating nations and their hardware. Another report the next day by Weihutang, a military affairs column associated with China Central Television, noted the new plane’s name.
However, neither report gave details about what’s new in the JH-7AII that can’t be found in the earlier JH-7A, and there’s no apparent differences in the appearances of the aircraft, leaving experts puzzled as to what the changes might be. "While the aerodynamic design of the JH-7AII does not appear to vary much from the JH-7A, the aircraft's internal systems could have been upgraded," Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the Global Times on August 8. He noted that “the JH-7AII could be equipped with a more advanced radar and avionics system, enhancing its flight performance.”
A total of four teams from China, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan competed in the "Aviadarts". The Chinese Air Force’s J-10A fighters, JH-7AII fighter-bombers, H-6K bombers, IL-76 and Y-9 transport aircraft, as well as the Chinese Naval aviation force’s JH-7A fighter-bombers participated in four individual events of the fighter aviation, fighter-bomber aviation, long-range aviation and military transport aviation. Although there is a large room for improvement, the modification of the avionics architecture is still limited. Therefore, many electronic devices can only be plugged in the form of a pod. In contrast, the J-16 series almost completely built the electronic warfare pod. In general, the improvement of the JH-7AII is still concentrated inside the aircraft.
The Global Times noted that other military observers had remarked that “there was not much room for improvement of the JH-7 series” and that some had suggested the PLA would soon retire the JH-7s altogether, especially since the Shenyang J-16 was introduced in 2013.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force for the first time revealed details on the latest variant of the JH-7 fighter bomber, designated the JH-7A2, at the Airshow China 2021 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province. The JH-7A2 fighter bomber is developed based on the JH-7A, and it further improved its surface attack capability by becoming capable of carrying extra surface attack weapons including stand-off air-to-surface missiles, laser-guided bombs and munitions dispensers.
With the extensive service of the J-16 and J-20 fighters, the JH-7 series bombers will perform more auxiliary tasks in the future, but from the actual exercise situation, the improved models such as JH-7A have excellent countermeasures. The ability of ground attack, so when conducting air operations, it can cooperate with other fighters, provide fire support for the team, and provide a certain amount of electromagnetic interference for the formation.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
