LY-60 / PL-10
The Pili-10 is a domestic fourth-generation short-range combat air-to-air missile independently developed by China. It adopts advanced infrared imaging guidance and can distinguish real enemy aircraft from fake target decoys. It can also be launched by a helmet sight worn by the pilot to achieve "seeing". Where to fight". Not only that, in order to effectively strike high maneuverability targets, the missile uses thrust vectoring technology. The performance of the Thunderbolt-10 is claimed to be comparable to that of the most advanced American "Sidewinder" AIM-9X missile. In terms of active fighters in various countries, almost no one can get rid of its lock in air combat. The missile has the strength to counter the similar equipment of the US military, and can ensure that all fighters of the rabbit family can easily shoot down any opponents that dare to approach in combat air combat.
In recent years, the fourth-generation short-range air-to-air missiles have been proliferating in neighboring countries and regions. The air forces of some countries and regions have successively equipped or will be equipped with AIM-9X, infrared "Mika" and "AAM-5". The fourth-generation short-range air-to-air missiles have significantly better performance than the PLA’s aviation. The two types of short-range air-to-air missiles currently equipped with the "Jili-8" and "R-73". In addition, with the development of domestically-made J-20 stealth fighters and the service of three-generation semi-fighters such as the J-10C, a new generation of air-to-air combat missiles will inevitably be matched. Judging from the information released by the official agency this time, China's Pili 10 combat missile will effectively improve the ability of domestic fighters to counter stealth fighters such as F-22 and F-35.
The Pili-10 air-to-air missile is an improved version of the Falcon-60 surface-to-air missile. It is quite similar to the Italian Viper (ASPIDE) and has more advanced performance. The Falcon 60's ship-to-air improved version is Hongqi-61 (HQ-61) Ship-to-air missile (Jiangwei class frigate). In October 1994 the new medium-low-altitude surface-to-air missile system, the "Lieying (Falcon)-60," was deployed to China's air defense troops. The system is mainly intended for the interception of military aircraft and missiles flying in medium-low altitude. It a command control system with artificial interference capability thanks to the use of microprocessor intelligent module technology. This technology is not found on existing medium-low-altitude air defense missiles of other countries. The "Lieying-60" search radar can can simultaneously track up to 40 targets, and the tracking radar is able to simultaneously track 12 targets, and engage three targets at once. The use of the moving target tracking processing system and frequency agility technology also gives the system good anti-jamming capability.
The LY60N SAM is being deployed in place of the HQ61 SAM used in the Jiangwei-class frigates. Compared with the HQ61 with a range of 12 kilometers and maximum altitude of 10 kilometers, the LY60 has a range of 18 kilometers and reaches a maximum altitude of 12 kilometers. The LY60N is installed in Jiangwei B-class frigates that have recently been placed in service. Every launch system features a sextuple launchers and each launcher contains four LY60N missiles, for a total of 24 missiles. The wings of the LY60N are foldable. In comparison, the LY60 of the ground army version features a quadruple launchers, each of its launcher contains one missile, and its missile wing is not foldable.
The system will be adopted as the shipborne vertically-launched air defense system of the Chinese Navy's "Luhai"-class missile destroyers, with at least eight vertical launch barrels with a total of 32 missiles.
China initially tried to address its beyond visual range [BVR] needs by reverse-engineering the semiactive AIM-7 Sparrow, in a program designated PL-10. This effort proved unsuccessful. China then purchased around 100 Aspide missiles from Italy--the eventual intent being the license-manufacture of the missile, to be known as PL-11. This deal collapsed as a result of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The Air Force version of the LY-60 is the FD-60 semi-active radar-guided air-to-air missile carried by the J8B fighter plane, which is very similar to the Aspide AAM of Italy in appearance. This missile, which is evidently also known as the PL-10 [Pili = Thunderbolt, or Pen Lung = Air Dragon] medium range air-to-air missile is a Chinese copy of the Italian Aspide, which was developed from the American AIM-7E Sparrow. The bodies of the two missiles are generally similar, though the wings of the air-to-air PL-10 mirror those of the Sparrow, while the LY-60 wings have evidently been truncated to improve storage. The application of the same missile to both air-to-air and ship-to-air applications emulates the American practice with the Sparrow, which started life as an air-to-air missile with subsequent shipboard deployments.
In addition, the Shanghai Academy has also developed a portable ground-to-air version called the FY-60.
The normal aerodynamic layout adopted by the Pili-10 air-to-air missile, one of its characteristics is that the lift and drag are relatively high. Although the lift of the canard aerodynamic layout is greater than that of the normal aerodynamic layout, the induced drag of the rudder is also greater than the latter, so it is fully lifted. In terms of resistance ratio, it is still lower than the normal aerodynamic layout. In addition, the normal aerodynamic layout can have a larger angle of attack, and the contribution of the projectile to the lift of the projectile increases. Not only can it achieve better maneuverability at low altitudes, but also attack performance at high altitudes. Effectively improved, combined with the push vector technology, the low-altitude overload of the fourth-generation combat air-to-air missile can exceed 50G. When the altitude exceeds 15,000 meters and the speed exceeds M1.5, it can still obtain an overload of about 15G, which is fully capable of attacking. The mission of the fourth-generation combat aircraft.
From the comparison of PL-10 and PL-8, the diameters of the two are the same. According to the national military standard, the domestic infrared missiles have two types: 0.127 m and 0.16 m. The latter is the PL-8. Therefore, it can be determined that the bullet diameter of PL-10 should be 0.16 meters, which is larger than AIM-9X and AAM-5 missiles. The diameters of these missiles are all 0.127 meters, which is equivalent to the infrared Mika, and the diameter of the latter is also 0.16. In this way, the launch weight of the PL-10 should not be lower than that of the infrared Mika missile, which is about 100-110 kg, which is larger than that of AIM-9X and AAM-5. Although the increased diameter also improves the resistance of the missile, With larger solid rocket motors, PL-10 may have a larger launch envelope than AIM-9X and AAM-5. Therefore, the PL-10 is a new generation of combat air-to-air missiles developed by the Chinese Air Force focusing on the fourth-generation combat aircraft. It also improves the close-range air combat capabilities of active combat aircraft.
The Thunderbolt-10 is a close-range combat weapon. It uses advanced infrared imaging guidance to distinguish between real enemy aircraft and fake target decoys. It can also be launched by the helmet sight worn by the pilot to achieve "see where to fight". Not only that, in order to effectively strike high maneuverability targets, the missile uses thrust vectoring technology, which has extremely high use overload. "The performance of the Pili-10 is comparable to that of the most advanced U.S. Sidewinder AIM-9X missile. It is a very deadly weapon. In terms of active fighters in various countries, almost no one can get rid of its lock during air combat. The missile has the strength to counter the similar equipment of the US military, and can ensure that the J-20 can easily shoot down any adversary that dares to approach in combat air combat. It can do "super maneuvering" and fight wherever it can.
According to the report by Liang Xiaogeng, deputy chief designer of China Air-to-Air Missile Research Institute, he participated in and presided over a number of national key project research and development work, and led the team to overcome "multivariate/infrared imaging detection and anti-jamming" and "high-speed aircraft aero-optical interference." , "Aircraft ultra-high angle of attack flight control", "high agility, fast turning and stability control" and many other worldwide technical problems.
Among them, the "aircraft ultra-high angle of attack flight control" and "high agility, fast turning and stability control" are particularly exciting. The ultra-high angle of attack flight is the "super maneuvering" of the missile. It is necessary to systematically complete the research on large angle of attack control, agile turning BTT control, command generation of angle of attack, measurement value correction, and large-angle attitude control.
First, the mathematical model of the agile missile system is established. The aerodynamic characteristics of the missile at a 90° angle of attack are simulated by the flow around the cylinder, and a large angle of attack aerodynamic coefficient model is established by combining two forms of engineering estimation and artificial disturbance. On this basis, the motion equations of the agile missile are established, and the kinematic equations of the missile are rewritten using the quaternion method to solve the singularity problem in the attitude description.
Secondly, the nonlinear system control problem of agile missile under high angle of attack is studied. A design method for the angle of attack controller based on active disturbance rejection control and fuzzy logic is proposed, and the extended state observer (ESO) is used to estimate and compensate the total disturbance of the system online, so that the control system has an anti-disturbance mechanism.
In addition, fuzzy logic is used to realize the adaptive adjustment of the state error feedback gain and the command distribution of the direct force/aerodynamic compound control. Finally, under the condition of serious uncertainty in the missile model, the high angle of attack control of the agile missile is realized. Numerical simulation results respectively verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control method, ESO technology, and pulse width pulse frequency modulation technology for RCS control input. Then, using sliding mode control theory, two control methods for agile turning space maneuvering are designed.
For the BTT control strategy, the three-channel control system is firstly designed by using the auto-disturbance rejection control method. Subsequently, in order to further improve the performance of the autopilot, an improved dynamic surface control method combined with ESO technology is proposed, which has better performance in terms of system convergence speed and steady-state error. In addition, in order to facilitate the engineering realization of agile turning, a simplified BTT control strategy is proposed. Based on the requirements of this strategy, an improved non-singular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) control method was designed to realize the stabilization control of the roll and yaw channels.
Finally, numerical simulation is used to compare and analyze different control methods, which proves the superiority of the proposed method. Two problems involved in the engineering realization of the agile missile’s angle of attack feedback control are studied.
China has launched a project to upgrade the Pili-10 air-to-air missile. The missile inherits the seeker, laser fuze and data link system basics of the previous model of the Pili-10 air-to-air missile. The missile body, engine and warhead have been re-developed, and the range and guidance sensitivity have been fine-tuned; the Pili-10 has been improved. The air-to-air missile has a stronger maneuvering overload capability, and is more suitable for the needs of mid-to-close combat air combat. The Pili-10 air-to-air missile has been upgraded again, and it also has most of the performance of a medium-range missile, and further expands the new content of infrared medium-range air combat. At the end of the range, it also has more than the previous type of P-10 combat missile in terms of super maneuverability.
The most notable feature of the Jili-10 modified air-to-air missile is its radar stealth capability. This new type of missile uses a stealth shape design and uses a masking stealth coating to help offset the increase in radar cross-section caused by external mounting and ensure the overall stealth of the J-20 mounted fighter, thus giving the fighter "higher and stronger survival." ability". The Jili-10 improved combat missile not only has the range of a medium-range air-to-air missile, but also has the high and super maneuverability of a short-range combat air-to-air missile; it not only has the advantages of stealth mount and stealth fire, but also has high-performance seekers.
In April 2021 the latest, upgraded version of the JF-17 fighter jet was spotted equipped with China's most advanced air-to-air combat missile that is also used by China's J-20 stealth aircraft, with military observers saying the weapon will give the China-Pakistan jointly developed light fighter the upper hand against its counterparts in dogfights and make it one of the world's best in its class. A photo circulating on social media showed a JF-17 Block 3 fighter jet with the serial number "3001" on a test flight. This was the first time the aircraft with this particular serial number has been seen by the general public, and a PL-10 air-to-air combat missile can be seen on the tip of each of its wings, the report said, without revealing the date and location.
As the short-range combat missile also used by China's most advanced J-20 stealth fighter jet and others, the PL-10 represents the highest level of its kind, and previous JF-17s are equipped with the old PL-5, eastday.com reported. Observers said that the PL-10 equipped by the JF-17 Block 3 is likely an export variation, the PL-10E, which made its debut at the Airshow China 2018 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province. The PL-10E is a domestically developed, fourth generation air-to-air missile, and is one of the most advanced in the world that is on par with the US'AIM-9X, Liang Xiaogeng, chief designer of the missile, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the exhibition in 2018.
Thanks to its infrared-homing, extreme aerodynamic design and other advanced technologies, no aircraft, even stealth ones, can escape from the PL-10, eastday.com reported, also citing Liang. With the PL-10, the JF-17 Block 3 will gain tremendous dogfight capability and have an edge even against its heavier opposing counterparts in homeland air defense.
The Jili-10 modified combat missile also has some inherent significant shortcomings. For example, although the missile has a theoretical range of 60 kilometers, its effective range varies greatly depending on the target situation. Under normal circumstances, the height difference between the carrier and the target, the speed difference, the flying height of the missile, the maneuvering situation of head-on or tail-on-target chasing the target, etc., will all cause a big change in the attack distance. In other words, if the missile consumes a large amount of maneuvering energy before hitting the target, the effective range is greatly reduced, and even in extreme cases, the farthest range is limited to the line of sight. In this way, its stealth performance, speed-increasing and range-increasing performance are of little significance.
In addition, the important radar-guided air-to-air missile standard equipped with the J-20 stealth fighter is the large-scale Pili 15 medium- and long-range air-to-air missile, which currently has no stealth improved version. However, the J-20 stealth fighter can be equipped with only two internal pylons for combat air-to-air missiles. Even if the Pili-10 modified combat missile can be mounted in stealth when launched, other radar-guided medium-range air-to-air missiles will also damage the aircraft. The overall stealth loss is large.
Although the J-20 stealth fighter can use the data link to guide the Pili-10 modified combat missile to attack air targets, the anti-jamming performance of the data link needs to be confirmed by use, especially between strong and antagonistic rivals. In the electromagnetic interference environment, whether the data link can operate stably is always a major issue. As long as the guidance of the data link is lost, the ultra-long range and accurate guidance of the Pili-10 modified combat missile will be difficult to form, and it will eventually become a very ordinary infrared combat missile.
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