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PL-8

The PL-8 [Pili = Thunderbolt, or Pen Lung = Air Dragon] is an all-aspect air-to-air missile with the tail stabilizing fins resembling the Israeli Python-3, and it is believed that Israel sold the Python-3 technology to China in the 1980s. The PL-8 has been seen carried on the naval aviation J-8II aircraft, indicating that the missile has entered operational service. A few Jianghu III/IV class guided missile frigates mount a close-in gun/missile system combining 2 PL-8N (PL-8H) with a twin 37mm AA gun.

The Thunderbolt-8 is the main short-range air-to-air missile of the Chinese Air Force. The missile has basically reached the level of the third-generation short-range air-to-air missile. Not only has it provided the Chinese Air Force with powerful main battle weaponry, but through the development of the missile, it has also allowed China’s relevant departments to accumulate the development experience of modern air-to-air missiles, which has played an important role in the development of China ’s short-range air-to-air missiles.

In the 1980s, the Soviet Air Force MiG-23 fighter was used to develop the J-8B fighter. The focus of the aircraft was to improve the performance of low and medium altitude combat. Therefore, an air-to-air missile with better performance was required to cooperate with it. At the same time, the missile can also be used to improve active duty fighters to deal with the improved maneuverability of MiG-23 fighters such as MiG-23MLD. However, the procrastination of PL-5B and the dismounting of PL-6 indicated that China was still unable to develop such an air-to-air missile entirely on its own. Therefore, China took advantage of the favorable international environment at that time to introduce technology to reduce the difficulty of developing new air-to-air missiles, which was obviously a possible choice.

After comparison, China chose Israel’s Python-3 air-to-air missile, which was developed by the Israel Raphael Design Bureau. In 1958, Israel began to develop the first generation air-to-air missile Sharif-1. Its performance is equivalent to AIM-9B. It was successfully developed in 1963. However, due to the poor anti-jamming ability of the missile and the weak attack ability, Israel began in 1962 Developed its improved Sharif-2, which was equivalent to AIM-9D. The missile used a more advanced proportional guidance method and has better performance against maneuvering targets. After actual combat, it had been shown that the performance of the Sharif-2 can be comparable to that of the AIM-9D. Despite its higher weight and price than the AIM-9D, the Israeli Air Force still purchased the Sharif-2 missile in bulk to support the development of equipment for domestic weapons.

According to the actual combat experience of Sharif-1 / 2, the Raphael Design Bureau began to develop a new type of air-to-air missile, which was originally named Sharif-3, and later renamed the Python-3 air-to-air missile. The missile was designed in 1975, engineering development began in 1977, and it was first publicly unveiled at the Paris Air Show in 1981. It also participated in the 1982 Bekaa Valley air battle, in which it hit the main combat object of the country, MiG-23. This is also an important reason why China decided to introduce this type of missile.

The missile is divided into a front cabin section and a rear cabin section. The front cabin section includes a seeker, fuze, nitrogen cylinder and electronic components. The rear cabin section includes a warhead and a rocket engine. The missile adopts a triangular duck rudder surface, which is a single-wing movable type, and the tail wing is a unique trapezoidal truncated tail with a gyro rudder, which ensures the stability of the missile rolling, which is also an important identification feature. The missile uses liquid nitrogen-cooled indium antimonide infrared seeker, using the proportional guidance method, the liquid nitrogen bottle of the missile can be used for more than 2 hours, which greatly improves the performance and anti-interference ability of the seeker.

The missile uses a radio proximity fuze, which uses the Doppler frequency signal when the missile flies over the target to detonate the missile, and has strong anti-jamming capability. Compared with the previous short-range air-to-air missiles, the missile has better maneuverability, the maximum maneuvering overload can reach 40g, and it has an off-axis intercept capability of 30 degrees. The missile has a maximum range of 15 kilometers and a minimum range of 500 meters. Its range is wide, making it possible to attack high-altitude targets and low-altitude targets.

The overall performance of the Python-3 air-to-air missile is better than that of the US AIM-9L air-to-air missile, so China not only purchased Python-3 in large quantities, but also introduces its own technology to produce it, numbered Thunderbolt-8. According to reports, the localization of Python-3 was completed by the Luoyang Solar Power Development Center in China. In the early 1990s, the trial production of localized missiles was completed and the troops were equipped in batches. The introduction of the missile not only shortened the gap between China's air combat weapons and foreign countries, but also laid a solid foundation for future development, especially the localization of key indium antimonide devices. The device has the advantages of high sensitivity, and is one of the more widely used in mid-band infrared devices, not only in guidance, but also in the fields of thermal imaging and other applications.

In the 1990s, with the deepening of the development of the J-10 fighter aircraft, supporting weapons and equipment were needed. In addition, China introduced a large number of R-73 air-to-air missiles while introducing Su-27 fighters. In order to avoid over-reliance on foreign air-to-air missiles, China improved it with the experience of using PL-8 as a new supporting machine. One of the more successful improvements is that multiple infrared guidance has replaced the original unit infrared guidance system. The so-called multi-infrared guidance is to install four detector arrays in a linear or rectangular manner, and to modulate the light energy by scanning. The advantage is that it can not only achieve full-wave detection, but also eliminate background interference in a large area, especially. Eliminate interference signals from infrared jammers and infrared jammers. In terms of its technical level, it has been superior to the dual infrared detector array adopted by the imported R-73 air-to-air missile. At present, the improved PL-8 is not only used as a J-10 short-range air combat weapon, but also has been integrated into the J-11 aircraft, becoming an important transition weapon before the new air-to-air missile is in service.

Although the performance of Thunderbolt-8 is better, it also has its own shortcomings, that is, the weight is larger, and its weight reaches 120 kg, which is not only much higher than the 90 kg of AIM-9L, but also higher than the 105 kg of R-73, it can be said It is the heaviest short-range air-to-air missile in active service. The resulting problem is the poor adaptability of the carrier aircraft. When China carried out the aircraft test at the beginning of the introduction of Python-3, it felt that the weight of the J-7 was lighter. After the missile was mounted, the center of gravity moved backward. The impact force during launch was large and it was difficult for the pilot to control. Therefore, the mass production of the J-7II at that time It is actually difficult to mount this type of PL-8.

The first type of missile that can be mounted after this is actually the J-7's ground attack model-J-7H. The J-7H reinforced the wing, and added a weight of more than 100 kilograms to the nose to solve the problem of the center of gravity moving backward. Although the problem has been solved, it has also paid the price of the fighter's performance degradation, giving people the feeling of being outweighed. In this way, the Thunderbolt-8 seemed to be in an awkward position at the beginning of its birth: the J-8B that could be mounted has not been mass-produced because of the airborne radar and fire control system, but the mass-produced J-7II series cannot be mounted.

Therefore, in order to solve the problem of the J-7 mounting the PL-8, Chengdu Aircraft Company and Northwestern Polytechnical University cooperated to develop the J-7E aircraft. Its biggest feature is to replace the original delta wing with a double delta wing, which solves the problem that the J-7 series requires the weight of the nose to mount the Thunder -8, and the double delta wing brings an improved lift coefficient and increased wing. The advantages such as area also improve the maneuverability of the J-7 series, so the aircraft is a more successful improved model in the J-7 series. However, the J-7E only solved the problem of whether it could mount the Thunderbolt-8 missile. Due to the limited space of the J-7 series, under the technical conditions at that time, only a relatively simple ranging radar could be used, and there was a lack of PD radar and search capabilities. Helmet sight, it is difficult to support the advanced attack mode of Thunderbolt-8 such as lock after launch, off-axis launch, follow-up launch, etc.

So for the J-7E, Thunderbolt-8 is just a Thunderbolt-5 that increases the attack distance, This is undoubtedly a waste for the missile itself. At the beginning of the 21st century, the J-7G aircraft equipped with the Condor-80 small PD radar, helmet sight and data link was put into service, and the full operation ability of the Thunderbolt-8 was truly brought into full play.

With the advancement of technology in the new century, the lift coefficient and wing load of the new fighter planes have been greatly reduced, so it has laid a technical foundation for the use of "instant disk" tactics. The instantaneous disk can allow the fighter to get a greater hovering angle and can quickly point the nose to the target. For example, the J-10 fighter can be the first to lock the target in the confrontation with the Su-27SK, but due to the instantaneous disk, the thrust is lower Resistance, fighter energy consumption is greater. In order to reduce energy consumption during combat, fighters need more advanced weapons to bring the target into the attack range as soon as possible. This is why the development of advanced short-range air-to-air missiles appeared at the new century.

Increasing the missile's attack range obviously required more sensitive thermal imaging devices and thrust vectors and other advanced technologies, which also constitute the characteristics of the new century's short-range air-to-air missiles. In comparison, the Thunderbolt-8 is somewhat dwarfed, so although the J-10 maneuverability is better, the Thunderbolt-8's performance is not enough to support this performance. Therefore, China's air force needed a new weapon to support the new tactics and tactics of the new fighter.