The strike capability of the "Zhan-16" exceeds that of all active attack aircraft, not only because of its larger bomb load and longer range, but also because it can use all the precision-guided munitions in service and about to enter service, and destroy ground and sea targets in any weather conditions.

When lifted off with a maximum take-off weight of 46 tons, the "Zhan-16A" can carry up to 16 tons of bombs, has a maximum combat radius of 1,800 kilometers when fully fueled inside, can reach 3,000 kilometers for a single in-flight refueling, and has a transfer range of up to 7,500 kilometers with five auxiliary fuel tanks.

Relatively speaking, the other characteristics of the "Zhan-16A" are not outstanding. The maximum flight speed is only Mach 1.6, the maximum usable ceiling is 18,000 meters, the usable overload is +5G to -2G, the maximum flight speed at sea level is 1,100 kilometers per hour, and the maximum climb rate is 240 meters per second.

Of course, such flight performance is also acceptable for a super-heavy attack aircraft that is close in size to a tactical bomber.

The Imperial Air Force chose the "Battle-16A" to develop a new generation of electronic attack aircraft on its basis, that is, it saw its huge potential for improvement.

With a take-off weight of more than 45 tons and a huge internal space, even if the "Battle-16A" does not have an internal bomb bay, it is able to place electronic warfare equipment inside the fuselage like the "Attack-8FZ", thus freeing up valuable external hardpoints for carrying ammunition to combat air defense systems.

Thanks to the miniaturization of electronics, the "Zhan-16AD" only sacrificed the back fuel tank, which was located behind the cockpit, and the internal fuel load was reduced by 1800 kg. Because there are 5 2000 kg heavy-duty external attachment points, and generally do not need to use heavy ground strike ammunition, nor do they need to mount electronic jamming pods, usually 3 heavy-duty external attachment points can be used to mount auxiliary fuel tanks, so the combat radius has not only not been shortened, but also slightly improved, reaching 2000 kilometers, and the maximum stay time without air refueling is as high as 6 hours.

Crucially, the "Zhan-16A" adopts a side-by-side two-seat layout.

As mentioned earlier, the Imperial Air Force initially regarded the "Battle-16" as a tactical bomber, so it was necessary to consider the problems caused by long flights.

Obviously, at least 2 pilots are needed.

No matter how advanced the autopilot equipment is, as long as the normal mission cycle exceeds 6 hours, 2 pilots must be arranged.

On tactical aircraft, as a rule, a tandem layout.

There are three advantages of this design: first, it can reduce the frontal area, that is, reduce the flight resistance; Second, it can reduce the horizontal projection area, which is equivalent to reducing the probability of being hit by small-caliber anti-aircraft weapons such as machine guns; Third, the structure is simpler, which can reduce the weight of hundreds of kilograms.

The disadvantages are also prominent: it has to be equipped with 2 sets of flight control systems, and the communication and coordination between pilots is not very convenient.

For tactical bombers, the advantages of the tandem layout are of little value, and the disadvantages are so prominent that they are prominent.

It is precisely because of this that the tactical bombers all adopt a side-by-side two-seat layout, and when the "Zhan-16A" was designed, in order to show the positioning of "heavy" and "attack", a parallel two-seat layout was adopted, and it has been used, and it has not been replaced with a tandem two-seat layout when it was modified in the later stage.

Of course, this is also related to the Air Force's hope that the "Zhan-16A" will be put into production as soon as possible.

For an electronic attack aircraft, a side-by-side two-seat layout is certainly better than a tandem two-seat layout, especially with only two pilots.

To be precise, there was only one pilot on the "Battle-16AD", and sitting on the right was an electronic warfare officer.

On the "Attack-5CZ", which also has the ability to suppress air defense, there are a full 4 members, in addition to the pilot, there are also 3 electronic warfare officers, and the co-pilot in the front seat is also a weapons officer. Since the "Attack-8FZ" has only 2 members, it does not have the ability to suppress air defense.

While technological advances no longer require several EW officers to operate EW equipment, there is a need for two crew members to work together, such as with pilots controlling onboard weapons when necessary. Obviously, sitting side by side is a better way to communicate and coordinate.

Of course, it is also possible to jointly use a set of electronic warfare control equipment.

To say, the Imperial Air Force is very satisfied with the "Battle-16AD", and placed a bulk purchase order before completing the acceptance test, and the number of purchases in the first batch exceeded 200 aircraft, in addition to replacing the "Attack-8FZ" one-on-one, but also replacing the "Battle-10AD".

In the tactical system of the Air Force, the status of the "Zhan-16AD" is still above that of the "Zhan-16A".

The reason is also very simple: the Imperial Air Force does not lack attack aircraft, heavy attack aircraft are sufficient, not to mention a large number of strategic bombers, on the other hand, specialized electronic attack aircraft are overstretched, and the "Attack-8FZ" lacks the ability to carry out hard destruction.

During the Poshawan War, the attack aircraft groups of the Imperial Air Force often needed cover from the Navy's "Attack-5CZ".

Let's not talk about the issue of combat efficiency, and we can't hang on to face.

In addition, the comprehensive combat effectiveness of the "Attack-5CZ" does surpass that of the "Attack-8FZ", and even the ability to perform suppressive jamming operations can be enhanced by carrying more electronic warfare pods. Coupled with the ability to destroy hard, the combat flexibility of the "Attack-5CZ" far exceeds that of the "Attack-8FZ".

Actual combat has long proven that hard destruction is the most reliable means of attack.

In the face of advanced air defense systems, the reliability of electromagnetic suppression jamming is often challenged and even questioned by attack aircraft pilots.

According to the previous plan, the Air Force will retire all "Attack-8FZ" within 5 years, and only the "Battle-10AD" will be retained.

Although the "Zhan-16AD" has completed its design and entered the stage of acceptance and flight testing, it has not received the appropriation, so it does not want to go into mass production.

That is, in the future, only the "Attack-5CZ" can be borrowed from the Navy to carry out electronic warfare tasks.

Had it not been for the outbreak of the Great War, the Imperial Air Force would have been left without its own electronic attack aircraft for a long time.

Don't forget, even the "Attack-5CZ" has to face the embarrassing situation that the life of the airframe is about to run out and will be retired one after another after 10 years, but the next generation of electronic attack aircraft is still dominated by the Navy and developed on the basis of the "Attack-12A", which has no direct relationship with the Air Force.

At that time, the Air Force will still have to purchase "pickles".

From this, it is not difficult to see how great the value of the "Zhan-16AD" is.

It is a pity that the procurement plan for the "Zhan-16AD" was approved only after the outbreak of the Great War. Even if the Imperial Air Force immediately adjusted its production plan, ranked the priority of the "Zhan-16AD" before the "Zhan-16A", and directly used the airframe that had already been produced, it would not be possible to obtain enough "Zhan-16AD" at once, not to mention that the acceptance test flight of the "Zhan-16AD" has not yet been completed.

To date, the Imperial Air Force has only about 30 "Battle-16AD", of which more than 10 are undergoing acceptance tests.

In other words, the rest of the "Zhan-16AD" were all involved in the battle for the raid on Trivan.

This is also the main reason why the Imperial Air Force arranged for the "Attack-8FZ" to open the way in the front, and let the "Battle-16AD" follow up in the rear to carry out the task of air defense suppression.

None of the 20 "Zhan-16AD" that participated in the war has yet to be accepted, and a lot of electronic warfare equipment has not even been commissioned!

The weapon control system is actually off-the-shelf, for example, the fire control radar comes from the AESA developed for the "Zhan-11C/D", and the combat tests were completed before the war. The fire control software is similar to that of the "Zhan-10AD", and the debugging and matching work with the weapon system has been completed on the test aircraft.

To put it bluntly, these "Zhan-16AD" can carry out strike missions with anti-radiation missiles, but they cannot use electronic warfare equipment.

Arranging for the "Zhan-16AD" to carry out the task of air defense suppression is actually also conducting acceptance tests.

As for combat effectiveness, there is no need to worry at all.

The key is that the "Zhan-16AD" can mount and use many heavy weapons that the "Zhan-10AD" cannot use at all, and thus obtain a strike capability that far exceeds that of the "Zhan-10AD".

For example, the KD-24A heavy anti-radiation missile with a range of more than 300 kilometers and a flight speed of up to Mach 4.

In fact, this missile is tailor-made for the "Zhan-16AD".

One of the key reasons why the Imperial Air Force chose to use the "Zhan-10A" to carry out air defense suppression missions was that the light fighter was more flexible. According to the theories of that time, in the event of an attack by an anti-aircraft missile, a light and nimble light fighter was easier to get rid of.

Of course, the basis of this theory is that anti-radiation weapons are not advanced enough.

To put it bluntly, because anti-radiation weapons, such as anti-radiation missiles, have performance defects, air defense suppression fighters have to risk entering the effective range of anti-aircraft missiles and launch attacks by fighting bayonets, so they can only choose combat aircraft with stronger survivability.

The same is true of the actual combat results.

In the Polish-Iranian War, the combat loss rate of air defense suppression fighters was the highest among tactical aircraft, and it reached five times the average loss rate of tactical aviation. Even in the Poshawan War, the loss rate of anti-aircraft suppression fighters remained high, surpassing that of other tactical aircraft.

The reason is also very simple, no matter how agile the fighter is, it is not comparable to an anti-aircraft missile.

It was for this reason that the Imperial Air Force chose a heavy attack aircraft and began to develop a heavy anti-radiation missile with a longer range and better performance.

Actually, this should be said the other way around.

It was only after the decision to develop a heavy anti-radiation missile that the Imperial Air Force discovered that a heavy platform was needed to carry and use such missiles. If it is still a light platform such as the "Zhan-10AD", after attaching two heavy anti-radiation missiles, you will not want to mount other weapons and equipment.

Of course, the KD-24A is an unprecedented missile.

The seeker of the KD-24A is actually from the KD-18C, which has full-band detection capabilities, and also has a memory function, and the number of attack route calibration points has been increased from 12 to 48, so as to obtain more accurate route planning capabilities, and can more effectively deal with deception and interference.

With a launch mass of up to 1800 kg, the KD-24A gained a range of more than 300 kilometers and an average flight speed of more than Mach 4.

This speed is faster than most anti-aircraft missiles!

In addition, the range of 300 kilometers exceeds that of almost all anti-aircraft missiles today.

That is, the "Battle-16AD" is capable of launching the KD-24A outside the range of enemy anti-aircraft missiles, and there is no need to fight with the air defense system with bayonets.

As for the power, it must be enough.

The warhead weighing 250 kg, which reaches a kill radius of 100 meters, ensures the destruction of any kind of air defense radar.

From another point of view, that is, because there is no need to venture into the strike range of anti-aircraft missiles, there is no need for air defense suppression fighters to have good maneuverability.

In fact, the KD-24A has not yet fully met the performance indicators proposed by the Air Force.

For example, for the time being, it does not have the ability to deal with maneuvering targets and time-sensitive targets.

To put it more bluntly, if the enemy deploys the radar on a maneuvering platform such as a tracked chassis, shuts down immediately after being threatened, and moves as fast as possible, there is a great deal of certainty to avoid the KD-24A coming from 300 kilometers away, after all, it takes at least 4 minutes to fly 300 kilometers at Mach 4, while a common tracked vehicle can travel thousands of meters in 4 minutes. Combined with an active decoy, or a false target with the same radiation signature, it is even more likely that the KD-24A will be blinded.

The key is that the deployment of radar to a mobile platform and the improvement of the tactical mobility of the platform are in themselves the main means of improving survivability.

It is precisely for this reason that the Imperial Air Force proposed that anti-radiation missiles must have the ability to deal with time-sensitive maneuvering targets.

To put it simply, after the target disappears, you can stay over the battlefield for a period of time and wait until the target reappears before attacking.

This requirement is not simple at all, and it is very difficult to implement.

The point is that the extension of the time in the air is contradictory to the speed of the flight.

If the flight speed of Mach 4 is kept constant, an additional 15 minutes of flight will have to increase the fuel by three times, and the curb weight of the missile will exceed 4000 kg.

Obviously, the Imperial Air Force will certainly not accept 4-ton anti-radiation missiles.

To get longer time in the air, you have to lower the speed indicator.

As long as it is reduced to subsonic speed, let alone 15 minutes of battlefield air time, even if it is an extra hour of flight, there is no difficulty.

Unfortunately, the Imperial Air Force could not accept anti-radiation missiles that flew too slowly.

The only solution to this contradiction is to use a two-stage projectile, or to separate the warhead from the projectile during the attack phase, and equip the warhead with a small engine for acceleration to ensure a sprint flight speed of Mach 4 during the attack phase.

This is the KD-24B, which is still under development.

Although the same number is used, but the serial number is different, compared to the KD-24A, the KD-24B is actually a completely new missile.

Strictly speaking, apart from the warhead and the seeker, the two have nothing in common.

Of course, the development of the KD-24B was much more difficult than the KD-24A.

The key is the power system.

The power system of the KD-24A is actually a liquid-fuel ramjet engine that integrates a booster rocket, and there is basically no technical difficulty. The KD-24B requires at least two powertrains, and both powertrains must also be of a very high technical level.

To say, that is, the requirements put forward by the Imperial Air Force are simply too high.

To put it more bluntly, it is to obtain at least 24 minutes of battlefield air time on the basis of maintaining the flight performance of the KD-15A.

This means that it is still necessary to fly 4 kilometers at Mach 300!

Only then did it fly over the battlefield at subsonic speeds for 15 minutes, and after rediscovering the target, launched an attack at Mach 4.

Fatally, the curb weight must not exceed 1800 kg.

In fact, this is also the upper limit of the universal heavy-duty hardpoint of tactical combat aircraft. Although it can nominally be able to hang 2,000 kg of ammunition, in actual use, there must be some margin, especially when mounting missiles, special electrical adapter parts must be used.

There is no doubt that better performance without increasing quality will definitely require more advanced technology.

It is precisely because of this that the development plan of the KD-24B has been delayed again and again, and even after the outbreak of the Great War, it has not improved much, and it still exists only on the design drawings.

Fortunately, against long-range air defense systems that basically do not have the ability to maneuver on the battlefield, KD-24A is enough.