The short introduction gave Long Yun some ideas, and he roughly clarified the similarities and differences between the "raptors" in the two worlds.

The J-10 "Raptor", a type of third-generation fighter launched by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Company and 601, has finally been put into production with the help of Dongfeng Shun, which has increased military investment by the state, after several years of difficult and bumpy research and development processes.

As in the real world, in the early years, some achievements of the Israeli LAVI fighter were borrowed from the aircraft configuration, combined with the research accumulation of the canard layout of the 601 Institute, the "No. 10 Project" determined the canard layout at the beginning, but the initial progress was not smooth: on the one hand, the technical indicators and operational needs proposed by the military were high, and it was difficult to meet the existing technical conditions, on the other hand, China has been lagging behind in the field of aero engines for a long time, and the WS-10 proposed for the J-10 has not been finalized. It also affected the progress of the project.

Due to the drag of the engine, the prototype flight of the 601 Institute has been repeatedly delayed, and even once considered resurrecting the WS-6 that was dismounted before, and even installing the Al-21 for the J-10, or other types of turbojet engines.

The engine dilemma, coupled with the complexity of the flight control design of the J-10 itself, the dawn of the "No. 10 Project" only really appeared after the improvement of Sino-Soviet relations and the resumption of military trade activities.

After some negotiations, with the introduction of the Su-27 series of fighters, temporarily powered by the AL-31F engine imported in the same period, combined with China's domestic electronic technology and system integration technology, the J-10 "Raptor" finally entered the first batch of mass production in the near future and began to equip combat units on a small scale.

The J-10 was finalized and put into production. The CAC and the 601 Institute naturally rejoiced, but there were some differences of opinion within the PLA Air Force regarding Long Yun's understanding.

As the second model of the CAC digital design test manufacturing process, unlike the FC-1 "Thunder" that appeared earlier and was mainly meant to test the waters, the J-10 equipped with a high-thrust engine is a key model with domestic equipment as the main target. The military was originally very urgent in preparing to replace the J-7 and J-8 aircraft fleets, which are large in number and backward in technical and tactical performance, and effectively improve the air defense interception capability of the PLAAF.

However, after entering the 90s, PLAAF obtained a large number of Su-27SK/UBK, and the troop use evaluation believed that it was "able to meet the air superiority requirements on a considerable distance", and the requirements for "Project 10" also changed.

In the absence of advanced multi-role fighters in the country. The military plans to modify the J-10, which originally focused on air superiority, into a "high and low" multi-role fighter, which can not only perform air defense interception missions, but also require better battlefield interdiction, SEAD, ground support and other capabilities, specifically, the standard is on par with the American F-16 rather than the Soviet MiG-29. This is a consideration of military thinking in the new period, and it itself also reflects the Chinese Air Force's thinking on the operational situation for a period of time to come.

However, although the plan is good, the J-10, which is designed to focus on air superiority operations and is completely designed according to an air defense fighter, is not easy to meet the requirements of a multi-role fighter.

Air superiority combat with multi-purpose, looks. It seems that the difference between what kind of ammunition is hung and what kind of mission is performed, at most a different fire control system, is actually a fundamental question of direction for the design of the fighter; In the case of a determination of the level of technology. The overall design of the fighter must have some trade-offs, and it is impossible to meet the flight performance and technical indicators required by the two types of objectives at the same time.

Generally speaking, in the face of the threat of the enemy's air force, the flight performance of fighters in air defense operations is outstanding, and specific to the third-generation fighters, the airborne fire control system is required to have a strong detection range and combat capability. It can perform a variety of air superiority missions, from melee air combat to over-the-horizon interception warfare, and in situations where it is difficult to do both. Designs tend to favor the latter, sacrificing a certain amount of maneuverability to ensure high-altitude and high-speed capability. Otherwise, it will be difficult to meet the needs of air defense interception operations.

As for the multi-role fighter, compared with the model specializing in air superiority, the requirements for flight performance are relatively lower, but the requirements for the control quality and maneuverability of the fighter are higher, and an important indicator is the bomb load, so as to meet the needs of weapons and equipment for a variety of different tasks.

Although both air-to-air and ground-to-ground are operational targets of air platforms, the tactics of the world's major air powers are also different when it is difficult to take into account both in terms of technical level.

Typical examples, such as the USAF, have always been equipped with the F-15, which specializes in air superiority, and the multi-purpose F-16.

Of course, similar to the situation in the real world, the USAF in the parallel world is also equipped with a fully multi-purpose F-15E "Strike Eagle", but in the context of a world war, the US Air Force soon found that this option is not entirely suitable for the operational environment of a large-scale war - in the face of the air pressure of the Warsaw Pact, the huge and expensive "Strike Eagle" is often just as busy performing air superiority missions, really doing ground attack work, and close tactical support is not as good as the F-16 "Fighting Falcon" and full-time attack aircraft, Long-range strikes are inferior to strategic bombers and covert bombers, and they are really a bit unflattering.

As a result of "greed for perfection", everything is sparse, so now, the United States * Industries, which has entered the wartime system, has adjusted its direction and made every effort to provide the USAF, U.S. Navy with F-15C/D and F-16, and even the advanced F-22 "Raptor", to deal with the offensive of the Red Empire in a way that matches high and low, air superiority aircraft and golden oil planes.

The Americans' choice is a very pragmatic plan, while the Red Empire's thinking is another matter, that is, "special planes for exclusive use".

In this regard, Long Yun's understanding is relatively much more comprehensive, and he is very clear about the thinking and equipment system of the Soviet Air Force and the Territorial Air Defense Force in the parallel world, in short, it is completely different from the thinking of the Americans.

Like VVS and PVO in the real world, the Soviet Air Force and Air Defense Force in the parallel world are equipped with a large number of fighters that are often single-purpose models, such as the Su-27 and MiG-29 of typical air superiority, the MiG-27, Su-17 and Su-25 for battlefield support, the Su-24 and Tu-22M for long-range attack, and even the full-time interceptors MiG-25, MiG-31 and Tu-128 that the Americans have not been equipped with. In response to a kind of operational needs, on the one hand, the fleet of VVS and PVO is huge, and the pressure on each generation of fighters to change is very great, but when it comes to fighting a world war, a certain advantage of this system is fully reflected.

On the one hand, designers can make trade-offs, highlight the main performance of the model, and partially offset the technical advantages of the opponent, on the other hand, the cost of fighter aircraft, training, and use expenses can also be reduced, which is convenient for mass production of equipment, and naturally has certain advantages in a world war with huge consumption.

This is because of such a line of thinking, the Soviet military industry in the parallel world still adheres to the idea of "special aircraft", such as the Sukhoi Design Bureau, and multi-role fighters such as the Su-30 have not been developed at all.

In the real world, the "high-performance fighter-bomber" that is widely sold in all directions, such as the F-15E/K/SG, SU-30MKI/MKK/KN and other models, is difficult to find in the parallel world, the reason is actually very simple, this kind of multi-role fighter is a very competent weapon for medium countries and local conflicts, but in the context of the two ultra-cold wars and even world wars, it is impossible to give full play to the advantages of multi-purpose, and often consumes on the battlefield in the only form of air superiority fighters.

The multirole fighter, which sounds like a good "best of both worlds" idea, is actually just a cost-saving solution to improve mission execution capabilities while maintaining the size of the fleet.

Due to the limitations of the level of aviation technology, multi-role fighters are often inferior to single-purpose models of the same level in air superiority or other tasks, and the complexity of mission planning and implementation has increased, so it is actually difficult to realize the theoretical idea of "loading ammunition to attack and drop bombs and then fighting in the air".

And if you want to ensure safety and configure some escort aircraft for multi-role fighters, then wouldn't it be better to directly use full-time attack aircraft + full-time fighters?

Because of this consideration, the Red Empire did not set foot in the field of multi-role fighters, and the Americans' thinking was to make do with the F-16 like a panacea, and the real air-to-side mission, everyone's choice was still the same way, and they all used full-time attack aircraft, at least multi-purpose models.

The superpower thinks like this, and other medium-sized countries are also following suit, and in the parallel world, the EF2000 jointly developed by the four European countries is also a model that focuses on air superiority.

However, under such a general trend, there are some exceptions in the countries that developed advanced fighters in the same era.

In addition to the Frenchman's "Rafale", Long Yun now entered the hangar with his colleagues and saw the gray painted fighter is also one of them, he took a cursory look at the sharp canard layout fighter in front of him, and came to a conclusion in his mind that this plane is indeed a J-10, but it is a little different from the real world.

From air superiority to multi-purpose, in the real world, the J-10 "Raptor" series fighters are actually trying to take this path, but limited by the design of the fighter itself, as well as the user's combat ideas, from J-10A to J-10B, C has not gone too far in this regard, the multi-purpose capability of the fighter itself has indeed improved, but in essence, it is still an air superiority fighter, and the air-to-plane capability can only be regarded as an auxiliary. (To be continued)