Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

"President Qin, only bombers have internal weapons bays, I've never heard of it on fighter jets."

"That's right, fighter jets don't usually have internal weapons, but since there aren't any stealth fighters yet, once we have stealth fighters, they will definitely have internal weapons to reduce the radar cross-section," Qin Yang said.

"Stealth fighters? That sounds amazing."

"Yeah, if you can't see them on radar, they're basically invisible."

"President Qin, how should we arrange the internal weapons bay?"

"We just talked about it, a diamond-shaped nose, with air intakes on both sides below, and then an S-shaped duct inside. This way, the fuselage between the two air intakes will have enough space. This space can be used to house the internal weapons bay. Similar to our J-11 fighter, if we make a stealth modification, the internal belly bay can carry four PL-11 missiles without any problems. If we cut off the tips of the missile fins, we should be able to carry six."

Speaking of stealth aircraft, I have to admire the Americans. Their design is the most perfect, ensuring stealth while also providing space for an internal weapons bay. Looking at the Russian design, one can only sigh. Copying isn't shameful, as long as the copy meets the requirements. But they insisted on doing it themselves, and the result is a hybrid mess.

"Well, that's enough, but only carrying six PL-11s internally might not be enough."

"Then there are the sides. The air intakes have an S-shape going backward, but the outside must be flat. This creates space on the outside. If we dig into it, we should be able to fit one or two PL-8s on each side."

The belly is the main weapons bay, used to carry medium-range air-to-air missiles, and the sides also have weapons bays, used to carry short-range dogfight missiles. This would be perfect.

"President Qin, where do we hang the Phoenix missiles?"

"The Phoenix missile is obsolete," Qin Yang said, "In the future, the air-to-air missiles we modify from the PL-11 will also be able to hit over a hundred kilometers, so there's no need for the Phoenix. The Phoenix missile is too large, and its maneuverability is too poor, making it unsuitable for future air combat."

The Phoenix missile is an incredible monster in this era. Missiles with a range of ten kilometers dare to call themselves medium-range air-to-air missiles, and twenty or thirty kilometers is already unbelievably powerful. In this context, the Phoenix missile, with a range of over a hundred kilometers, is enough to make people look up to it.

However, the Phoenix missile achieves this range through a combination of methods.

It flies a high-arcing trajectory. The basic model climbs to a height of 28,000 meters, and the modified version can even reach 32,000 meters. At this altitude, the air is thin, so it naturally flies further, and it also has the ability to hunt MiG-25s.

Another method is to add more water to the dough, and more dough to the water.

The Sidewinder missile weighs 85 kilograms and has a diameter of 12.7 centimeters. The Sparrow missile weighs 230 kilograms and has a diameter of 20 centimeters. What about the Phoenix? It weighs 460 kilograms and has a diameter of 38 centimeters!

The Phoenix missile relies entirely on its huge size to accommodate enough propellant to achieve this incredible range. However, this also leads to its poor maneuverability. After all, the smaller the weight, the more flexible it is. The maneuverability of this large missile is only 17G, and any normal fighter jet can shake it off. Therefore, the Phoenix missile's target is slow-moving bombers, as well as the Russian heavy anti-ship missiles. Those things don't turn, they fly straight, making them easy to hit.

For the current Orient, it's okay for Iran to provide money and samples, and we'll help hang the Hawk missiles. But we don't need to specifically survey and imitate this missile, after all, it's a dedicated missile that can only hit slow-moving targets, making it somewhat useless.

"Our PL-11, that small missile, can also hit over a hundred kilometers?" Old Lin widened his eyes, "President Qin, when can we make it?"

"Maybe in ten years, don't think about it now, I'm not omnipotent," Qin Yang quickly waved his hand.

Previously, the Air Force didn't even have a medium-range missile and could only engage in aerial dogfights. Qin Yang was reborn here, and within a few years, he developed the PL-8 and PL-11 for the Air Force, which is already very impressive. The Air Force can be said to have jumped to a world-class level.

Next, missiles with a range of over a hundred kilometers? Let's wait.

In later generations, air-to-air missiles are becoming longer and longer in range, and this is without increasing the size and weight.

On the one hand, it relies on advanced propellants. With the development of technology, solid propellant technology is also constantly improving. The combustion efficiency is getting higher and higher, the propulsion energy is getting larger and larger, and the range will naturally become longer and longer. Especially with dual-pulse thrust engine technology, the range will increase dramatically.

On the other hand, there are other power methods, such as ramjet engines. The European Meteor missile uses this engine, and the range soars to over a hundred kilometers at once.

Currently, there is definitely no such technology in China, so we can temporarily use the missiles we have on hand and talk about it later. Moreover, missiles are not just about range, there are many other factors that limit them.

For example, friend-or-foe identification. In many cases, although pilots have advanced missiles that can fire from a long distance, they cannot use them because the superiors require them to confirm the target, to see if the target is an enemy aircraft or a friendly aircraft. What if it's a passenger plane?

How to confirm the target? You definitely have to fly over and take a look with your eyes. At this time, no matter how long the range is, it is useless.

Friend-or-foe identifiers and passenger plane transponders may malfunction, so the eyes are the best choice.

This is an embarrassing problem faced by stealth aircraft.

Normal fighter jets will accelerate or climb before launching missiles to accumulate more energy. When the missile is launched, the greater the initial speed, the greater the range.

Many fighter jets can accelerate to supersonic speeds before launching, sending the missile on its first leg.

However, stealth aircraft can't do this.

The F-117 doesn't have this problem because the F-117 doesn't have supersonic flight capability at all. Although it carries the title of F, which is fighter, it actually does the task of A, which is attack aircraft.

What about other aircraft? Whether it's the F-22 or the F-35, they can fly at supersonic speeds, but launching missiles at supersonic speeds is not easy.

After all, the missile is inside, and you have to open the door to get in and out.

The U.S. Navy's stealth cat