Chapter 295: Future Warfare Will Be Fought This Way

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone at Institute 601 fell silent; committing a crime in military R&D means you'll be shot!

Qin Miao returned to the bed made of chairs and soon began snoring.

In the afternoon, the meeting continued.

"This afternoon, Institute 611 will give the project report," said the meeting chair, Leader Duan.

"Everyone, before I introduce our aircraft, I want to first say what future warfare will be like." Elder Song walked toward the podium while speaking, obviously intending to make use of every moment.

"Institute 611 believes that future air combat will necessarily be a high-tech mode of warfare directed by AWACS; fighters need advanced electronic equipment, such as via data link to have full situational awareness of the airspace, allowing them to silently approach targets without turning on radar, get within missile range, then quickly activate radar, lock on, and score a guaranteed kill."

"Isn't this basically the same as our current homeland air defense operations?" a leader asked.

"Of course there is a difference; homeland air defense radar has blind spots, but radar lifted into the sky can oversee everything and make up for low-altitude blind spots."

"If that's the case, then Institute 611's J-8 is enough—detect the target and fire at long range! As long as Ha Gong Da helps us modify the nose and install the advanced radar they produce, this interception capability will be solid."

Why bother with third-generation fighters? The J-8 alone can conquer the world!

"This is only when one side has an advantage; what if the opposing forces are evenly matched and both have AWACS support?" Elder Song said: "Everyone, think about it—in that situation, a sneak attack is doomed to fail; after a round of medium-range missile launches, both sides will enter visual range and engage in dogfighting!"

Everyone nodded.

Being able to take out the enemy with a medium-range missile is definitely the best option, but if the opponent is prepared and can perform various evasive maneuvers, even though modern air-to-air missiles have a higher hit probability than the sparrow shells on a monkey battlefield, they still cannot achieve a 100% kill rate.

Therefore, air combat will still enter the close-range dogfighting domain!

"In close-range dogfighting, the Americans have summed up a rule: whoever has more energy gains the initiative in air combat! And energy comes from the engine—precisely in this aspect, we are the weakest!"

Someone began to lower their head.

"Currently, all we can use is a copy of the M53 engine, whose maximum thrust is about 10 tonnes, which still falls short of the F-16's engine; therefore, we don't even need to mention competing against twin-engine F-15 fighters—we might not even be able to win against an F-16!"

Elder Song looked at the assembled people and said: "What should we do? With insufficient power, we can only rely on aerodynamics to compensate! We believe the canard layout is our breakthrough; with an underpowered engine, we can achieve top-tier maneuverability using a canard layout."

There's a saying in aviation: with enough engine power, even a plank can fly!

For years, the United States has stuck with conventional aerodynamic layouts; even when they studied other layouts, it was only research, never actual use—why?

Because the Americans have advanced high-thrust engines! Sufficient power, low fuel consumption; equip such an engine and a conventional layout can deliver top performance! Take the F-15, for example—it has no advanced tech like leading-edge extensions or wing-body blending—but they still dominate the skies, why? Because the engine is powerful!

We in the East lack that condition, so we can only use aerodynamics to make up the shortfall!

The advantage of the canard layout lies in positive lift!

With a conventional layout, to raise the nose, the tail rudder must rotate, deflecting the airflow to push the tail down, allowing the aircraft to pitch up; during this process, the tail provides a downward force, also known as negative lift.

In a canard layout, the canard is forward; to lift the nose, moving the canard directly pries it up, providing an upward force—positive lift! Don't underestimate this; it is enough to compensate for the aircraft's engine deficiency.

"Old Song, you mean you want to design a movable canard?" Elder Gu exclaimed, eyes wide.

Back then, Elder Song also worked at Institute 601, serving as head of the aerodynamics department; the J-8 plan was his proposal, but he favored the canard layout more, so during that special period he led the J-9 team south, established Institute 611, aiming to develop a canard-configured J-9!

Single-engine, twin-engine, single vertical tail, twin vertical tail… various layouts exist, but the canard is always fixed!

This era already has a batch of canard-configured fighters, such as Saab's JAS 37 Viggen Thunderbolt fighter, which uses this layout, but the canard cannot move; its job is to generate vortices over the wing to give the wing greater lift.

The Swedish aircraft was successful, possessing superlative short takeoff and landing capability among second-generation jets! After seeing this technology, the French also began research; by adding a small fixed wing to the Mirage III, its takeoff and landing capability improved by twenty percent and its loitering ability by fifteen percent.

"Yes!" Elder Song nodded, at the same time placing an acrylic model onto the projector.

Thus, on the projection screen appeared a sleek fighter model.

A pointed conical nose, fuselage inlet; this layout's advantage is that the nose can accommodate a large-diameter radar antenna, and it also offers excellent high-angle-of-attack flight capability.

On either side of the cockpit are two small wing surfaces, with a broad triangular main wing behind; viewed this way, it resembles a duck rising and flapping its wings, hence the name canard layout.

"In medium-range air combat, we rely on the nose-mounted large-diameter radar and medium-range missiles—I won't elaborate further. In close-range dogfighting, instantaneous turn rate is the most important metric; it reflects how quickly the fighter can point its nose at a target, thus enabling a swift launch of dogfighting missiles. Our aircraft, at sea level, has an instantaneous turn rate deceleration of 33 degrees per second..."

"Impossible!" someone exclaimed from below: "Even the strongest-performing F-15 only manages thirty degrees!"

Elder Song chuckled: "Exactly, that's the strength of the canard layout! In air combat, whoever gets their nose on target first wins!"

For instantaneous turn, pulling the stick all the way back and stomping the rudder to the floor causes the aircraft's speed to plummet rapidly, the pilot endures extreme g‑loads, but the nose can swing toward the target very quickly!

In a canard layout, the canard provides positive lift; performing this maneuver can be extremely aggressive! Thirty‑three degrees per second is not the aircraft's limit but the pilot's limit—at this point the g‑load can already reach 9G!