Hello everyone, you are watching another episode of Military Update.
The United States Navy’s EA-18G Growler electronic attack fighters are one of a small
number of military aircraft types dedicated to the task of jamming—and potentially destroying—hostile
radars that could guide deadly surface-to-air missiles against friendly aircraft.
This mission is known as Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD).
Basically, if a modern air force wants to attack an adversary with significant antiaircraft
defenses, it needs an effective SEAD game to avoid insupportable losses.
The Growler is derived from the F-18 Super Hornet fighter and is faster, more maneuverable,
and more heavily armed than preceding aerial jamming platforms based on transport and attack
planes.
This allows the Growlers to contribute additional firepower to strike missions, keep up with
fighter planes they are escorting, and potentially approach a bit closer to hostile air defenses.
China’s aviation engineers have never been too proud to copy a good idea from abroad,
usually modified with “Chinese characteristics.”
Perhaps it is not surprising that they appear to have devised a Growler of their own.
The aircraft in question is a variant of the two-seat J-16 Red Eagle strike plane—itself
a Chinese copy of the Russian Sukhoi Su-30MKK Flanker.
The two-seat Red Eagle is roughly comparable to the American F-15E and improves upon the
Russian original with new avionics including an Active Electronically Scanned Array radar
(AESA), the current state of the art in fighter-based radar technology.
While China has had major problems developing reliable high-performance jet engines, it’s
more successful at producing advanced electronics, perhaps due to crossover with its civilian
electronic sector.
The J-16D variant—the “D” in the designation comes from the Chinese word for “electronic,”
diànzǐ—made its first flight on December 18, 2015.
Photos were released to the public three days later.
Let’s go over the admittedly short list of what the photo tells us.
The J-16D has had its thirty-millimeter cannon and infrared sensor removed; this is not a
plane intended to get into short-range dogfights!
Instead, there are several new antennas and conformal electronic-warfare arrays along
the fuselage.
The J-16D’s nose radome is reshaped, possibly to accommodate a more advanced AESA radar.
Most importantly, new electronic-warfare pods are mounted on the wingtips that resemble
the American ALQ-218 electronic support measure pods on the wingtips of the EA-18G Growler.
These are electromagnetic sensors that can analyze radar frequencies and help determine
the position of radar-transmitting devices—data that would be highly useful both for jamming
radars and for targeting them for destruction.
That’s all that’s known for sure—the PLAAF, after all, is not in the habit of giving
detailed briefings about its latest fighters.
Let’s move on now to the realm of plausible speculation.
If the J-16D’s airframe has integrated hardware to make jamming and anti-radar missiles more
effective, it probably is designed to use jammers and anti-radar missiles.
Most likely, it would carry two to three jamming pods under the wings and fuselage, each optimized
versus different radar frequencies.
It is thought that these jammers may also use AESA technology.
Even with a maximum load of electronic-warfare gear, the J-16 would have six of its twelve
hardpoints free to carry weapons.
China has three different types of anti-radiation missiles (ARM), which are designed to come
in on enemy radars from afar.
The CM-103 missile has a range of sixty-two miles and is probably accurate enough to hit
naval and ground targets with its 176-pound warhead.
China also has an indigenously developed copy of the Russian Kh-31P missile, known as the
YJ-91, which has a slightly longer range and also has antiship applications.
Finally, there is an LD-10 ARM missile derived from the PL-12 antiaircraft missile.
Of course, the J-16D could carry most of the other armaments that the basic Red Eagle fighter
can carry on its underwing hardpoints.
China already flies another fighter bomber with electronic warfare capabilities, the
domestically designed two-seat JH-7 Flying Leopard, around 240 of which serve in the
PLA Air Force and Naval Air Force.
Capable of long-range operations and a maximum speed of Mach 1.75, the Flying Leopard can
carry about twenty thousand pounds of munitions, including anti-radar missiles.
Both the base JH-7 and upgraded JH-7A have been photographed with jamming pods, which
boast multiple jamming transmitters.
However, the Flying Leopard lacks electronic warfare equipment integrated into the airframe
and is thus more limited as an electronic-warfare platform than a purpose-designed aircraft.
China also maintains a modest fleet of larger, slower aircraft that can provide jamming support
at standoff range.
These include a couple dozen Y-8GX and Y-9GX transports equipped with tactical jammers
and other electronic-warfare gear and HD-6 electronic warfare planes based on the H-6
bomber.
New Xianglong “Soaring Dragon” drones may also have applications as tactical jammers.
If Beijing wanted to, it could probably develop a carrier-based equivalent to the J-16D.
The J-15 Flying Shark fighters on China’s two Type 001 carriers also share a common
heritage in the Flanker family of aircraft, and pursuing a similar upgrade of the two-seat
J-15SD seems plausible.
However, one limitation would be the lower payload that the J-15s can carry, due to the
maximum takeoff weight limitations imposed by the Chinese carriers’ ski-jump-style
decks.
In any case, it is not even clear to what extent the J-16D will be adopted.
After all, China is more famous for how its own missile systems serve in its anti-access/area-denial
strategy.
Where might China actually confront enemy air defenses?
Of course, SEAD aircraft would have application in a conflict with Taiwan or, more unlikely,
Japan.
However, the electronic-warfare aircraft may be most oriented at countering U.S. Navy surface
warships, which bristle with SM-2, SM-6, and Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missiles for shooting
down both hostile aircraft and anti-ship missiles.
These are especially potent when their firepower and sensors are coordinated by the Aegis combat
system, which includes vessels in the American, Japanese, South Korean, and (soon) Australian
navies.
Beijing is not interested in foreign wars at this time.
However, it does seek to alter the military balance of power in the Pacific Ocean.
Aircraft like the J-16D suggest the People’s Liberation Army is interested in developing
specialized aircraft that will offer China a full spectrum of air-warfare capabilities—just
like those of the U.S. military.