Recently, the Russian Satellite News Agency quoted an article from the US "National Interest" magazine and introduced "20 invincible weapons", among which the Soviet MiG-21 series fighter jets are impressive. "National Interest" pointed out in the article that, including imitation models, a total of about 13,000 MiG -21 fighters of various types have been produced in the world, which are used by about 50 countries and are still active equipment in 26 countries. my country is also one of the largest overseas users of the MiG-21 series. At present, the air force and naval aviation forces still have a considerable number of J-7 (Mig-21 localized model) series aircraft that need to be replaced. However, as the Chinese Air Force is fully reinstalling new aircraft today, how should the retirement life of these aircraft be arranged? In this regard, some netizens said that they can be converted into unmanned missiles, so that they can use saturation attacks to attack the enemy's fourth-generation or even fifth-generation aircraft. However, this arrangement does not seem to be suitable for the J-7, because their best place is to be the whetstone for new equipment-modified remote control drones!
The MiG-21Ф three-aircraft formation
MiG-21 performed at the Tusino Air Show in 1961 flew for the first time in 1955 and began to equip troops in 1958. In addition to the Soviet Union's own use, this series of aircraft are also widely exported to Eastern Europe and the vast third world countries. Among them, India and Czechoslovakia have also introduced production lines to produce themselves in a licensed manner.
Romanian Air Force’s MIG-21 Lancer
In the Soviet Union, the MiG-21 series has undergone many improvements since it entered service in 1958. Starting with the initial mass-produced service model MiG-21Ф, combat models such as MiG-21ПФ, MiG-21ПФМ series, MiG-21МФ, MiG-21-Бис, and MiG-21УС, MiG-21 Two-seater coach models such as Grid-21УМ. In the military export market, the improvement of this series is also time-consuming. In addition to the Soviet-era MiG-21ФП, MiG-21М and other models, Russia also launched the final version of the MiG-21-93 in 1993 and exported it to India.
The MiG-21-Бис fighter of the Finnish Air Force
said that, but it is a bit exaggerated to call the MiG-21 "invincible". This is probably just the American interpretation of the "scar literature" of the Vietnam War. The early model MiG-21Ф is not equipped with a radar, only a radio rangefinder is installed in the inlet cone (the radar has the functions of direction finding, range finding and search, while the rangefinder can only be used with an optical sight to complete the measurement. Distance, direction finding). It was not until the appearance of the MiG-21ПФ type that the MiG-21 was gradually equipped with improvements by increasing the diameter of the inlet head, enlarging the nose cone, and enlarging the fuselage (such as adding a convex "back"). Control radar and other avionics equipment.
MiG-21 is only a second-generation fighter after all, with a very compact overall design and limited upgrade space. Although some improvements have mid-range interception capabilities and the ability to use ground-guided weapons, they have also paid the price of drastically reduced maneuverability. At the same time, because of its small body and limited mounting capacity, its actual performance is not high. Even worse, due to the limitation of space layout and power supply capacity, in the vital electronic warfare, there is no active countermeasure equipment except passive warning equipment and necessary infrared/chaff jamming bombs.
my country's aid to Albania's J-7I fighter
my country signed an agreement with the Soviet Union on March 30, 1961 to officially introduce the MiG-21Ф-13 fighter, opening a legendary story of the MiG family in a foreign country. Starting from fully domestically produced prototypes, my country has successively developed F-7I, F-7II series, F-7III, F-7IIIA, F-7E, F-7G, F-7E and other self-use models, as well as F-7P, F-7PG and FT-7 are representative series of export models.
my country’s own-use J-7E fighter
is in the J-7 series, the J-7E fighter developed by the team of Professor Sha Bonan of Northwestern Polytechnical University and the team of the chief engineer Lu Yingyu of the Chengdu Aircraft Manufacturing Plant. Based on the Grid-21 technology, a completely self-developed model. By changing the original large-area delta wing to a double delta wing with an inner wing swept back by 57° and an outer wing swept back by 42°, and the frontWith edge maneuverable flaps, combined with the WP-13F engine, the J-7E's low- and medium-altitude maneuverability is greatly improved. Its climb rate is increased to 197m/s, the maximum turning angular speed is 22°/s, the low altitude stable circling angular speed is 14°/s, the stall speed is about 200km/s, the air combat wing load is <300kg/m2,>
On March 12, 1990, the final assembly of the J-7E prototype was delivered to
. The J-7G installed in 2006 is the ultimate improvement of my country’s J-7 series for personal use. Through the replacement of an integrated windshield on the basis of the J-7E, the addition of fire control radar, head-up display, head sight, new identification friend or foe system and omnidirectional warning system and other more than 30 aspects of modification, the overall performance of the aircraft has been improved. New step. Both the Soviet Union/Russia and Israel’s improvements to the MiG-21 series are focused on avionics, hoping to obtain the ability of some third-generation aircraft to use medium and long-range guided weapons by updating the fire control equipment. For example, the final version of MiG-21-93 launched by Russia, by installing the Копьё (spear) pulse Doppler radar of the Φазомрон Design Bureau, the maximum detection range reaches 57 kilometers, and it can use Р-27 and Р-77. The capabilities of air-to-air missiles, Х-29 TV-guided air-to-surface missiles, and Х-31 anti-radiation missiles. However, such improvements will greatly increase weight and deteriorate mobility. The original intention of the MiG-21 was to be used as a missile interceptor, with fewer hanging points and poor mounting capacity. Such "more water and more surface" improvements are not cost-effective.
The J-7G
, which flew for the first time on November 9, 2004, has improved the aerodynamic layout to maximize the flight performance of the aircraft. In the improvement of the avionics system, the dialectical principle of "doing something, not doing something" is upheld. Resolutely abandon the precision ground strike and beyond visual range air combat performance that is restricted by the platform and it is difficult to improve. Instead, through the on-screen display improvement of the cockpit instruments, the head-up display (HUD) and the hand stick (HOTAS) design are used to improve the identification of friend or friend Together with omnidirectional radar/infrared warning equipment, combat missiles equipped with large off-axis angle launch capabilities have fully enhanced combat air combat capabilities.
With the rapid replacement of new domestic fighters, the J-7 series, which has already fallen behind and is difficult to be a major task, will soon begin to retire in the wave of full replacement. So, after retirement, can these airframes with considerable remaining flight hours be reused as waste?
In this regard, many netizens have proposed the idea of modifying unmanned attack aircraft or missiles (cruise missiles). Of course, this idea does have precedents. In the 1990s, our army converted a batch of retired F-6 into suicide drones and used them as large cruise missiles. But practice has proved that this modification is a typical thankless one. To convert a manned aircraft into a drone, the operating system must first be completely replaced. Simply replacing the original manned cockpit with unmanned equipment will cost enough to build a new drone. Moreover, after the old fighter plane is converted into a suicide drone, its penetration performance is far inferior to that of a real cruise missile. The so-called "advantages" such as its large charge and flying far cannot be used at all.
F-6 modified drone
In this case, is there any other suitable place for the F-7? In fact, the best destination should be converted into a supersonic unmanned drone. The maximum flight speed of the J-7 series exceeding 2.0 Ma can be used to simulate a considerable number of high-altitude and high-speed targets, which is of certain significance for testing air-to-air and surface-to-air weapon systems. Moreover, the technical difficulty of modifying a radio remote control drone is much smaller than that of modifying a drone. The remote control drone only needs to increase the radio signal reception and control system, and does not need to write flight control programs and increase situational awareness equipment for certain autonomous control capabilities like drones. For example, when our army converted the retired J-6 into a remote-controlled target drone, it directly removed the cockpit cover and windshield, and added a set of command receiving equipment and hydraulic control system to the original cockpit. At present, this target aircraft is widely used in the finalization test of new weapon systems and military training operations.
