The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

In mid-November, the 6th Zhuhai Air Show, also known as the China Aviation and Aerospace Expo, was held in Zhuhai.

The biggest highlight of this year's show is that many fighter jets appeared at this air show. This is the largest number and scale of China's Air Force equipment exhibited.

Among them, advanced drones are a landscape in this air show!

Compared with the last air show, there are more drones participating in this air show, more models, and more advanced performance!

In addition to China's aviation, there are more exhibitors in the field of China's aerospace.

For example, rocket engines, return capsules and other aerospace products appeared!

The Aerospace Brigade sent six astronauts including Yang Liwei, Liu Yang, and Wang Yaping to participate in the air show to introduce aerospace related products to everyone.

This is also the most active and active aerospace exhibitor in the Zhuhai Air Show so far.

As China occupies half of the international market in commercial satellite launches, China occupies half of the international market in satellite leasing, research and development, etc.

Many countries are unable to develop aerospace and have no ability to develop satellites, so they lease China's satellites. Some countries are relatively wealthy, but their aerospace technology is limited and they are unable to develop satellites. In that case, they commission China to develop and launch relevant satellites, or simply purchase satellites directly!

For example, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and other wealthy oil-producing countries directly purchase satellites.

At the Zhuhai Air Show, it is not uncommon to see bearded men in white robes. After all, since the first Zhuhai Air Show, these bearded men in white robes have always been the main consumers of the Zhuhai Air Show.

In the military aircraft exhibition area, 7 types of advanced fighters represented by J-11 fighter, J-10 fighter, JH-7 fighter-bomber, J-7 modified, J-8 modified, ‘Sea Eagle’ fighter, FC-1 fighter, 5 types of trainer aircraft represented by K-8 primary trainer, J-7, J-7A, Eagle advanced trainer, 8 types of drones including ‘Rainbow’ series drone, ‘Wing Loong’ series drone, transport aircraft and special aircraft represented by Y-8 transport aircraft, Y-9 transport aircraft, KJ-200 early warning aircraft, and airborne weapons represented by close-range air-to-air missiles, medium-range air-to-air missiles, multi-purpose infrared tactical missiles, and 19 weapon systems also made their grand appearance.

In addition, there is China’s ‘Diao Series’ military helicopter series.

In the civilian exhibition area, the Y-10, Y-13, C919 large-scale technologies are the leaders, as well as the ‘Diao Series’ civilian helicopter series.

Similarly, there are civilian models of drones.

Even in terms of land weapons, the products on display are more colorful.

There are also many aerobatic teams this time.

China is the Air Force's 'August 1' flight demonstration team, flying J-11 and J-10 fighters for wonderful flight performances.

The French Air Force aerobatic team is flying Mirage 2000, Rafale and Mirage 4000 fighters for flight performances.

The Russian aerobatic team is flying Su-27, Su-33 and Su-35 fighters for performances.

The American aerobatic team is flying F15 and F16 fighters for wonderful flight performances.

These are the world's typical third-generation aircraft, competing on the same stage.

And this is at the Zhuhai Air Show. If it were other air shows, it would be absolutely difficult to gather so many third-generation aircraft to compete on the same stage.

Among them, Russia's Su-33 and Su-35 fighters have attracted much attention, because these two aircraft are the first to perform air shows and exhibit outside of Russia.

The Su-27 fighter is one of the classic third-generation fighters in the world.

It is very famous in the world, and countless military fans like this third-generation heavy fighter!

The Su-33 fighter is the carrier-based aircraft model of the Su-27. It was once the Su-27K, and was not renumbered until 1989 as the Su-33 fighter. It is the main carrier-based aircraft of the Soviet aircraft carriers "Kuznetsov" and "Varyag".

The Su-35 fighter is a deeply improved single-seat, twin-engine, super-maneuverable multi-purpose heavy fighter developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau on the basis of the Su-27 fighter. It is known as the most powerful fighter in the Soviet Union.

Before this, the Su-35 fighter had never been through the Russian border. The only thing that appeared was a test flight video on Russian TV. This time, Russia sent two Su-35 fighters to participate in the Zhuhai Air Show, and it was obviously also intended to compete with other third-generation fighters on the same stage and compete for orders.

In the Russian era, it has to be admitted that the development of the military has slowed down and even stagnated.

It was not until after September 11, 2001 that Russia invested more money in military investment and research and development as energy income increased significantly.

The Su-35 fighter is the proud work of the Soviet aviation field in this context.

At present, the world is negotiating on the unification of fighter generation standards.

There have always been two standards for the generation of fighter jets in the world: the Soviet standard and the American standard.

The American standard is currently the most commonly used generation standard, including China. It is currently divided into four generations. The first generation of fighter jets is characterized by supersonic flight, with a primary fire control system and attack sights, and still uses machine guns as the main weapon. The model of the first generation of aircraft is the American F-100 "Super Sabre" fighter.

The second generation of fighter jets is characterized by twice the speed of sound, entering the era of air-to-air missiles, and has a relatively complete avionics system including fire control radar. The representative works are F-104 "Star Warrior" and F-4 "Phantom".

The main features of the third-generation fighter are the use of fly-by-wire systems, more mature aerodynamic layout design, beyond-visual-range strike capability, the power system entering the turbofan era, and the use of a large number of composite materials in the body manufacturing. Representatives are F-14, F-15, F-16, and F/A-18 fighters.

The standard of the fourth-generation fighter is the "4S" proposed by the US Air Force, namely super maneuverability, super stealth, supersonic cruise, and beyond-visual-range strike. In addition, it has powerful information warfare capabilities. The representative work is the US F-22 fighter.

The first generation of Soviet standards is the early post-war subsonic and transonic fighters, including the two classic fighters MiG-15 and MiG-19.

The second-generation fighter is a double supersonic fighter represented by MiG-21 and Su-7, which is characterized by the use of missiles as the main weapon and a basic radar avionics system.

The third generation fighter jets are represented by the MiG-23 fighter jets. The Soviets believed that this was a leap from simple to complex. The MiG-23 represented the Soviet fighter jets entering the stage of complex fire control and multi-purpose expansion, which was of historical significance.

The standards of the fourth generation fighter jets are consistent with the third generation fighter jets of the US standard, and the representative works are the MiG-29 and Su-27 fighter jets.

As for the fifth generation fighter jets, the fourth generation fighter jets of the United States have been put into service. As a follower, Russia announced the start of the development of new fighter jets, and the standard is naturally benchmarked against the "F-22 fighter jets".

Of course, because of the service of the US F-22 fighter jets, the original third generation fighter jets began to be called three and a half generation fighter jets, and the Russian fighter jets also began to be called four and a half generation fighter jets. (End of this chapter)