What the military leaders said is absolutely right. It is the United Kingdom and the United States that develop and produce VTOL fighters in today's world.
Of course, there was a Soviet Union before. The problem is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, which inherited most of the Soviet Union's legacy, could not afford the expensive research and development costs of such aircraft, and simply cut them all. Even the Jacques-141 vertical takeoff and landing fighter, which can achieve supersonic speed and has three bearing curved vectoring nozzles, was purchased by China's take-off group after some setbacks, Now it has become a technological reserve for China to take off.
Yes, today's Jacques-141 VTOL fighter is only a technical reserve, and it can't become an active train mounted product. The reason is very simple. Russia has been tangled with China on the intellectual property rights of Jacques-141 VTOL fighter over the years.
The main reason for this is that the Russians have been crazy about money these years, let alone the Jacques-141 vertical take-off and landing fighter. Even the AK-47 assault rifles, MiG-21 fighter planes and other products that were shipped in large quantities in the Soviet era, the Russians wanted to use them to make up for the huge intellectual property rights fees.
In addition to Yakovlev Design Bureau, the Central Institute of aerodynamics of Zhukovsky participated in the design of yakovlev-141 VTOL fighter. In addition, some other design units of the former Soviet Union participated in the design, which led to the fact that the intellectual property rights of yakovlev-141 VTOL fighter belonged to no one at all.
The Russians are right about this muddle headed account, and are ready to strike China's take-off with guns and sticks. For this reason, they have set up a series of restrictive measures, such as the key materials, main parts and core data of the engine of the Jacques-141 vertical take-off and landing fighter, in order to force China's take-off to comply.
In particular, the two large diameter bearing parts in the three bearing bending of the core of the nozzle not only have to bear the high temperature of the heat flow of the nozzle, but also have to be particularly stable in movement accuracy and reaction speed.
Before 1995, this technology was only unique to the Soviet Union and Russia. It can be said that it was a great master of metallurgy, machinery manufacturing, system integration and industrial design in the Soviet era. Even the United States, which claimed to be the first in the world of science and technology, couldn't reach it. It had to take advantage of the Soviet corpse after the cold war to obtain this technology, and then the F-35B was achieved.
Before China took off, with the full set of technology provided by Yakovlev, it had imitated the engine of the Jacques-141 vertical take-off and landing fighter. The other parts were all right, but the two large-size titanium alloy bearings on the tail nozzle couldn't be made, so it had to be customized from Russia. Of course, the price was not to say, it was slaughtered by the Russians.
The price of a single bearing is $5 million, and the price of the whole engine is less than $25 million, which shows how crazy the Russians are.
If the Jacques-141 VTOL fighter really has excellent technology, it's all right. Whether it's for spending money or playing hooligans, China's take-off promises to be as beautiful as Ji Xiaojie's in the foreign Su-27 battle.
The problem is that after the actual test, the Jacques-141 VTOL fighter is not as beautiful as the Russians said. At best, it is just an engineering verification aircraft that has completed the initial design.
Many technologies are not mature. For example, the two Shengli turbofan engines in the rear of the cockpit are not only overweight, but also because of the high temperature heat flow during start-up, the structural strength of the surrounding airframe materials decreases rapidly, and cracks and chaps often occur. As a result, the service life of the Jacques-141 VTOL fighter is only 2500 hours.
As for the missile load, range and mobility, not to mention that they are basically plastic properties on paper, which can not stand verification. Even Malinowski, the head office of Yakovlev Design Bureau, has to admit that the yakovlev-141 VTOL fighter is not so much a fighter as an avant-garde concept.
If other enterprises or units are burning money, it is estimated that they will be swept directly into the garbage heap and completely turned into technical reserves.
The problem is that China's take-off is not an ordinary enterprise, especially when it comes to carrier based aircraft. China's take-off inherits the tradition of Yonghong factory, which has a foundation of more than 30 years.
If Yakovlev design bureau had not been acquired, it would have been enough. Now that we have obtained all the technical data of the Jacques-141 vertical take-off and landing fighter, for such a medium-sized ship with displacement of 20000 to 40000 tons, it has the same level of combat capability as today's large aircraft carriers, As a carrier based aircraft development tradition, China's take-off will not give up lightly.
What's more, today is quite different from the 1980s. At that time, the Navy wanted an aircraft carrier, but the national strength and financial resources at that time could not afford the construction of an aircraft carrier. In addition, at that time, the focus of domestic defense was Mao Xiong in the north, and there was little overseas interest, so there was no urgent need to develop an aircraft carrier.
However, it's not the same now. In a few years, China will enter the 21st century. The domestic economic development can be described as rapid. With the expansion of overseas trade, the safety of trade routes and the smooth flow of energy channels, it's very important for China. In addition, the frontier of military struggle has shifted from the north to the southeast coast, Therefore, the conditions for the navy to develop large surface ships such as aircraft carriers are increasingly mature.
The main reason why we didn't invest in it immediately is the same as the army's failure to realize mechanization immediately, that is, the short board of comprehensive protection capability on the sea is too big. One is the formation's regional air defense, and the other is the ocean anti submarine operation. If we can't solve these two thorny problems, we can count it as an aircraft carrier, which is also a live target, not half crippling the enemy's air attack firepower, It's going to be stolen by submarines.
Because of this, until these two problems are solved, the navy can only maintain the mode of small step and fast running at the present stage, and strive to maintain a relatively complete structure while ensuring a certain level of technology. Once the conditions are ripe, it will be a matter of minutes to make dumplings.
Of course, immature conditions do not mean that the navy has not made preparations for aircraft carriers. The Melbourne aircraft carrier purchased from Australia in the late 1980s and the Kiev and Minsk aircraft carriers purchased successively after the collapse of the Soviet Union all provide valuable reference for the design and construction of large ships in China.
Even in order to demonstrate the performance of the 40000 ton aircraft carrier, even Zhuang Jianye, Lin Guanghua and many other Chinese technicians were invited by the navy to board the Minsk for on-the-spot investigation. It can be seen that the Navy's ready ambition has been restless for a long time.
Another proof of this uneasy ambition is the acquisition of the Ukrainian "Varyag" aircraft carrier that Ning Xiaodong is in contact with. There is no sign of the navy in the whole process. The question is who Ning Xiaodong is? That's Zhuang Jianye's brother-in-law, and Zhuang Jianye, the leader of a large state-owned enterprise who insists on developing carrier based aircraft, naturally has a good relationship with the Navy. Therefore, the large aircraft carrier, which is still far away in Ukraine and is going through the handover procedures, is wrapped in the coat of commercial behavior. In fact, it is a Navy's surging ambition!