China: Chinese Air Force masters midair refueling

Kyodo News ^ | 09/14/05

[TigerLikesRooster]

Wednesday September 14, 7:30 PM

Chinese Air Force masters midair refueling

(Kyodo) _ A military newspaper said Wednesday the Chinese Air Force had mastered midair refueling, making China the fifth country in the world to accomplish the risky procedure. According to the People's Liberation Army Daily, after trials since the 1990s, three warplanes doing an exercise completed the procedure in mid-August. The paper calls midair refueling risky and difficult.

"Midair refueling is an important mark for balancing capabilities for aerial warfare," the paper said. "It's also an important symbol of a country's national defense strengths."

The paper offers a play-by-play description of the successful midair refueling exercise but does not give details such as where it took place or the number of people involved. Photos with the article show two fueling aircraft trailing meters behind the aircraft getting refueled.

France, Russia, Britain and the United States can also refuel planes in midair.

China has said over the past few years it would modernize the military to compensate for downsizing the number of soldiers. Disarmament over the past 20 years has reduced the number of troops from 4.24 million in 1985 to 2.3 million in 2003.

[LasVegasMac]

This is a country with fighter planes that can be outmaneuvered by American prop-driven reconaissance planes.

Yea.

Providing Wong Ho LeftorRight (forget the idiots name) does not get in the way.

I had no idea that they just now got around to the concept of re-fueling in the air.

First things first, I guess. Get ICBM guidance technology from the idiots. Now, how do we re-fuel mid-air?

LVM

[6SJ7]

I thought the name of the Chinese pilot that clipped our recon aircraft was named Wong Way.

[poindexter]

This just in....Chinese engineers have invented a device they say will revolutionize transportation. It is a round, disk-shaped device which is used to carry heavy loads with little effort. They call it the "wheel".

[Brian Allen]

Goodbye, chow lan chow.

[headstamp]

http://www.china-military.org/units/acft/H6u.htm

They credit a picture at the link above to a Wang Wei. Wonder if it was the same guy that went into the drink after hitting our surveillance plane.

[ccmay]

Interesting that they are using a multi-point hose-and-drogue system. That's the way to go for a fighter fleet. Not so good for bombers.

-ccm

[stevem]

While there isn't anything here to write home about there is one part of this that needs to be thoroughly understood. Using baby steps China is developing capabilities in every military area. China is also a rival to the US in the world of ideas as well as the real world.

The United States can ill afford to allow her own military strength to atrophe in the air, on land or sea.

The United States can also ill afford to stop R & D in making sure capabilities remain on the cutting edge, no pun intended. We also need to keep attracting the best of the best into our military and keep their training second to none in the world.

It's still a dangerous world and holds the potential for being more dangerous in the coming years.

[FreedomCalls]

So how far could PLAAF reach with refueling?

There's no limit with refueling.

[MediaMole]

Most Western air forces have aerial refueling capabilities. Australia has some elderly 707s that they use for aerial refueling. Israel also converts 707s into tankers.

This story is pretty much just a rehash of a PLAAF press release.

[FreedomCalls]

Here's the web page with the article in English.

Witnessing in-flight refueling operation

PLA Daily 2005-09-14

Preparing to refuel

Maneuvering into position

Hooking-up

One day in late August, the reporter boarded a tanker aircraft of an air force aviation division in order to witness the whole refueling process for an aviation assault air fleet involved in an exercise.

At 11:00 on that day, the air force division equipped with tanker aircraft received an order to provide aerial refueling service to an aviation assault air fleet involved in an exercise.

The division promptly activated the emergency plan. Very soon the combat take-off preparations were completed, and the tanker soared into the sky and headed for the designated aerial refueling space according to the stipulated time.

The tanker flew through clouds and timely gathered together at the designated safe refueling space. Nearly at the same time, a new type of jet fighters fleet of an air force aviation division arrived at the same airspace after accomplishing a long-range air raid mission.

As soon as the tanker and receiver aircraft arrived at the same refueling airspace, they started to hook up after adjusting their relative position. The distance between the tanker and receiver aircraft became smaller and smaller, finally the distance between the fuselage of tanker and that of the receiver aircraft was a little more than ten meters. At that moment, the impact of the wake turbulence created by the tanker towards the receiver aircraft suddenly became very great.

"Releasing the flexible hose!" The refueling operator in the boom compartment issued the order. The aerial refueling hose was released from the tanker.

At that critical moment, the jet fighter pilots must not only aim its probe precisely at the refueling hose, but also control his bumpy aircraft in order to modify the deviation caused by the wake turbulence.

Under such circumstance, the speed of the receiver aircraft should be neither too fast nor too low. If it were too slow, it would not be able to mate up with the tanker for a long time, resulting in fuel exhaustion of the receiver aircraft. If its speed was too fast, then the relative speed between the tanker and receiver aircraft would be too great, which would damage the drogue and probe or lead to even serious flight accident such as collision between tanker and receiver aircraft in the air.

Closer! Closer! With a clear "click" sound, the left and right red lights on the front cabin instrument panel of the tanker were on nearly at the same time. The tanker and receiver aircraft had successfully mated up!

After hook-up, the extra air resistance for the tanker and receiver aircraft abruptly increased. Meanwhile the pilots of receiver aircraft continued to open the throttle and maintain their aircraft in a straight and level attitude at constant speed.

"Starting refueling!" the refueling operator snapped out the order. Instantly, the refueling green lights in front cabin flashed simultaneously. Meanwhile the tanker and receiver aircraft continued to fly at the same constant speed, and the fuel was rapidly pumped from the tanker to the receiving aircraft through the refueling hoses. After dozens of seconds, the receiver aircraft were refueled with several tons of fuel.

"Retracting the flexible hose!" upon the order, the tanker quickly retracted the refueling hose. Afterwards, the receiver aircraft, which were the new type of jet fighters, swiftly disengaged.

Thanks to the skillful operation of pilots and related operators, coordination between the tanker and receiver aircraft was perfect. After calculation, the reporter found that the whole refueling process, from the tanker and receiver aircraft maneuvering into position, hooking up, refueling, to final disengagement, took only several minutes.

By Tan Jie and Yan Guoyou

[dljordan]

"Hey, im the prophet who performed the 9/11 miracle. I also prophesize the caucasin holocaust. Basically white boys are gonna get jewed in a big way. Thanks for phucking with me, now you are gonna die."

I think you're not gonna be around here long.

[FreedomCalls]

A military newspaper said Wednesday the Chinese Air Force had mastered midair refueling, making China the fifth country in the world to accomplish the risky procedure.

What are the other four? The U.S. and Russia, for sure, then who? Great Britain?, France?, Canada?, Australia? ...

[Conservative Firster]

This photograph is credited to Wang Wei, suggesting a Naval subordination.

It might be the same Wang Wei

Wang Wei

[Wilhelm Tell]

My take on the article is that China must have achieved a pretty good standard of training for at least some of their pilots if they can refuel jets in the air. I have seen videos of aerial refueling, and it looks very demanding. I wonder if the Russians helped train the Chinese? It wouldn't surprise me.

[church16]

Stevem, you are spot on. Folks here can scoff all you want, they are to be taken seriously. They are bringing on line some kick ass fighters (F10, Su27 and derivatives) and air to air missiles, and already have the SA10 surface to air missile systems. In addition they are flying quite a bit per year (average for their air force is well over 100 hours). These are baby steps of a giant, we would be well advised to watch and plan accordingly. This is an area I know a few things about, and I can say the USAF is taking all they do very seriously, even if these initial steps appear a bit comical and 30 years late. An SA10 stuffed between the wing spars is not very comical, nor is an AA10C in the melon....

[USNBandit]

I spent most of my Air Force career refueling. It can be demanding in bad weather conditions or at night but the US Air Force has been doing this for about 50 years.

Yeah, but the Air Force has that whole male/female coupling relationship backwards. I don't know why AF fighter guys are so eager to have the tanker guys jam them in the backside of their aircraft with a long probe......

[Arkie2]

Aerial refueling would have to be routine in almost all conditions by line pilots in fighter, bomber, support squadrons for it to be a viable force multiplier. A few select pilots demonstrating a new capability for the camera does not a war fighting capability make.