Great Power Long Sky

The army has built a highly realistic "No. 3 mudflat" on the island, called the Island Training Ground, for the troops to use for daily amphibious landing combat training.

According to the joint military exercise command's arrangements, the 7th Air Regiment has two days to conduct live-fire training at the mountain island training ground.

This was the only simulated live-fire training exercise conducted by the 7th Air Regiment before the start of the battle.

The intelligence department did a lot of work; the training ground on the mountain island was almost a 1:1 replica, and the locations of many hidden defensive positions were marked and simulated.

How well the fighting goes when it starts, and how much support it can provide to the 3rd Army, all depends on the effectiveness of this live-fire exercise.

All twelve J-7E fighters and two JH-7 fighter-bombers were deployed, primarily using air-to-air firepower and secondarily using aerial bombs, with the main objective being to destroy the coastal defense fortifications and heavy firepower positions on the No. 3 beach.

Li Lu has basically mastered the flight skills of the JH-7 fighter-bomber. What he is about to do is to put the theory of ground attack into practice.

The training ground on the island completely simulates the No. 3 mudflat on the west side of the island. In the joint military exercise command's operational plan, the No. 3 mudflat is the main direction of attack and the main landing area.

The 7th Air Regiment alone cannot accomplish both major tasks, so strengthening its support is inevitable.

On February 20, the entire 8th Air Regiment was transferred to the Donghai Air Base – a total of 24 J-8B fighter jets!

Clearly, the joint military exercise command intends to assign the task of seizing air superiority in airspace No. 3 to the 8th Air Regiment, with the 7th Air Regiment serving as an auxiliary force.

The J-8B is vastly different from the basic J-8.

It can be said that starting with the J-8B, this fighter jet truly met the technical specifications set by the Air Force at the beginning of its design.

Although it is an improved version of the same model, the J-8B is completely different from the basic J-8 and J-8A in appearance.

The J-8 basic model and J-8A adopted a nose-mounted air intake, while the J-8B changed to side-mounted air intakes, which significantly altered the overall aerodynamic shape.

This means that the J-8B must be re-tested (placed in a wind tunnel) and its entire aerodynamic layout must be adjusted from scratch to meet the technical requirements of the troops.

It is no exaggeration to say that the J-8B is a completely different new aircraft.

The advantage of changing to side air intakes is that an airborne radar can be inserted into the nose, giving the J-8B a certain air-to-air detection capability, enabling it to launch medium-range air-to-air missiles and possess a certain beyond-visual-range combat capability.

This is something the J-7E cannot do.

Secondly, the J-8B was equipped with the more powerful WP-13A turbojet engine, which increased the thrust-to-weight ratio from 5.0 to 6.0 compared to the WP-7 engine used in the basic J-8 and J-8A, resulting in a significant improvement in maneuverability.

涡喷-13A加力推力达到了64.7千牛，而涡喷-7仅有56.4千牛，而且，涡喷-13A比涡喷-7的重量还要轻几十公斤！

As Li Lu watched the J-8Bs of the 8th Air Regiment land one after another, taxiing along the runway to the hangar that had been cleared to house J-6 fighters, he couldn't help but sigh and say, "This is the kind of 'airborne scumbag' I remember. It's much better looking than the basic model of a stick with wings."

Xue Shuang, standing nearby, asked in confusion, "What do you mean by 'airborne scumbag'? That's called 'airborne handsome man'."

Li Lu curled his lip and said, "After struggling for ten or twenty years to finally achieve his goal, what else can he be but a scumbag?"

Xue Shuang was speechless, even though he only had a vague understanding of the concept of "scumbag".

What Li Lu said is true. The research and development started in the early 1960s, and the first flight took place in the late 1960s. However, it was delayed until the early 1980s before it entered service. That's twenty years!

If we take the service entry time of the J-8B as the benchmark, it took nearly thirty years for this fighter jet to go from research and development to truly meeting the technical requirements of the armed forces!

Thirty years!

The Americans have already upgraded their aircraft two generations in total!

Li Lu said, "I have a feeling that when Project No. 10 is completed and delivered in batches, Shen Huoyi might still be messing with that scumbag in the air. Do you believe me?"

Xue Shuang clicked her tongue and said, "It can't be that exaggerated, can it? Didn't they work on the domestic production of the Su-27?"

"Tch," Li Lu said dismissively. "With the Russians not cooperating, localization won't be that easy. The agreement stipulates producing two hundred aircraft and gradually transitioning to domestic manufacturing, but in reality, the Russians are still providing the engines, avionics, and airborne weapons."

"What are the most crucial components of a fighter jet? Aren't they the engine, avionics system, and onboard weapons?"

"With the three major components unable to be manufactured domestically, the difficulty of achieving localization is self-evident."

"In short, we can't count on the domestically produced Su-27."

This assessment is quite unconventional at present, as the Su-27 has been identified as the absolute mainstay fighter jet of the Air Force.

Putting everything else aside, just look at the fact that even under such difficult circumstances, the country still allocated a large sum of money to import production lines to manufacture two hundred aircraft.

He was clearly entrusted with an important task!

The entire air force aviation unit is hoping that Shenyang Aircraft Corporation can speed things up, indigenize the Su-27 as soon as possible, and produce more to deliver to the troops.

Most of the pilots of Xue Shuang's generation were convinced that they would fly the Su-27 in the blue sky to defend the motherland's airspace in the future.

However, Li Lu had the opposite view.

Looking at the J-8B, which is already an advanced fighter jet for the People's Air Force, but still has a huge technological gap with the world's mainstream third-generation fighter jets such as the Su-27 and F-16, he shook his head slightly and sighed, "We have been lagging behind for too long. How difficult it is to achieve a qualitative leap and overtake on a curve."

"Technological development follows its own laws. We have a strong will, but we must also follow the laws of scientific and technological progress. It is naive to think that we can catch up with the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom overnight without sufficient technological accumulation and experience."

Xue Shuang looked at Li Lu and said in a deep voice, "Too pessimistic, Lao Li, what's wrong with you?"

Li Lu shook his head and said, "No, on the contrary, I am very optimistic and full of confidence in the future, which does not conflict with stating the facts and facing reality."

He suddenly smiled and said, "If I told you that our generation of pilots has the opportunity to fly fourth-generation stealth fighter jets, would you believe me?"

Without a second thought, Xue Shuang said, "You were just saying we should respect the laws of technological development, and now you're talking nonsense again. We haven't even figured out third-generation fighters yet, and you dare to think about fourth-generation fighters. Old Li, sometimes I really can't keep up with your thinking."

Li Lu replied, "Technology needs to be accumulated and refined. When it reaches a certain level, it will erupt, like a geyser. Indeed, we are currently developing third-generation fighter jets, which seem to lag behind the United States by at least one generation."

"But do you remember that our equipment development follows the pattern of equipping one generation, developing one generation, and conducting preliminary research on one generation? Project 10 will soon enter a period of intensive flight testing, which means that the preliminary research on the fourth-generation fighter jet has also entered a critical stage. Once this stage is over, we will immediately enter the formal development stage."

"We're only a few years old, and we'll still be flying in a dozen or so years. By then, fourth-generation fighter jets will definitely be out. I'm very confident about that."

Xue Shuang glanced at Li Lu, then at the neatly lined-up brand-new J-8B fighters not far away. No matter how much he used his imagination, he couldn't picture the scene Li Lu had described.

Are there lines of "airborne scumbags" being produced? Will they be equipped with fourth-generation fighter jets in a decade or so?

That's too optimistic!