94 September 2019 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT LINE
OF AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY
BY DAVID AXECarlisle doubled down on his worried tone in a
late 2015 interview with Flight Global. ‘The PL-15
and the range of that missile, we’ve got to be able
to out-stick that missile’, he said, using the air force
term for ‘out-shoot’.
Air Combat Command explained that it’s not
just the PL-15’s range that alarmed Carlisle and
presumably other air force leaders.
‘Few weapons operate in a vacuum’, said Maj
Michael Meridith, an Air Combat Command
spokesman. ‘We are interested in a wide variety of
operational characteristics like payload, guidance
system, warhead type, portability, guidance,
resistance to countermeasures, reliability/
maintainability, speed, range, etc, which are
di erent based on the weapons system and the
other capabilities it’s employed with.’
It’s worth noting that, in an air battle pitting the
AIM-120-armed US ghters versus Chinese jets
carrying PL-15s, the Chinese side likely would
possess at least one major advantage unrelated to
the PL-15’s alleged equal or greater range.
China’s J-11 ghters — versions of the Russian
Su-27 jet — could, with upgrades, haul as many as
12 missiles the size of the PL-15, plus two smaller
missiles, for an impressive 14 weapons in total.
By comparison, the US Air Force’s own F-22 in
its normal con guration carries a maximum of six
AIM-120 missiles and two shorter-range AIM-9s.
The newer F-35 can carry just two AIM-120s in its
internal bays if loaded with a pair of Joint Direct
Attack Munitions (JDAM).‘The PL-15 is only one of the worries’, said Peter
Goon, an analyst for the Air Power Australia think
tank. ‘The bigger one is the fact the F-35A JSF
carries only two AIM-120s — that will be keeping
[Carlisle] up at night.’
Of course, the F-22 and F-35 are stealth
warplanes while the J-11 is decidedly non-
stealthy. All radar-evading ghters carry their
weapons internally, thus sacri cing payload for
stealth. Chinese J-20 stealth ghters appeared
at the Zhuhai Airshow in 2018 with their belly
weapons bays open. Each ghter’s bays held just
four PL-15s.
Low observability is an advantage in certain
situations. But in a straight-up ght in a sensor-
rich environment, stealth can result in a weapons
de cit for the stealthy side.
It’s not hard to imagine the outcome if
American ghter squadrons ever met in battle
with Chinese squadrons packing potentially
seven times as many missiles, each of which is the
equal of America’s own latest munition.
In light of the threat, the US Air Force expects
the AIM-260 program to move quickly. It’s
possible the new missile could begin testing just
four years after the start of development. Flight
tests could begin in 2021, with initial operational
capability following in 2022.
According to press reports, the weapon rst will
y in the F-22’s main weapons bay and on the US
Navy’s F/A-18E/F. The F-35 reportedly will be the
next ghter to carry the new munition.C
HINA’S NEW AIR TO AIR missile has
alarmed US military leaders. So
great is their concern that the US Air
Force is developing a new missile of
its own speci cally to counter the
Chinese munition.
The Chinese PL-15 reportedly ies farther than
the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air
Missile (AMRAAM), the US forces’ current top-of-
the-line air-to-air missile.
To help American ghter pilots out-gun Chinese
pilots, the Pentagon in 2017 secretly launched
development of the new AIM-260 Joint Air Tactical
Missile (JATM, see p44-45 of this issue). The air
force nally revealed the AIM-260 in mid-2019.
The JATM ‘has a range greater than AMRAAM,
di erent capabilities on board to go after that
speci c threat set, but certainly longer legs’, Brig
Gen Anthony Genatempo, the USAF’s program
executive o cer for weapons, told an industry
group in June 2019.
Genatempo said the PL-15, which reportedly
features a dual-pulse rocket motor, was the main
factor in the air force and the navy deciding to
develop the JATM. US forces plan to eld the new
missile starting in 2022.
The maximum range of the AIM-260 is classi ed,
as is the AIM-120’s own max range. Experts
estimate the AMRAAM could travel as far as 100
miles under certain conditions.
The PL-15 reportedly at least matches the AIM-
120’s reach. The PL-15 arms the latest Chinese
ghter types, including the J-20 stealth ghter and
several variants of the Russian-designed Su-27
including the mainstay J-11.
The Pentagon’s worry over the PL-15 was obvious
as early as 2015, the year Chinese forces reportedly
test- red the PL-15 for the rst time. In September
2015, Gen Herbert Carlisle, then the head of
the US Air Force’s Air Combat Command, twice
mentioned the new Chinese missile.
‘Look at our adversaries and what they’re
developing, things like the PL-15 and the range of
that weapon’, Carlisle said in one speech. ‘How do
we counter that and what are we going to do to
continue to meet that threat?’China’s J-11 fi ghters — versions of
the Russian Su-27 jet — could, with
upgrades, haul as many as 12 missiles the
size of the PL-15, plus two smaller missiles, for
a staggering 14 weapons in total.
Chinese i ndigenous missiles on an indigenous jet: a People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-16
fighter-bomber carrying a PL-15 missile under the wing, as well as a short-range PL-10 on the
wingtip station. via Chinese internet98 Cutting Edge C.indd 94 18/07/2019 13:15