CHINA UNVEILS SECRET AWACS KILLER MISSILE

Chinese aviation expert #Andreas_Rupprechtposted yesterday open-source photos showing an apparently new Chinese air-launched missile.

The photos show the huge missile — almost 6m long based on initial analysis – carried under the wing of a Shenyang J-16 fighter at an unknown location. The J-16 is a reverse-engineered equivalent of the Sukhoi Su-30MKK multi-role fighter-bomber for service with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).

The intended role of the new weapon remains unclear, but has already led to some intense discussion on social media.

China has unveiled a number of new air-to-air missiles (AAMs) in recent years, including designs intended for internal carriage within the weapons bays of the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter. Unusually for a medium/long-range AAM, the new weapon in its current form has no forward guidance fins.
The new weapon has been dubbed PL-XX but may or may not be an AAM.

 The PLA already seems well-furnished in terms of short- and medium-range AAMs. This suggests that the PL-XX could be an ultra-long-range weapon intended to defeat high-value assets such as E-3 AWACS surveillance aircraft or RC-135 intelligence-gatherers. If the new missile is indeed an ‘AWACS-killer’ it is somewhat surprising to see it carried by a J-16 — which has a primary air-to-ground role.
The weapon could also be an anti-satellite weapon, equivalent to the ASAT that was tested from the US Air Force F-15A Eagle in the early 1980s. 

For some years now, China has been actively testing anti-satellite weapons. As far as is known, these have not as yet been intended for launch by fighters.

Yet another theory postulates that the new missile is not an AAM at all, but an anti-radar missile. As such, it could be a fully indigenous follow-on to the YJ-91, which is a Chinese version of the Soviet-designedKh-31 (AS-17 ‘Krypton’).

Via - combataircraft. net
source-NGFW