J-8B

J-8B

J-7E

J-8F

J-8B

J-7E

J-8F

China

VII Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
11.3	11.3	11.7

Class:

Fighter

Jet fighter

Research:350 000

Purchase:950 000

Description

The J-8B (歼-8B, NATO: Finback 长须鲸) is a rank VII Chinese jet fighter with a battle rating of 11.3 (AB/RB) and 11.7 (SB). It was introduced in Update "Wind of Change".

A revision of previous J-8I series with more powerful engines and redesigned air intakes for better avionics, J-8B finally offers the long-awaited SARH missiles and radar for PLAAF, while somewhat retaining a good top-speed and sufficient maneuverability for such a huge jet.

General info

Flight performance

Air brakes

Allows you to dramatically reduce the flight speed by releasing special flaps

Drogue parachute

Reduces braking distance when landing on any runway

Max speed

at 12 000 m2 300 km/h

Turn time27 s

Max altitude16 000 m

Engine2 х Shenyang Liming WP-13A-II

TypeJet

Cooling systemAir

Take-off weight17 t

To conclude what a J-8 series look like, "a Fishbed on steroids" would be very fitting since the overall design was literary an enlarged version of J-7 with 2 turbojet engines; the later J-8II series revised the front of the airframe and introduced side intakes for a more streamline design. This size is also a drawback of J-8B since it becomes a way larger target than its in-tech-tree predecessor J-7E.

Thanks to the technological improvement over the decades, J-8B installed 2 AECC Shenyang Liming WP-13A-II turbojet engines, improving the overall speed and climb rate over J-8I (J-8II was still the fastest, highest climb rate jet in PLAAF service until the introduction of Su-27SK/J-11 Flanker-B/L), the use of composite material also reduced its weight while retaining good maneuverability for such a large interceptor, thanks to its reworked elevators. But just like any delta wing jets, any high AoA maneuvers would be at the cost of severe bleeding on speed; although the twin engines do migrate some of the problem, it is still advised to fly J-8B as an interceptor instead of fighters, hit-and-run or high altitude operations is where it shines.

Characteristics	Max Speed (km/h at _,___ m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	___	___	16000	__._	__._	__._	__._	750
Upgraded	___	___		__._	__._	__._	__._

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear	Drogue chute
No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	_

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
0	500	___	___	___	~__	~__

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< ___	< ___	< ___	N/A

Engine performance

Engine			Aircraft mass
Engine name		Number	Basic mass		Wing loading (full fuel)
Shenyang Liming WP-13A-II		2	_,___ kg		___ kg/m2
Engine characteristics			Mass with fuel (no weapons load)			Max Takeoff Weight
Weight (each)	Type		_m fuel	__m fuel	__m fuel
1140 kg	Turbojet		_,___ kg	_,___ kg	_,___ kg	_,___ kg
Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB/SB)			Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (___%/WEP)
Condition	100%	___%/WEP	_m fuel	__m fuel	__m fuel	MTOW
Stationary	___ kgf	___ kgf	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__
Optimal	___ kgf (_ km/h)	___ kgf (_ km/h)	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__

Survivability and armour

Flares/Chaff

Aircraft countermeasures to distract IR and radar-guided missiles and also AA radar

Crew1 person

Speed of destruction

Structural0 km/h

Gear500 km/h

As in many jet-era aircrafts, J-8B has self-sealing fuel tanks; while it couldn't brag about its protection- only 65mm bulletproof windshield and a 16 mm plate behind the pilot's seat.

• Steel plate
  • Rear of cockpit, behind the seat- 16 mm
• Bulletproof glass
  • Windshield- 65 mm

Modifications and economy

Repair costBasic → Reference

AB2 719 → 4 045

RB8 021 → 11 935

SB8 222 → 12 234

Total cost of modifications299 000

463 000

Talisman cost3 000

Crew training270 000

Experts950 000

Aces3 200

Research Aces1 210 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

100 / 320 / 600 %

244 / 244 / 244 %

Modifications

Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
Fuselage repair Research: 15 000 Cost: 23 000 420 Compressor Research: 15 000 Cost: 23 000 420 New boosters Research: 17 000 Cost: 26 000 470 Wings repair Research: 25 000 Cost: 39 000 690 G-suit Research: 16 000 Cost: 25 000 440 Engine Research: 16 000 Cost: 25 000 440	Airframe Research: 17 000 Cost: 26 000 470 Cover Research: 16 000 Cost: 25 000 440	Flares/Chaff Research: 15 000 Cost: 23 000 420 ns23_belt_pack Research: 15 000 Cost: 23 000 420 PL-5B Research: 17 000 Cost: 26 000 470 HF-6 Research: 17 000 Cost: 26 000 470 ns23_new_gun Research: 25 000 Cost: 39 000 690 Type 250 Research: 25 000 Cost: 39 000 690 EFS Research: 16 000 Cost: 25 000 440 Aspide Research: 16 000 Cost: 25 000 440 Type 500 Research: 16 000 Cost: 25 000 440

Armaments

Offensive armament

The J-8B is armed with:

• A choice between two presets:
  • 1 x 23 mm Type 23-3 cannon, -mounted (200 rpg)
  • 1 x 23 mm Type 23-3 cannon + 64 x large caliber countermeasures

Suspended armament

The J-8B can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

• Without load
• 2 x PL-5B missiles
• 4 x PL-5B missiles
• 2 x Aspide-1A missiles
• 8 x 500 lb LDGP Mk 82 bombs (4,000 lb total)
• 28 x Type 90-1 rockets

Usage in battles

The basic design of J-8 series is aimed for high-altitude interception of Soviet supersonic strategic bombers and J-8B is no exception, its excellent climb rate, top speed and acceleration makes it a high-flyer by all means. But don't be fooled by the sheer size of it, some aerodynamic and control surface features on J-8B make it surprisingly maneuverable as its flight envelope is very similar to a MiG-21MF, if not better; while the size can be a problem as well due to the large surface area, it would be easy for other jets to land shots upon you.

The overall weaponry and avionics are inferior, if not the worst compare to jets at same tier: for example, MiG-23MLD can have 2 SARH missile and 6 IR missiles at the same time; 4 SARH and IR missiles in F-4 Phantom's case. In J-8B's case, it could only carry either 4 PL-5B which are notorious for its erratic performance or 2 Aspide-1A SARH missiles at most- for unknown reasons it couldn't carry either for now; this problem is further enlarged by the poor performance of Changhong Type 208A radar, perhaps the worst radar at its tier without any PD or LD capabilities. Although J-8B can carry up to 8 bombs and some HF-6 rocket pods, the jet doesn't come with any means of CCIP or CCRP (in fact, the HUD has no other modes than navigation mode albeit as labeled in the cockpit HUD). Although Large-caliber countermeasures could help migrating the flaws in weaponry systems, it is still advised NOT to rush into the battlefield.

For the time being, pilots of J-8B should be extra cautious to any enemies that might appear at top tier, although flying high can migrate the affects of radar clustering if you choose Aspide-1A, it means the same for enemies' SARH missiles; if only bringing PL-5B into the fight, stay away from the heated battlefield, then fly in and pick up targets who has already used up their energy or unaware of your existence, a solid hit from PL-5B can shoot down enemies with relative ease; do keep in mind that the missile is best used at distance around 3.5 km, where its tracking rate can still keep up with most jets.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• One of the fastest jet in game
• High acceleration
• Surprisingly maneuverable for its size
• The very first Chinese jet with SARH missiles
• Large-caliber countermeasures like those on MiG-23
• Sufficient air-to-ground ordinances (in fact the highest bomb load of all Chinese supersonic jets)

Cons:

• Huge size
• Small ammo pool at only 200 rounds
• Bleeds severely in maneuvers
• Inferior avionics to its counterparts
• PL-5B is erratic to utilize

History

See User:U4656018's page for more detailed information

Background

In view of the harassment from high-altitude recon planes and upcoming supersonic strategic bombers from both US and USSR in early 1960s, Xu Shunshou (徐舜寿) and Huang Zhiqian (黄志千), the duo designers from SAC who have just finished the JJ-1 (歼教-1) program soon started their design on a new interceptor. There were 22 designs for the new interceptor and most of them opted for a single-engine version; while Huang Zhiqian decided to leave a twin-engine design in case the development of the new engine would lag the entire program. After an intense debate on the theorize meeting that the new engine couldn't made it in time, Huang's design, dubbed as "Roast Duck" (烤鸭) using 2 existing WP-7 engines from J-7 became the design SAC opted for, this design was then given the green light on 1965/5/17 as J-8 (歼-8).

Although the building of J-8I was sailing smoothly, but during the ground tests and stress test, the first prototype was proved unsafe to do test flights and the failure of the first stress test almost gave J-8I its death sentence; this was further intensified due to the death of the duo. The next chief designer, Gu Songfen 顾诵芬 continued the project with their wills and finally excepted all manufacture flaws, J-8I finally made its first flight in 1969/7/5. However, SAC took literary a decade to finalize the aerodynamic design of J-8I and the new jet passed for state certification in the very last hours of 1979.

The J-8II

Although later simulated dogfights with J-7 proved J-8I was superior to the former in many aspects, the MiG-23 (NATO: Flogger) was becoming a big threat to PLAAF with better avionics; although they obtained a MiG-23SM from Egypt for evaluation, instead of reverse-engineering a domestic Flogger, they opted for a more streamline design with side intakes based on Flogger. The redesigned J-8II made its first flight in 1984/6/12 with new technologies utilized during manufacture as well as reserved for SARH missiles.

The 1980s also marked a better relationship with western countries, SAC then seek Grumman for upgrading J-8II into a modernized jet dubbed "Project 8-2" or Peace Pearl (八二工程/和平珍珠) with latest avionics from F-16C; but the 1989 Beijing Crackdown halted this program and eventually cancelled in 1990 in view of importing new Flankers from Soviet Union. While the Project 8-2 and later Project 8-3 (J-8C) failed, SAC finalized the radar and J-8II Block 2/J-8B passed certification in 1995. With later models of J-8II series sprung up in late 1990s and 2000s, these earlier J-8B were mostly upgraded to newer standards and still kept in service in some units as a placeholder before new J-10 and 11 could replace them.

The Spiritual Number: 81192

The default skin for J-8B includes the number "81192" painted on the sides outside of cockpit, this number has become the spiritual number of military enthusiast and players in Mainland China due to the Hainan Island Incident between PLANAF and USN.

On 2001/4/1, a P-3C (Built No. 156511) from VQ-1 of USN stationed at Okinawa, piloted by Lieutenant commander Shane Osborn was conducting a recon flight close to Hainan Island, where a pair of J-8B from Hainan Lingshui Airbase has intercepted them; one of the J-8B, piloted by Major Wang Wei (Wang Wei) from 27 Brigade, 9th Division of PLANAF, accidentally rammed onto EP-3's left wing and was severely damaged by the propellers, his jet crashed into the South China Sea and EP-3 made an emergency landing at Lingshui Airbase; although Wang Wei was witnessed to be ejected, after weeks of searching, Major Wang Wei was declared KIA and was posthumously given martyr and "Guardian of Sea and Air 海空卫士" title by PLA.

This incident further ignited the backlash to US in Mainland China after multiple diplomatic incidents in 1990s; the EP-3 was then disassembled and sent back to USN with an Antonov AN-124 and the incident ended with an official apology from US Government.

A decade later, photos from a photographer in Mainland China proved that the J-8B numbered 81192 was still in service in early 2010s (but upgraded to J-8DH standards with a black radome) and magazine photos showed the model of J-8B given to Ruan Guoqin (阮国琴), widow of Wang Wei was numbered 81194 instead. Although the debate of whether 92 or 94 was the jet involved still continues, but the number 81192 has already become the symbol of the long-lasting Sino-US conflicts and there are memorial events every year at Wang Wei's cenotaph at Huzhou, Zhejiang.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

• MiG-23

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (中航工业沈阳飞机工业(集团)有限公司)
Jet Fighters
MiG-15	J-2*
MiG-17	J-4*
MiG-19	J-6A*
J-8	J-8B · J-8F
Su-27 variants	J-11* · J-11A*
Export	Shenyang F-5*
	*Licensed Note: "J-2" and "J-4" are not official designations
See Also	Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau