Yŏng'an Y-4

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Yŏng'an Y-4
Xian H-6 - Aviadarts2018 1.jpg
Y-4HR at Wŏnju airbase.
Role strategic bomber
National origin DPRM
Manufacturer Yŏng'an Aircraft Corporation
First flight 1972
Introduction 1974
Primary user Menghean Navy
Produced 1973-1989
Developed from Tupolev Tu-16

The Yŏng'an Y-4 (Formal designation: 영안 4호 폭격기 / 永安四號爆擊機, Yŏng'an Sal-ho Pokgyŏkgi, "Yŏng'an No.4 Bomber;" Short designation 영안-4 Yŏng'an-Sal "Yŏng'an-4") is a tactical bomber which was manufactured in Menghe as a license-produced copy of the Letnian Tupolev Tu-16. It is produced by the Yŏng'an Aircraft Corporation in Gangwŏn province.

Most surviving airframes have been converted to the Y-4HR model, a maritime strike variant. This package includes new engines, avionics, and surface search radar, as well as additional hardpoints and safety systems. The Menghean Navy plans to keep the Y-4HR in service until 2035, when it will be replaced by a new bomber project tentatively titled P-014.

Development

In the mid-1960s, the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe purchased a batch of 8 Tupolev Tu-16 bombers from Letnia, with the first deliveries taking place in 1967. Menghean Army Aviation staff were reportedly impressed with the plane's characteristics, and they began negotiations on licensed production in Menghe.

A license was granted in 1969, and production began the following year, with the Yŏng'an Aircraft Design Center (today the Yŏng'an Aircraft Corporation) taking responsibility for the process. A few modifications were incorporated into the Menghean design, including simplified avionics and a Menghean language crew interface. The Yŏng'an prototype conducted its first flight in 1972, and it was accepted for service the following year. Manufacture took place at the Yŏng'an Aircraft Plant, which is actually located in the outlying town of Chŏnwŏn rather than Yŏng'an proper.

Description

Early variants of the Y-4, designated Y-4G, were intended as straightforward conventional bombers, and lacked the ability to carry missiles or nuclear weapons. They could carry up to 10,000 kilograms of bombs in their internal bomb bay, including an option for a single 8,000-kilogram bomb for destroying bunkers and hardened targets. Like their Letnian predecessors, they had a defensive armament of six 23mm autocannons in three twin turrets: one on the upper fuselage, one on the lower fuselage, and one in the tail.

When carrying a 4,000-kilogram payload, the Y-4G had an operational range of 2,240 kilometers, allowing it to reach Luta Island and any location in Dayashina. When flying out of friendly airbases in Innominada, it could hit targets in most of Khalistan, and with in-air refueling it could strike Eteläsaaret, Guahan, and the Acheron Islands. Airbases in Communist-controlled areas of Dzhungestan allowed it to reach most populated areas of Themiclesia, as well as parts of Nukkumaa, but it lacked true intercontinental range.

As Menghe's nuclear weapons program reached maturity, Yŏng'an produced a modified Y-4 design optimized for delivering gravity-based nuclear strikes. The layout of the bomb bay was slightly revised, and the cockpit instruments were changed to include support for arming a nuclear bomb. The pilot and bombardier were also provided with a crude in-flight computer to calculate the necessary trajectory for toss bombing, allowing the bomber to approach the target from below the horizon and loft the bomb from a safe distance. The nuclear-capable Y-4N is externally similar to the Y-4G, and Western intelligence originally did not identify it as a separate variant; it can be most easily identified by the use of anti-flash white on the belly and fuselage sides, though the top was generally still painted in blue or grey.

Around 1986, a second Army variant for delivering air-launched nuclear cruise missiles was proposed, and given the designation H-4D. Due to the economic pressure facing Menghe at the time, only a few early airframes were produced.

The Menghean People's Navy also saw interest in the Y-4, as it allowed them to carry out strikes against attacking fleets at longer ranges. Navy variants use the same alphabetic ordinal scheme as Army ones, but carrying the prefix "H" (Haegun, "Navy"); they are an entirely separate series from the Army variants with the same ordinal letters. Much like their Letnian counterparts, the early Navy variants were designed to carry the YDH-21 missile, a clone of the KSR-2, on two external hardpoints, one per wing. Their successor, the Y-4HD, carried the faster YDH-23 missile in the same position.

Non-Socialist countries within range of Menghean Y-4s viewed the bomber as a serious threat, especially after the DPRM demonstrated its ability to air-drop a nuclear bomb from a Y-4N in 1984; it was the only Menghean aircraft capable of delivering nuclear strikes at an intermediate strategic range. Following the Decembrist Revolution, Choe Sŭng-min's government agreed to end production of the Y-4 bomber, with the last airframe leaving the production lines in 1989. Many of the airframes already produced, including all Y-4N variants, were sent to storage, but several dozen remained in active service throughout the 1990s and early 2000s as conventional bombers.

Y-4HR

The Y-4HR is a comprehensive upgrade of the Y-4 for the maritime bomber role. It was first unveiled in 2008, and apparently developed in response to increased tensions with Tyran and Sieuxerr following the Ummayan Civil War. All current Y-4HR aircraft are reconstructions of existing Y-4 airframes, as the production lines had been shuttered for nearly twenty years by 2008, but the refits were conducted at the Yŏng'an Aircraft Plant in Chŏnwŏn and amount to a major generational transition.

Major changes in the Y-4HR include the following:

  • New KA-512 turbojet engines were installed in place of the original license-built Mikulin AM-3s, increasing peak thrust and fuel efficiency. The engine intakes were also widened.
  • An advanced surface search radar was installed in the nose, more compact than the radome on the Y-4HN but purportedly offering greater sensitivity and range and an improved ability to distinguish targets from background noise.
  • The layout of hardpoints was reworked, with three hardpoints under each wing and two under the fuselage.
  • The internal bomb bay was replaced by a semi-permanent internal fuel tank, further increasing range.
  • All defensive 23mm gun turrets, as well as their operator spaces, were removed.
  • The rear gun position was replaced by an electronic warfare suite for detecting and jamming pursuing aircraft.
  • An electro-optical sensor was installed in place of the under-chin turret to further improve detection.
  • The remaining four crew members were given zero-zero ejection seats, and the canopy sections over them were revised to break away when the seats fire.
  • Wingtip extensions were added to add lifting area and reduce drag.

Other internal electronic systems, such as passive radar warning, long-range communication, and plane-to-missile datalinks were also reportedly improved. Combat radius was reportedly extended to 4,500 kilometers, nearly twice its original level, though Menghean sources do not specify the payload or altitude associated with this figure.

Beginning from the centerline of the airframe and proceeding outward toward the wingtips, the hardpoints have the following rated loads:

  • Under fuselage: 1000 kg
  • Under-wing 1: 2000 kg
  • Under-wing 2: 4000 kg
  • Under-wing 3: 1000 kg

Note that although the total comes out to 16,000 kg per wing, maximum take-off weight on a full fuel load only allows for 10,000 kg of usable payload, and actual combat loads may be well below that level. The higher load ratings on the under-wing 1 and 2 hardpoints is mainly intended to allow flexibility in how armament is carried: for example, an anti-ship strike loadout may consist of two YDH-23 anti-ship missiles, each weighing 3,450 kg; four subsonic cruise missiles, each with a mass of up to 2,000 kg; or eight YDH-28 anti-ship missiles, each with a mass of 450 kg.

With a top speed of Mach 0.95 and poor maneuverability characteristic of bombers, the Y-4HR remains highly vulnerable to enemy carrier-based aircraft, even if its tail-mounted EW suite provides a measure of protection. In a typical anti-ship mission, Y-4HR formations would attempt to launch from a safe standoff distance, generally 300 to 800 kilometers depending on the range of the missile carried. At short distances, friendly naval aircraft would escort them to the target, but at long distances this may not be possible. This vulnerability, combined with the plane's lack of stealth, has driven the Menghean military to invest in the development of a new supersonic bomber, tentatively designated P-014.

Full list of variants

Army service
Y-4G

Original service variant, based on the early Tu-16. Used a crude Menghean-designed bombsight and could not interface with missiles.

Y-4N

Special variant adapted for nuclear attacks using gravity bombs.

Y-4D

Proposed variant for delivering standoff nuclear munitions based on the YDH-23 missile. Had the same wing-hardpoint layout as the Y-4HN but lacked the nose radar.

Y-4R

Prototype Army version capable of carrying air-launched ballistic missiles on its 4,000-kg hardpoints.

Navy service
Y-4HG

Anti-shipping variant modeled on the Tu-16K-10. It had a rudimentary surface-search radar under a partial glazed nose, and two large under-wing hardpoints for anti-ship missiles. Introduced in 1976.

Y-4HN

Maritime reconnaissance variant with a large radar in the nose and additional radomes and ELINT antennas along its airframe. Capable of guiding missiles from other bombers toward targets.

Y-4HD

Anti-shipping variant designed to carry the YDH-23 supersonic anti-ship missile on two hardpoints, one under each wing. Had a large radar set in the nose, identical to that on the Y-4HN, but lacked the latter's ELINT equipment. Introduced in 1985.

Y-4HR

Comprehensively upgraded anti-shipping package introduced in 2008. Features new electronics, engines, and radar, as well as a revised hardpoint layout.

Auxiliary aircraft
Y-4GGB

Tanker variant with wingtip-mounted probe and drogue for in-flight refueling.

Y-4JJ

Electronic warfare mod which debuted in 2010. Features a faired-over nose and a "gondola" under the fuselage, likely containing jamming antennas. Also converted from existing airframes.

Operators

Specifications (Y-4HR)

General characteristics

  • Crew: 4
  • Length: 34.9 m (114.5 ft)
  • Wingspan: 34.0 m (111.6 ft)
  • Height: 10.38 m (34.1 ft)
  • Wing area: 169 m2 (1819 ft2)
  • Empty weight: 37,500 kg (82,700 lb)
  • Loaded weight: 77,000 kg (169,800 lb)
  • Max. takeoff weight: 86,500 kg (190,700 lb)
  • Powerplant: 2 × KA-512 turbofan, 122.7 kN (25,300 lbf) each

Performance

Armament

  • Hardpoints: 8 hardpoints with a capacity of 10,000 kg

See also

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