Thursday, August 20, 2020

China unveiled the Tianlei 500 Anti-Airfield Gliding Cluster Bomb

China recently unveiled the Tianlei 500, basically a Gliding Cluster Bomb that can be used cripple Airfields. “Tianlei” in English translates to “Sky Thunder”. It carries 240 Bomblets that can destroy large areas of Airfields. It can also carry Mines which are designed to Kill or Injure Repair Crews that will try to fix the Airfield Damage.

One Tactic that could be used is to attack an Airfield with the Tianlei 500, then do another attack a short time later to specifically target the Repair Crews trying to fix the Airfield since the Bomblets will also be quite effective against Personnel and Vehicles.

The Airfields of course can be defended by Surface to Air Missiles (SAM), but they do run out also, and they are not 100% accurate, especially against massed attacks using a combination of Cruise Missiles and Decoys. 

This is one scenario where the JAS-39C Gripen will have an advantage because even though it has less Performance and Capability than the F-16V Viper in some aspects, it was designed right from the start to do Dispersed Operations away from Major Airfields as I had blogged about before. 

Both Aircraft are being considered by the Philippine Air Force (PAF) as their Multi-Role Fighter (MRF).

SOURCES: 

China shows off its new Airfield-Killing Glide Bomb

The JAS-39C/D Gripen for the Philippine Air Force? – Part Two

Gripen Shortlisted as a Potential Fighter for the Philippine Air Force

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