强-5乙 was developed for the PLANAF specifically to carry torpedoes, hence the nose with a better visibility and houses a surface search radar. Five prototypes were made and at least one was photographed flying with a 5-digit serial, which only became a thing in the 1970s. The plane was first pitched in 1966 and test flown since 1971 but it only received the Type Designation in 1980 due to the slow progress of its Type 317 radar, a copy of the R-14A recovered from a crashed F-105D in Vietnam.
There were plans in 1978 to retrofit 强-5乙 with YJ-8 (鹰击-8) AShM but the heavier missile meant the plane needs to shave weight elsewhere. A minaturized Type 317 radar, known as 317甲, was then developed to reduce weight. Due to the slow progress on the radar, the AShM variant was cancelled in the late 70s and the missile went on to serve with the Type 024III missile boat.
The PLAN restarted the Q-5 AShM variant in the mid-80s after the success of YJ-8 AShM’s trials on missile boats, so they decided to have another go at it. This time it’ll carry the revised YJ-81 AShM and be directed with the JL-7 radar from J-7III. Development only went as far as flying a regular Q-5 with a mockup missile to test its handling characteristics, and the project was shelved for good because JH-7 can carry four YJ-81s, is faster, and has a longer range.
Yo. So uhh, we got CMs on this thing now, FINALLY.
The plane is, however, still missing more CM launchers though, at least to my knowledge.
Anyone got anything on that ( and missiles as well)?
Apparently when the mods closed my acknowledged bug report on this ‘for better sources’ they failed to deliver this page to the devs (either that or the devs didn’t bother looking at it), which specifically shows the Type 941 flare pod in a Chinese book dedicated to the Q-5. Now, I’m just a dumb engineer but that surely looks like 32 small caliber flare slots with 2 units? Sarcasm aside, yes it’s missing flares, yes the Q-5A is also effected, total count should be 64. They copy-pasted the flare pods from the A-5C, which are different flare pods entirely that were requested by the customer. If I have time I may write up the report AGAIN this weekend.
