This is a J-15D electronic warfare aircraft. Its wingtip pylons carry electronic warfare pods — though these pods remain a mystery, with publicly available information being extremely scarce. To my knowledge, they are purely electronic warfare pods and do not have the ability to dispense physical countermeasures (flares/chaff).
Interestingly, the J-15D is a two-seat canard Flanker. China has never operated any canard-equipped Su-30 variant. Therefore, this aircraft may have been developed entirely through China’s own indigenous research and development capabilities, built upon the experience gained from developing and manufacturing the J-15 and J-16. This perhaps demonstrates that China has fully mastered the Flanker series design.
I think that Gaijin will make all ECM equal, or for planes that are struggling, make the ECM better than the rest. Either way, it will be very simplified.
My idea would be temporary, because I doubt that Gaijin would add this pod (because Gaijin doesn’t really like China Air), and this temporary solution could benefit other jets (J-10C, F/A-18E/F).
China may not be particularly keen on developing rails or pods capable of dispensing physical countermeasures (BOL). All known photos to date show ECM pods, not physical countermeasure dispensers. The 29DCT is already the most suitable, clearly existing, active-service Chinese piece of equipment I have seen that fits the game’s mechanics.
I retract all previous statements about the ‘ECM’ pods. They are likely part of the EW system found only on the J-16D and J-15D. Sorry for the confusion.
Oh my god, this BOL pylon looks so simple and effective in structure, and it even has three-view drawings. Are there any other details about it? Such as its designation and the number of countermeasures it carries?
Conformal antennas at the roots of the canards and the leading edges of the flaps, an antenna at the tip of the tail sting, antennas on the dorsal spine, and when performing high-power jamming, the AESA radar’s own transmitting antenna is directly used.
I must point out that this pod is not removable—it’s hardwired into the J-15D’s onboard electronic warfare system. It’s also not an ECM pod, but rather an ESM system. The ECM pods are those big ones mounted under the wings.
It seems from the display board introduction that this is a new universal type of equipment integrating rwr and maws, similar to what’s used on the Typhoon and Rafale. Moreover, it can cover 360 and detect more bounds than old one. It would be great if this system could be fitted to the J-10C and J-15T instead of kj8602a.
Is it possible that they have a different solution for the J-15T countermeasures issue? This was likely our best chance to get more countermeasures for the J-15. Could we ask on a forum if they’re working on anything for the J-15T?
Looking at the patent description, this appears to be more like a mounting pylon, with the jamming system being just one of its functions—a “parasitic weapons bay on the aircraft’s mounting beam.” It’s unclear what specific weapons it can carry, but it is clear that the jammer pod is an integral part of it.
A single mounting beam can carry a total of 64 countermeasure flares. If only one such beam is allocated to each wing, the aircraft can carry an additional 128 countermeasure rounds.
According to the patent report, its name is quite straightforward: “A parasitic weapons bay on an aircraft’s mounting beam.” Among the retrieved patent documents, the images only include some orthographic views as shown above, with no further details provided. Regarding “Figure 4” in the patent, which illustrates the mounting of countermeasures, the patent describes it as follows: “Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a parasitic weapons bay on an aircraft’s mounting beam loaded with a typical modular weapon. After the loaded ammunition is launched obliquely downward, it passes through the gap between two adjacent external stores on the mounting points and proceeds toward the target.”
