Shenyang J-8II vs Sukhoi Su-15TM

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Member for

19 years 1 month

Posts: 545

How do these 2 interceptors compare with each other ?

which one is likely to win an engagement ( w/o any AWACS help on either side)

Original post

Member for

15 years 3 months

Posts: 1,912

Impossible to say since they belong to different era. Russia retired the Su-15 in the early 1990s. J-8II 1st flew only in 1984 entered service only in 1995 and has been continuously upgraded. So everything from avionics, weapons, etc differ.

But if we take the earliest variant of J-8II to enter service, which is the J-8B, it could not carry BVR missiles, while the Su-15 could carry up to 4x K-8 missile. The Type 208 radar of the J-8B was crappy and replaced by KLJ-1. So if we take the earliest production variant of the J-8II and very last variant of the Su-15, the Su-15 should win a BVR battle easily.

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8 years

Posts: 1,168

They look similar. Hmm

Member for

19 years 1 month

Posts: 545

Su-15 can carry 4 x K-8 I thought it carried 2 with 2 x R-60 ?

Also it seems like a lot of Su-15 regiments later in the cold war were in the far east , were they deployed with an eye towards china as they were qualitatively better than what chinese have to offer and a threat to their strike planes like H-5 and A-5 bombers ?

Member for

12 years 3 months

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Don't Forget the exceptionals performances of the Flagon, notably the Mach2.8 max speed that would give him all the dynamic advantages offered by speed in BVR.

Member for

18 years 9 months

Posts: 13,432

Mach 2.8? I've never heard that. All the numbers I've seen, including those claiming to be quotes from Sukhoi data published about the time it was retired by the Russian air force, put it much lower.

Member for

12 years 3 months

Posts: 5,905

I think you are right 3K kph is Wiki cited top speed (Su15 should have been slower).

And to push the nail even further (quoting my self from this old discussion ):

In my memory the Su15 was fast: 2.4 or 2.6

The culprit will cease any more Flago(r)n(erie) for the day :(

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19 years 1 month

Posts: 545

Flagon can also carry gunpods for short range missions right ?

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 805

Su-15 has two gunpods under the belly. Su-15bis has R-25 engines with boosted afterburners, so thrust to weight should be impressive, at least for a minute.

J-8 is a lighter airplane with significantly greater range even without IFR.

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17 years 7 months

Posts: 4,951

We had this debate about a decade ago. Search the archives.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 11,742

OKB Sukhoi gives Mach 2,1 clean for the Su-15. Just a test example got R-25 engines.