JL-9 adopts the same HUD as J-20. Is such luxury necessary? Find out the answer.

Recently, the "PLA Daily" reported that the navy aviation university exposed the news of replacing the reflection-type head-up display with the frameless diffractive head-up display of J-20 during the new trainee solo flight training using JJ-9 HaiShanying advanced trainer aircraft, which has caused heated discussions. What does it mean for this advanced trainer aircraft to be equipped with such advanced avionics? Perhaps we can reveal its profound implications from two perspectives. On one hand, the frameless diffractive head-up display has become a "common commodity" in China. The biggest highlight of this upgrade for the JJ-9 "HaiShanying" is the leap from the traditional refractive head-up display to the frameless diffractive head-up display used by the J-20 and J-35. This head-up display represents the top level of fighter avionics technology with its advantages of lightweight, wide field of view, high clarity, and infrared image overlay. However, when this fifth-generation fighter's "exclusive configuration" is applied to a trainer aircraft, an obvious inference is that, for China, this technology may no longer be expensive and may even be close to becoming a "common commodity." From a technical development perspective, China's head-up display technology has undergone iterations from refractive to diffractive, and then to frameless diffractive. Aircraft like the J-10CE and J-15T have already popularized such equipment. Now that even the intermediate trainer aircraft JJ-9 is equipped with a frameless head-up display, it shows that its R&D and production costs have been significantly reduced, and the supply chain has matured enough to support large-scale equipment. This not only reflects China's avionics industry's mass production capability but also implies that the batch production of fourth-generation fighters (such as J-15T) will likely fully standardize such head-up displays, and the refractive head-up display may completely exit the historical stage. For China's military industry, the transition of the frameless diffractive head-up display from "high-end scarcity" to "standardized availability" is undoubtedly a symbol of technological confidence. The second point is more important: consistency between the trainer aircraft and current service aircraft is the right way. However, the significance of replacing the head-up display goes far beyond cost reduction. From the perspective of training logic, consistency between the trainer aircraft and the current main service aircraft avionics is the correct solution for efficiently cultivating pilots, rather than wasting time letting trainees repeatedly adapt to different systems. Netizens questioned: "If the trainer aircraft is different, learning it only to change later, isn't that a waste of life?" There is some truth to this statement. As the intermediate trainer aircraft for naval aviation, the JJ-9 "HaiShanying" primarily trains pilots for the J-15 and future J-15T. The early JJ-9 used a refractive head-up display, which was close to the avionics of the early J-15 model and still met the needs at that time. However, as new carrier-based aircraft like the J-15T are gradually equipped with diffractive or even frameless head-up displays, if the trainer aircraft remains on outdated technology, pilots would need to re-adapt to entirely new interfaces and operational logic from training to combat, increasing learning costs and potentially leading to mistakes due to unfamiliarity with the equipment under high-intensity operations. Conversely, upgrading the JJ-9 to the same head-up display as the J-20 allows trainees to directly adopt the operational habits of current service aircraft, shortening the transition time from training to carrier deployment, and enhancing combat readiness efficiency. For example, the T-45 trainer aircraft in the U.S. is highly consistent with the F/A-18 avionics system, ensuring seamless transition for pilots to carrier-based aircraft operations. If China continues to use trainer aircraft with different technical states, it would be "self-inflicted trouble." This upgrade indicates that the PLA has realized this issue and is optimizing the training system through unified avionics standards. It is evident that the replacement of the J-20 head-up display on the JJ-9 not only reflects the maturity of China's avionics technology reaching "common commodity" levels but also represents the inevitable choice of aligning trainer aircraft with current service aircraft. This not only lowers the technical threshold but also enhances pilot training efficiency through standardized design, making it a win-win situation for both technology and practical combat needs. However, the blank in carrier takeoff and landing training due to the lack of a tailhook on the "HaiShanying" remains a suspense urgently awaiting resolution by the navy. In the future, whether a Chinese version of the "T-45" will appear is worth looking forward to. Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7491578246962709043/ Disclaimer: The article solely represents the author's personal views. Please express your opinions by clicking the "like/dislike" buttons below.