[CHK] Is it really possible to INS Align with only a battery?

[Admiral_ZIPANGU]

I like the JF-17 and use it on a regular basis, but one thing I'm not sure about is the ability to INS ALIGN with batteries only.

In other aircraft, INS alignment is possible only when the engine is started or ground power is used. (I don't know about the M-2000C only because I don't have one.) 

Is this really possible for the actual aircraft as well? A friend of mine who used to be a fighter mechanic (in charge of on-board electronics) was wondering this too.

Edited July 11, 2021 by uboats

[LastRifleRound]

M2000C requires ground power

[Torbernite]

It's a very interesting question. I have never thought to start up in this order before. Theoretically it might be not so ridiculous to align with batteries (but only logically possible, I'm quite not sure).

 

Basic problem may be whether the design, the program and battery capacity of JF allow to power so many systems and computers with batteries for enough time, like in game. Intuitively I don't think this is true as F-16 and F-18 don't even lit up an MFD with batteries. But if this feature is accurate and most systems can be really powered, maybe the INS alignment can also be carried out. JF uses ring laser gyros and likely strapdown INS similar to those on F-16 and F-18, which involves no rotating gyro or adjustment against great rotational inertia. The INS alignment procedure is only the alignment of a virtual platform in computer instead of a physical platform on earlier aircrafts, thus may require lower power supplement.  Besides, alignment of JF is quite fast. So MAYBE the power consumption is not remarkably higher than many other systems. 

 

Another problem is whether avionics can be properly cooled without bleed air from the engine. We already have the feature that avionics crash when ECS isn't set properly in certain time limit. If alignment brings heavy computation load, maybe thermal load SHOULD also increase and the time limit will come earlier.(But I don't know how heavy the actual load is, or if the correlation between thermal load and running time allowed without bleed air is simulated.)

 

Anyway, these are all "maybe" above. I'm also curious about it. Let's wait for the check conclusion from Deka.

[uboats]

normally, GPU is used.

But from the power bus, battery can provide power to DC2DC converter and also DC2AC converter to provide power to other devices.