China Flanker Thread II

[Jeff Head]

So, will the J-11D be, in essence, a single seat J-16?

...an if they created a tandem seat J-11DS, would it in essence be pretty much like a J-16?

 

[Alvaritus]

So, will the J-11D be, in essence, a single seat J-16?

...an if they created a tandem seat J-11DS, would it in essence be pretty much like a J-16?

Well many think of the j-16 as an carrier capable j-11....
But IMHO, i would say that j-11D will be more of a pure air superiority (as of design focus),and the j-16 more of a multirole ac ... (the difference being in the subsystems and ordinance)

 

[delft]

The missing J-11C might now be called J-16 just because it is more of a multi role aircraft than the J-11 family?

 

[Jeff Head]

Well many think of the j-16 as an carrier capable j-11....
But IMHO, i would say that j-11D will be more of a pure air superiority (as of design focus),and the j-16 more of a multirole ac ... (the difference being in the subsystems and ordinance)

That's kind of what I was thinking.

The J-16, in essence, seems to me to be the Chinese version of the F-15E Strike Eagle. The Strike Eagle, although it is a new build over the stock F-15a, and has been strengthened for the strike role, it sill retains all of the systems necessary to allow it to do the air superiority role too.

It will be interesting to see what air superiority capabilities the J-16 actually has. If, as I suspect, it can indeed carry and use the same inventory of BVR and WVR AAW missiles as the J-11B, and if it retains the same agility and the J-11BS...then it would indeed be much like the strike Eagle in US service.

If that is the case...and since the J-16 was developed from a J-11BS frame to begin with...it just made me wonder if the J-11D would be a dedicated air superiority version with all the new J-16 enhancements.

In other words, it will be a single seat J-16, that is dedicated to the air superiority role without all of the ground attack extras that the J-16 has.

Thanks.

 

[Blitzo]

@Jeff, that's exactly my train of thought too.

J-16 apparently has a wider variety of structural enhancements to carry more weapons over a greater distance.
I expect J-11D to lack structural enhancements to that degree (even though apparently it is also meant to be able to carry YJ-12), which should make it lighter, and a little more nimble.

But I expect both to share similar radar, datalinks, and probably even cockpits as well, along with the ability to fire newer AAMs and A2G weapons. Of course for that reason I do not expect a "J-11DS" given J-16 already exists.

 

[Blitzo]

It's sure comforting to know that a foreign-policy-oriented think tank extracts its information from the likes of Popular Science and Russia Today.

In hindsight, Popular Science isn't a bad source at all; in fact, it's pretty decent when it comes to technical matters.

Given skywatcher is author of the eastern arsenal blog it shouldn't come to a surprise, although the odd typo does pop up.
Of course it's funny if more western outlets start quoting the eastern arsenal blog given Skywatcher does source many of his info, photos and details from places like here and CDF, so I'd wonder if any of them know they're basically quoting info from forums... Of course virtually all new and up to date, reliable PLA information are sourced from BBS and then posted on english speaking forums by the likes of us, but apparently most western think tanks are too up themselves to accept it.
If they were really interested in their job you'd think they'd watch these forums more closely or at least try to contact some of the better members on these forums for opinions on things before actually writing an article that ends up riddled with mistakes.

Ironically it is david axe who once wrote a piece on the effect online forums are having on informing western think tanks and intelligence groups, even if it was stricken with incorrect details, bias, and stereotype.

 

[Quickie]

Did they change the shape of the nose cone?

Not just the nose cone, the whole front section seems to have changed?

 

[Ultra]

Is it just me or the new J-11D airframe seems changed? Especially the nose cone section which seems angular and faceted (like J-20 or J-31). It seems to have adopted some limited stealth shaping to the frontal section.

J-11B

J-11D

 

[Ultra]

BTW I just realized the music they illegally used in that video is STAR WARS. LOL!

 

[Blitzo]

[Is it just me or the new J-11D airframe seems changed? Especially the nose cone section which seems angular and faceted (like J-20 or J-31). It seems to have adopted some limited stealth shaping to the frontal section.

Of course it isn't just you -- I'm pretty sure the radome was pointed out when the photo was first posted, either that or nobody mentioned it because it was so obvious.

However it isn't faceted -- there do not appear to be "facets" around the radome in the style of stealth fighters. What it features is a canted radome bulkhead, like J-10B.