J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII

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Axyan

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It seems many J-20A airframes equipped with WS-15s have been spotted in Chengdu, but they're all still in 'yellow primer.' We haven't seen any in the standard grey-black low-observable combat livery yet. I wonder how much longer the wait for the final WS-15 production units will be?

Also, we saw the J-20A with WS-10C2 engines in recent parades, and I find it odd—why not just wait for the WS-15? Wouldn't maintaining multiple engine types for the same J-20 fleet be a logistical nightmare and quite inefficient?
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

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Alfa_Particle said:
Oh my days I'm actually so dyslexic :(
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Happens to the best of us!


Axyan said:
It seems many J-20A airframes equipped with WS-15s have been spotted in Chengdu, but they're all still in 'yellow primer.' We haven't seen any in the standard grey-black low-observable combat livery yet. I wonder how much longer the wait for the final WS-15 production units will be?
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We are all wondering -- but keep in mind the pictures of the in service J-20A with WS-10s are likely not representative of when those airframes actually entered service. There's likely a multi-month if not a near year delay between when a new aircraft enters service with a unit and when we get pictures of it.


Axyan said:
Also, we saw the J-20A with WS-10C2 engines in recent parades, and I find it odd—why not just wait for the WS-15? Wouldn't maintaining multiple engine types for the same J-20 fleet be a logistical nightmare and quite inefficient?
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Because J-20A with WS-10C2 should still be much more capable than a standard J-20.
Furthermore, there is a good chance that J-20A with WS-10C2 will also be able to be re-engined with WS-15s, so there isn't much loss to building J-20A with WS-10C2.
In terms of operating, J-20A regardless of WS-10C2 or WS-15 will still share significant common aubsystems even if the engines are different.
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

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siegecrossbow said:
Once again they got birds with gimped engines. You may say that is is becoming a tradition for the 9th.
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It's a tradeoff; 9th tends to be among the first to receive airframes of a new "type" of aircraft, but due to being the first it also means they tend to receive the less capable batches of the airframes as they inevitably are of earlier batches.
 
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