Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator

Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
The J-31 does have potential use when paired with an AEW&C platform. The J-31 is cheaper and somewhat stealthier than the J-20 (the canards don't make the J-20 unstealthy, but they create trade-offs in the RCS, and the J-31 is just plain smaller). The tactic the US will use will be paired IRST / AEW&C radar, i.e, the AEW&C is used to detect opponents, and the IRST on the fighters are used to track opponents, since the AEW&C is bad for that due to low wavelength and the IRST, due to its narrow field of view, is better used to track than to detect. The idea is that if you're fighting stealth fighters without an AEW&C escort, the AEW&C detects them at long ranges, and the fighter, deployed in a dispersed net, tracks and kills them long before they near the AEW&C.

The J-31, combined with Chinese AEW&C platforms, can perform a similar tactic. J-20s could also be used, but they're going to be more expensive and are better used knocking out enemy soft targets than cruising at low speeds waiting for the AEW&C to pick up opponents.

So the idea would be that the J-20 acts to wipe out enemy AEW&C and tankers, while the J-31 + AEW&C act to wipe out enemy stealth aircraft. This isn't to claim that the J-20, in a mature configuration would be unmaneuverable, or that the J-31 would be more maneuverable than the J-20; it's just a matter of cost, the J-31 is a medium fighter, the J-20 is a heavy fighter, and the J-20 will have much greater range and speed than the J-31. You use the cheap asset as the escort and you send the expensive asset out to hunt for AEW&C, because the J-20 mission is high K-D ratio and likely to preserve expensive assets. The J-31 mission, on the other hand, much more can go wrong and a lower K-D ratio could be expected, so you're better off attritioning a cheaper platform.

Well I am hoping we see a flying test bed of the FC-31, I really am about to give up hope, but I'm not going to because I really like this airplane.
 

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
If I'm not mistaken, then is Pucheng Neifu Airport, Shannxi close to XAC ... if at Shenyang, o.k. ... but there ??

Is there some sort of structural lab or so located ??

If You use the tool to measure its dimensions, it's about the size of a Raptor.
 

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
To admit that thing is too strange to be some sort of J-31.V2 !

- it's not at SAC ... if there's not a material stress-testing site at Xi'an related
- it's too large (close to a Raptor)
- reportedly there wasa General Aviation & Technology at Pucheng exhibition ... maybe there was a F-22-model on display ?
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It simply does not fit a J-31.
Deino
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
To admit that thing is too strange to be some sort of J-31.V2 !

- it's not at SAC ... if there's not a material stress-testing site at Xi'an related
- it's too large (close to a Raptor)
- reportedly there wasa General Aviation & Technology at Pucheng exhibition ... maybe there was a F-22-model on display ?
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It simply does not fit a J-31.
Deino
Maybe they decided that WS-13 was troubled and not worth further effort so they made 2.0 based on WS-10/AL-31 to keep the engine logistics down and give it greater payload, range, and upgrade-ability. They could still use less sophisticated avionics to keep the cost down to fit the hi-lo equation with J-20. Maybe.
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
No ... plain and simple !

Such a fighter - especially powered by the same class AL-31 or WS-10 - would not be a low in a high-low fighter mix but simply another high !
Well, J-20's using interim engines so it wouldn't be the same power as what J-20 would ultimately have. So maybe China's gonna kick it up a notch. It used to be 130kN engine = high, 98kN engine = low. Now, it's 180kN engine = high (WS-15) and 140kN engine = low. Maybe
 

latenlazy

Brigadier
Well, J-20's using interim engines so it wouldn't be the same power as what J-20 would ultimately have. So maybe China's gonna kick it up a notch. It used to be 130kN engine = high, 98kN engine = low. Now, it's 180kN engine = high (WS-15) and 140kN engine = low. Maybe
It's not about powerplant, but plane size. The point of having a lo is to have a fighter that is smaller and cheaper to produce to serve as a mainstay. A fighter with two WS-10s would automatically fall outside of those qualifications.
 
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