Sorry, I missed that.
I don't think any of them looked into it that far.
Chengdu next gen combat aircraft (?J-36) thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
and what is the difference between the two airframes aside from the top one having more control surfaces, that makes one a fighter and the other an attack aircraft?
It’s because they write the narrative, for everyone. If things don’t exist within their framework of thinking - then they don’t exist.
So it either doesn’t exist or must be reframed to conform with their acceptable paradigm.
I mean come on, these are the people who will tell you about million-year old geographical features, that have had humans living around/on/in them for the 100K or so years homo sapiens have existed — only being “discovered” in the last 300 years or so.
You will continue to encounter this with any capability or CONOPS relating to the J-36, that does not exist within the context of their paradigm, or at the very least not “discovered” and “invented” in some prior study. An example would be how “the US had hypersonic missiles back in the 1950s!” (also, don’t dismiss the power of studies and documents, PowerPoint is a critical node in the Next-Generation Air-Dominance system of systems!)
Serious / professional US defence analysts can even spend time discussing, unironically, secret US antigravity UFO weapon systems, or fleets of 100s of hypersonic SR-72s with added strike capability in addition to ISR… but we’re hesitant to even postulate that China may have loftier ambitions for the H-20 (with the technical and financial capability to do so).
Things like this are why I am adamant that China and Global South must chart their own course, and own & write their own narratives.
I'm not sure if this is the right place, but does anyone have any resources/documents on the DARPA Air Dominance Initiative? I've been reading some of this forum, and I've seen NGAD being referred to as a family of systems, supposedly consisting of PCA, P-AEA, P-ISR, and P-LRS. I can't find anything about these proposals/documents. It would be interesting to compare both the USAF's philosophy on 6th gen to where they are now to see how they measure up to the latest offerings from CAC and SAC.
This would be the thread to ask about US programs.
US F/A-XX and F-X & NGAD - 6th Gen Aircraft News Thread
The US is about to start official analysis and consideration of the F/A-XX 6th generation stealth aircraft for the US Navy. This thread will be about the two following US military 6th generation stealth aircraft programs. The US Navy F/A-XX 6th Generation Aircraft program The US Air Force F-X...
www.sinodefenceforum.com
The question I had and still have is that these concepts are not exactly novel or radical. We've known this is what's needed for future combat for a while. The idea of data linking and sensor fusion under heavy EW environment is something that's been discussed and talked about for a long time.
The things that I think radical about J-36 is its ability to serve as an uber survivable all-in-one aircraft. That brings a whole new set of things you can do up front and what kind of tactics you can employ.
J-36 seems to fill partially roles of F-22 and RQ-180, in some ways it can do more and perhaps in some ways, less. Kind of sits somewhere between tactical and strategic layers. Tbh, it has no clear Western operational or conceptual counterpart.
We have not yet seen the full unveiling of the next gen Chinese doctrine to really pin down where J-36 stands. What we are seeing are just glimpses and J-36 is just one part of puzzle.
We have not yet seen the full unveiling of the next gen Chinese doctrine to really pin down where J-36 stands. What we are seeing are just glimpses and J-36 is just one part of puzzle.
What is the definition of a "Serious/professional" defence analyst? There are those that occasionally write articles on US sites like national interest/TWZ who depend on readership to make a living, so clickbait is part of their work. Any content from analysts under the government payroll i.e academic papers are far more sombre and I doubt you'll actually see a true threat assessment of China backed by hard stats beyond just OSINT satellite images publicized.
For H-20, the strategic situation for the US and China is completely opposite and is unlikely to change in the near future. One needs to fly through an ocean of hostile air space while the other is safe for most of its journey, that consideration alone makes a single instance of detection a death sentence for a subsonic bomber attempting to strike at CONUS.
I've always wondered where the impression of big=non-maneuverable came from. To my best knowledge, the only thing making planes less nimble is the weight of the aircraft. On the contrary, the larger the wings, the less wing load and maneuverability is increased greatly as a result. From gathered information, this darn thing has the wing load of a ww2 dogfighting propeller aircraft, which is pretty amazing. Without extra control surfaces you can fit much larger wings it seems.
