J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VI

[siegecrossbow]

Nothing new there.

I think it's time for me to write a new article about J-20's agility and role now that we've had the load of new J-20 related info and flight display at Zhuhai

Hopefully you can get it published on the Diplomat too!

 

[Blitzo]

Hopefully you can get it published on the Diplomat too!

My piece this month will be reviewing some stuff at Zhuhai.

I intended next month to talk about PLAN nuke subs, but I might delay that a bit to take advantage of J-20's recent exposure...

 

[siegecrossbow]

Apparently David Axe wrote an even worse article yesterday. He basically rehashed all of his arguments from 2011 and even quoted the flightglobal article on J-20's conservative performance wrong. It is obvious that he not only didn't bother to watch the actual airshow videos, but failed to even thoroughly read his own quoted sources when he farted that thing out. I will not link it here since that will give him more traffic.

 

[Tirdent]

Yankee confirmed that although the J-20 currently does not have a gun for reasons of weight and potential scorching damage to stealth coating, there is a spot reserved for a gun. He also confirmed that the current J-20 also uses a domestically thrust-enhanced AL-31s.

He said that the gun will be "unlike any currently in service in PLAAF" but didn't elaborate further. Technically it could just be a gatling gun because no PLAAF fighter has a gatling cannon.

Very interesting!

Regarding the gun, I would have expected a variant of the GSh-301 if weight was a concern (still has by quite a margin the best fire power to weight ratio of any fighter cannon), but that's obviously not going to be the case if it's "unlike any currently in service in PLAAF". While we're on the subject, are the GSh-301s for the J-11B and J-16 still sourced from Russia or has the design been indigenized?

I'm also surprised by the "domestic" AL-31F. Did they fully reverse-engineer the engine, or is it a local modification of Russian supplied units? In either case, do they have the OEM's blessing? Either way, it seems rather unflattering to the WS-10, indicating that the enhanced-thrust versions have been starting to mature only very recently. As stated elsewhere the TVC J-10 demonstrates that the engine is coming round, but nonetheless not in time for the J-20 LRIP batch, apparently.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Very interesting!

Regarding the gun, I would have expected a variant of the GSh-301 if weight was a concern (still has by quite a margin the best fire power to weight ratio of any fighter cannon), but that's obviously not going to be the case if it's "unlike any currently in service in PLAAF". While we're on the subject, are the GSh-301s for the J-11B and J-16 still sourced from Russia or has the design been indigenized?

I'm also surprised by the "domestic" AL-31F. Did they fully reverse-engineer the engine, or is it a local modification of Russian supplied units? In either case, do they have the OEM's blessing? Either way, it seems rather unflattering to the WS-10, indicating that the enhanced-thrust versions have been starting to mature only very recently. As stated elsewhere the TVC J-10 demonstrates that the engine is coming round, but nonetheless not in time for the J-20 LRIP batch, apparently.

Rumor has it that the F-22's wing-truss is strong enough to withstand 30 rounds from a GSh-301. I think Chengdu is probably trying to get something more powerful (go big or go home).

I am leaning towards local modification of Russian supplied units but now that I think about it, there are a lot of unaccounted for AL-31s in the current PLAAF fleet. Perhaps they did figure out a way to fully reverse engineer it. As for WS-10, I think it stabilized last year and J-20s will be equipped with them should the need arise.

 

[latenlazy]

Even guys on F-16.net are getting more impressed with J-20 after the November 11th demo.

p.s. Still got to get it off my chest. Even the author of the article admitted that the J-20 demonstrated fast roll rate, good AOA abilities, and "decent" (understatement of the century) nose pointing capabilities. However, since it bled "too much" energy, it can't maneuver!

Is there any delta-winged fighter that doesn't bleed energy? You know what else bleeds a lot of energy but has good nose-pointing capabilities? Mirage 2000. Is that a dedicated interceptor too?

There are no fighters, period, which does not bleed energy during maneuvers.

 

[siegecrossbow]

There are no fighters, period, which does not bleed energy during maneuvers.

I give credit for at least eyeballing the maneuvers. David Axe didn't even bother to do any reading.

 

[latenlazy]

I give credit for at least eyeballing the maneuvers. David Axe didn't even bother to do any reading.

Still doesn’t change the falliciously selective logic.

 

[Blitzo]

Apparently David Axe wrote an even worse article yesterday. He basically rehashed all of his arguments from 2011 and even quoted the flightglobal article on J-20's conservative performance wrong. It is obvious that he not only didn't bother to watch the actual airshow videos, but failed to even thoroughly read his own quoted sources when he farted that thing out. I will not link it here since that will give him more traffic.

was it the one on the national interest? I think I skimmed over it for lulz

 

[localizer]

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

They'll think that the J-20 is an interceptor even after thrust vectoring is installed .

Why need a plane to deliver those? Why not just have a big stealth missile/drone with those things inside?