J-20 5th Generation Fighter VII

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Figaro

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Have you all lost your marbles? It's clearly that plant photobombing the engine nozzles.
Honestly though we know those are Taihang nozzles behind the plant. What really matters though are the serials of those birds and more importantly if they are already in operational service!
 

Schwerter_

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X-band radars and human eyes operate in different EM bands.
X-Band Eyeballs and Vital capacity strong enough to become a wind tunnel——————Two most wanted superpowers among military aviation enthusiasts XD
 

Blitzo

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Sorry I was referring to Blitzo's post at #2756. Scroll down a little on that link. He drew a red box around it.

In retrospect, I think the current J-20As do not have established gun ports given what was mentioned by yankee before about future J-20s intending to have guns which suggest the current ones do not.

I do think those drawn positions are fine locations for where a gun port could be placed but are not ports themselves
 

latenlazy

Brigadier
In retrospect, I think the current J-20As do not have established gun ports given what was mentioned by yankee before about future J-20s intending to have guns which suggest the current ones do not.

I do think those drawn positions are fine locations for where a gun port could be placed but are not ports themselves
Yeah, I reviewed some old posts yesterday and have drawn the conclusion that a J-20B revision might be more substantial than I originally expected. It would follow that we would see some hardware change substantially, and it’s entirely plausible the current J-20s aren’t even going to get an MLU if the changes are extensive enough...
 

ansy1968

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Hi latenlazy

Concur on your J20a analysis, J20a for my opinion is an interim design using AL31/WS10 engine while waiting for the WS15 tech to mature.
J20B will be the final design spec that will utilize the full potential of WS15 and it may entail further design changes along the way to include new tech. Just my two cents.
 

latenlazy

Brigadier
Wait, wouldn't that put the current J-20s at the awkward position just like early F-35s that couldn't accept further upgrade? I will be very surprised if they didn't at least account for retrofitting future advancements/refinements (like guns and engines) to current J-20s. Did PLAAF decided to accept the planes because they need a stopgap to train their pilots and refine the tactics for stealthy jets before getting the "real deal"?
I’m not ruling out MLUs for the current batch of J-20 frames, just saying it would be plausible that they don’t receive one. After all, we never saw this sort of upgrading process with J-10s and J-11s (except maybe now with potential J-11BGs). I think whether the current batch of J-20s do receive some retrofitting in the future largely depends on a number of factors:

1) Just how different will the next J-20 iteration be compared to today’s, and how modular are those changes, given that the next iteration is probably built on further improvements in China’s technological base.

2) Will there be spare production capacity of parts (especially engines) for an MLU

3) Does the budget for upgrading older J-20 frames make sense given that that same money could be used some other way to deliver the same or equal capabilities/force improvements, either through procurement of new frames for potential mid sized fighter, if one is inducted into the PLA), master turnover toward a next generation design, or perhaps something lateral like A2A capable UCAVs, etc.


Hi latenlazy

Concur on your J20a analysis, J20a for my opinion is an interim design using AL31/WS10 engine while waiting for the WS15 tech to mature.
J20B will be the final design spec that will utilize the full potential of WS15 and it may entail further design changes along the way to include new tech. Just my two cents.
There probably isn’t going to be a “final” version of the J-20. Rather they will probably continue to introduce new iterations, improvements, and variants over the lifespan of the design, at least so long as they follow a batch production process rather than a scale production process.
 
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