But still in validation and developing doctrine to make it fully operational. It is in initial stages in 2 regiments and still with testing units also.
J-35A fighter (PLAAF) + FC-31
- Thread starter ACuriousPLAFan
- Start date
In service = fully operational.
If you have evidence that all J-35A are still with test & evaluation rather than combat units, please present it to us.
Please stop derailing this serious discussion with such nonsense. If you are unable to productively contribute, please lurk and passively absorb until you can.
Technically speaking J-35A is probably at the equivalent of IOC or late IOT&E at present; we know that it is in service with one frontline brigade at least -- however, @Mekconyov, you wrote "It is going through testing, evaluation, validation and would proceed to initial induction. Later on would go to operational regiments."
J-35A is already in service with an operational brigade.
It is true that J-35A is yet to reach FOC, but you are also categorically incorrect in your previous post that it has yet to reach an operational unit.
As others have said, you need to either stop posting, or write things more specifically, or both.
Because that post and your prior post actually contradict each other.
Your post in #2188 only talked about how it has yet to reach an "operational regiment," which is false as we know J-35A is in at least one frontline operational unit. Your post in #2191 said how it isn't "fully operational" -- which is true.
I hope you realize that an aircraft can be in service with a frontline operational unit but not yet be "fully operational"/FOC??
It's impossible to prove that J-20 production reached 100 a year because PLAAF doesn't release official figures but that seems to have been the going assumption for a while. See , Deino's comment, and apparently that's what Lockheed Martin thinks as well. Obviously it might have scaled back a bit due to switching over to J-20A but if they were at 100 J-20 a year they probably aren't aiming for a significantly lower number of J-20A a year.
As for scaling back because the battle contesting the sky becomes certain, currently much of China's advantage is a matter of the fight being in China's backyard within the 1st island chain so to speak. It's not really the case that China has more airframes or even parity on number of modern airframes with USAF yet. USAF is building F-35s at a not insignificant pace so I don't think we should expect PLAAF to reduce production of J-20 any time soon.
So, given that J35a has been seen in 1st brigade, which is indeed a combat coded brigade - it HAS to be serving in test and development units as well. Those are ALWAYS the units that get a new type of plane first. And I can't stress the "always" part enough here. Yet we've had no photos or even claims that J35a is in either 170th, 171st, 172nd, 173rd, 176th or 177th brigade. How is it possible opsec is so good? And given that test brigades always get them first, obviously secretly in this case, can we guess when was the first j35a handed over to PLAAF? was it 2024 or even earlier?