Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator

HKSDU said:

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I have doubts on this so called "silent flanker" it sounds fanboy to me. As soon as silent eagle F-15SE was annouce fanboys started saying that there was a silent flanker. Sounds too much like a fanboys wet dream and desperation.
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J11BS/BHS may be the Strike Flanker. There's unlikely to be a 'silent' one anyway. If you're talking about SAC's J-XX stealth, it has got nothing to do with Flanker.

Strike Flanker is J-16 and the stealth one is what I said. May be called J-19......multifunction.

Schumacher said:

J11BS/BHS may be the Strike Flanker. There's unlikely to be a 'silent' one anyway. If you're talking about SAC's J-XX stealth, it has got nothing to do with Flanker.

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Sounds like another attempt what USAF has PLAAF must have kind of thing. Strike Flanker => Strike Eagle (F-15E). Silent Eagle => Silent Flanker. I ain't talking about SAC J-XX at all.

The USAF has stated it has no plans for the Silent Eagle it's aim is the F35A Lightning 2, Even With the Congressional Raptor hunt leaving the F22 as a Endanger species Lightnings are intended too be the American mainstay which will leave some thing of a major hole in the USAF and force the continued use of F15C/D.
On a personal note I don't think "Silent" fighters really fit the generation 5 definition and prefer too think of them as more of a gen 4.75.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

The USAF has stated it has no plans for the Silent Eagle it's aim is the F35A Lightning 2, Even With the Congressional Raptor hunt leaving the F22 as a Endanger species Lightnings are intended too be the American mainstay which will leave some thing of a major hole in the USAF and force the continued use of F15C/D.
On a personal note I don't think "Silent" fighters really fit the generation 5 definition and prefer too think of them as more of a gen 4.75.

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For stuff like Silent Eagle, I fail to see how much more lethal it can be. There are some things with a ceiling to it, and platforms like the Eagle, for that matter, can never be truly stealthy no matter how "silent" you make it, from adding RAM and such. The reason is cause not only its design wasn't bent for reduced RCS from the beginning, but also its features and curvature and what not, will always be what's holding the Eagles back, and it will continue to do so until they are improvised. But doing so is almost completely developing a new airframe.

In addition, it's been officially settled that the Eagle's agility is as good as it can get with its current airframe design, therefore unless they install a TVC like in the F-15STD, in the battlefield it will still have to resort to BVR engagements and avoid WVR. A2A-wise, the Eagle is still an Eagle, therefore in WVR A2A, it is a very weak competitor in the contemporary era of Eurofighters, Rafale, Flankers, etc.

HKSDU said:

so much random speculation and designation going on, that some people are actually believing them.

personal view of this:

J-11B => upgraded avionics, radar, engines
JH-7A => upgraded avionics, radar, engines, little air frame modification
JF-17 => upgraded avionics, radar, engines
H? => some kind of new bomber

Evidence of existance

J-10B
J-15
J-20

I have doubts on this so called "silent flanker" it sounds fanboy to me. As soon as silent eagle F-15SE was annouce fanboys started saying that there was a silent flanker. Sounds too much like a fanboys wet dream and desperation.

Stealth JF-17 not going to happen. Maybe JF-17 with lowered RCS but that is all. The existance of JF-17 was:
- simplicity
- cheap
- easy to build
- easy maintenance
- as an alternative to F-16

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Who mentioned a stealth JF-17? There is a reduced RCS JF-17, but a 5th generation JF-17 is never going to happen.

The J-16 and the J-11B have not shown to carry air to ground guided weapons, although it is believed that they can.

The "Silent Flanker" was first sparked by an article written by an ex AVIC employee. He mentioned that there will be three following variants of the J-11, and they might feature stealthy designs. Huitong then followed up with a post saying that a variant with conformal weapons bays and stealth optimized nozzles is being developed.

I can bet that the J-16 and the J-17 Silent Flanker is the same.

Posted by eagle over at CDF... hmm... Hmm.. HMMM...

Weaponsbay look significantly larger.

More interesting is that it's a two seater. Looks like a real stealthy F-15SE.

Assuming the drawing is credible, and going by the model's similarity with the picture I'd think it is.

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