Upon entering service in 2017 the Chengdu J-20 became the first active fifth generation fighter jet in the world developed outside the United States — providing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) with an analogue to the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter. The J-20 was designed with a radar evading stealth profile to maximize its survivability both in air-to-air combat against enemy fighters and against enemy air defenses. The fighter’s air superiority airframe provides it with a high thrust/weight ratio, a high speed, high operational altitude, and the long range needed to dominate airspace both over Chinese territory and beyond across the South and East China Seas. Recent reports from Chinese state media outlet CCTV however indicate that the J-20 airframe could potentially be modified to fulfil different roles for the PLAAF — namely that of an electronic attack and a strike aircraft.

The PLAAF has increasingly relied on modifying airframes of high performance combat aircraft to perform specialized roles – a lower cost alternative to developing new airframes altogether. The J-11B airframe, for example, was developed into an advanced strike fighter, the J-16, and the J-16 was itself in turn developed into an electronic attack jet, the J-16D. The J-15 carrier based air superiority fighter has also been developed into an electronic attack aircraft, the J-15D (or J-17), while the JH-7 strike fighter and H-6 bomber have undergone similar modifications. Alongside an electronic attack role, some H-6 bombers have also been developed into ballistic missile carrying strike bombers, capitalizing on the airframe’s versatility and reliability to develop specialized derivatives.

The extent of modifications the J-20 airframe will undergo to develop a strike variant remain to be seen — fighters such as the F-15E and J-16 underwent relatively minor external changes while the Su-34 and FB-22 required major revisions to the original designs. Other EW and strike fighters have been modified to accommodate more fuel and extend their range, with the F-15E being a key example, deploying conformal fuel tanks that the original F-15 lacked. However, the J-20’s already considerable range and the difficulty of adding conformal fuel tanks while retaining a sleek stealth profile mean that such modifications may not be applied.

What’s Next for China’s Fifth Generation Fighter Jet?

Quoted:
I have heard their engines suck

Quoted:

They now have the technical ability to produce single crystal turbine blades. Focusing on what they can field today completely ignores the leaps and bounds they have made in the past 20 years. It wasn't too long ago at all that the best they could manage were warmed over MiG-21s.

Quoted:
I have heard their engines suck

Quoted:
It irritates me that people mock them on their ability to build a jet engine. Well, humans have proven to be good at problem solving. They're going to eventually figure it out.

America sucked at building rockets. And then we figured out how to build them without it exploding on the launch pad.

Planning for the future by banking on a foes current manufacturing capacity is fucking dumb. China is not someone to underestimate.

Quoted:
It irritates me that people mock them on their ability to build a jet engine. Well, humans have proven to be good at problem solving. They're going to eventually figure it out.

America sucked at building rockets. And then we figured out how to build them without it exploding on the launch pad.

Planning for the future by banking on a foes current manufacturing capacity is fucking dumb. China is not someone to underestimate.

Quoted:
Nuke the Chinese

Quoted:

They blow.

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Never seen that Clear and detailed pics of the inside of the weapons bays before.

This is what shit looks like when it actually works!

Is that an umbilical attached to a missile on the F35 though?

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I'm anything but a fan of the Chinese communist party.

But you do know they can nuke us right back, right?

As for the jet, by the time they get the bugs worked out it will probably be obsolete. As it is we could probably Zerg Rush them with F35s right now if we were feeling that desperate.

Don't think we are going to be that desperate anytime soon though.

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I AM a gambling man... but I'd prefer not to play a game with those odds if I don't have to.

Quoted:
It irritates me that people mock them on their ability to build a jet engine. Well, humans have proven to be good at problem solving. They're going to eventually figure it out.

America sucked at building rockets. And then we figured out how to build them without it exploding on the launch pad.

Planning for the future by banking on a foes current manufacturing capacity is fucking dumb. China is not someone to underestimate.

Quoted:
It irritates me that people mock them on their ability to build a jet engine. Well, humans have proven to be good at problem solving. They're going to eventually figure it out.

America sucked at building rockets. And then we figured out how to build them without it exploding on the launch pad.

Planning for the future by banking on a foes current manufacturing capacity is fucking dumb. China is not someone to underestimate.

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What's next for this pile of shit, is for one to get blown out of the sky and for the rest to have no idea what did it.

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A guy wrote an article awhile back about the possibility of a really unhinged right wing American president provoking China into a war and getting a lot of the west coast depopulated along with China being annihilated.

Which would solidify conservative control of national politics for a long time and solidify our global supremacy.

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“The WS-15 engine designed for the J-20 exploded during a ground running test in 2015,” a Chinese military source told the SCMP . “The explosion indicated the WS-15 is not reliable, and so far there is no fundamental solution to overcome such a problem … that’s why the J-20 is using WS-10B engines now.”

All of the Chinese J-20s observed thus have been equipped with either the Russian Salyut AL-31FN or the WS-10B. “Using the WS-10B engines is just a temporary, expedient stage of the J-20’s engine development … in the future, the aircraft may use another new engine, the improved performance engine (IPE) version of the WS-10, the WS-10 IPE, until the development of the WS-15 is successful,” a Chinese military source told the SCMP earlier this year. “It’s so embarrassing to change engines for such an important aircraft project several times … just because of the unreliability of the current WS-15 engines. It is the long-standing core problem among home-grown aircraft.”

J-20 fatal flaws and Chinese fixes

Quoted:

When did that happen?

I know they dumped billions into their jet propulsion industry because they have been so far behind for decades.

I've been following a lot of Chinese sources on the status of the WS-15, but haven't seen claims of single Chrystal turbine blades.

They're still doing external stores carriage testing on the J-20.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4_hrZpLSC7A/WGCneC7qvXI/AAAAAAABI_E/YLyfKw4FdDIgU_7-E3myH9ncNI0zi16fQCLcB/s640/J-20%2Bcarried%2Bwith%2Bfour%2Bdrop%2Btanks%2Bis%2Bunveiled%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bfirst%2Btime%2B3.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRpCOxrUVwq2oZt9Pb7a_o-GICtusmE09U6Ly6XvwWHTZsPGPcU

Quoted:

When did that happen?

I know they dumped billions into their jet propulsion industry because they have been so far behind for decades.

I've been following a lot of Chinese sources on the status of the WS-15, but haven't seen claims of single Chrystal turbine blades.

They're still doing external stores carriage testing on the J-20.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4_hrZpLSC7A/WGCneC7qvXI/AAAAAAABI_E/YLyfKw4FdDIgU_7-E3myH9ncNI0zi16fQCLcB/s640/J-20%2Bcarried%2Bwith%2Bfour%2Bdrop%2Btanks%2Bis%2Bunveiled%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bfirst%2Btime%2B3.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRpCOxrUVwq2oZt9Pb7a_o-GICtusmE09U6Ly6XvwWHTZsPGPcU

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Sounds like a job for Japan.

Quoted:
It irritates me that people mock them on their ability to build a jet engine. Well, humans have proven to be good at problem solving. They're going to eventually figure it out.

America sucked at building rockets. And then we figured out how to build them without it exploding on the launch pad.

Planning for the future by banking on a foes current manufacturing capacity is fucking dumb. China is not someone to underestimate.

Quoted:
It irritates me that people mock them on their ability to build a jet engine. Well, humans have proven to be good at problem solving. They're going to eventually figure it out.

America sucked at building rockets. And then we figured out how to build them without it exploding on the launch pad.

Planning for the future by banking on a foes current manufacturing capacity is fucking dumb. China is not someone to underestimate.