It is highly doubtful that we would ever see WS-15 mounted on any Sino Flankers, given how it was designed exclusively with J-20 adaptation in mind since the beginning.
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Chinese Engine Development
- Thread starter jackbh
- Start date
It is highly doubtful that we would ever see WS-15 mounted on any Sino Flankers, given how it was designed exclusively with J-20 adaptation in mind since the beginning.
Understandable, given how we don't exactly expect that China will have more than 4 aircraft carriers by the end of this decade. Hence, there isn't really much of an urgent demand for WS-10Hs, simply because there aren't exactly many new empty spots on brand new Chinese aircraft carriers for the J-15s to fill in the foreserable future.
Besides, it's quite doubtful that anyone would (given the options) want to keep producing 4/4.5th-gen fighters going further into the 2030s and beyond, and it's only a matter of time before the J-15s are succeeded and replaced by newer models (the same goes for the F/A-18s across the lake). Therefore, it certainly makes less sense to keep pouring so much effort into developing WS-10H for the J-15s, especially when China's next-generation carrier-based warplanes (i.e. PLAN's counterpart to the USN's NGAD system?) could be just around the corner*.
(*By that I mean ~10-15 years from now)
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What are the exclusive J-20 features? As far as I know the WS-15 is China's new heavy-weight engine just the WS-19 is China's new medium weight engine.
Now, the WS-15 might never appear on the Sino-Flankers because new production of Flankers (along with the J-10) might be phased out before the WS-15 reaches a point in mass-production where it could supply more than just the J-20s.
But if J-15 or J-16 variants are needed in the future then I find it very unlikely that the WS-15 would not be adopted.
Engine dimensions is an issue.
It is a high speed high altitude optimized engine and the intake flow is different than that of a flanker’s for starters.
It is literally replacing the WS-10C in the J-20 production. I do not think that dimensions would be much of an issue.
I do not believe any frontline fighter engine is optimized for anything less. The intake flow is different now for the WS-10 currently serving on both the J-16 and J-20.
Missions in low speed and low altitude regimes, for say COIN, are better given to trainers with weaker engines if a fixed wing is desired. L-15 and KA-50 are pitched for this role.
I'm not convinced that the WS-15 is designed specifically for the J-20. China's experience with the WS-10 on the J-10, J-11, J-16, J-20 is that they can adopt an engine across all frontline aircraft needing that weight-class of engine.
Yes that's true but while the J-20 may be able to accommodate both WS-15 and WS-10 engine types due to more available space, it's possible that the J-11 and J-16 (and J-10 for that matter) can not accommodate WS-15.
The WS-15 is going to a revised J-20 model and not just being thrown into the older variants for a reason.