Chinese UCAV/CCA/flying wing drones (ISR, A2A, A2G) thread
- Thread starter VESSEL
- Start date
Middle circle is IMO a phased array comms antenna. The panel on the J-20 is in a similar position too. Extrapolating on that, if we don't end up seeing similar antennae on the caret type maybe that indicates that its supposed to operate more independently than the DSI one?May be reading too much into it though.
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I think it you may be overexposed to too many idiots on Twitter whose opinions are not worth anything (and there are a few people on this forum who sometimes are overeager and too casual as well).
But for the people whose opinions actually matter, I don't think many people believe "in service" means "everything is FOC," so imo you're preaching to the choir here.
Revisiting our teapot & teacup analogy, I believe the J-36 and J-XDS manned components will act as the teapots while the Unmanned Air Dominance Fighters (UADFs) will be the teacups. I speculate that each teapot will carry 6 to 8 teacups in formation, and like the prior poster, one will be reconnaissance/sensor specialized while the other will carry the armaments.
Both UADFs have internal weapons bays that appear to have enough space to carry 4x PL-15 sized missiles. They don't look large enough for 6x PL-16s even assuming PL-16s are thinner than PL-15s and have folding wings. Still that is a A2A magazine depth that matches the F-35.
The lambda winged, smaller UADF looks like it is mach 2+ capable otherwise they would simply have designed it with a DSI intake. The larger UADF probably can't get to mach 2 anyway so they've given it DSI. DSI is stealthier than caret intake so why give the lambda winged UADF caret intakes if it isn't going above mach 2? The stealthier one might be more optimised for forward deployment and provide sensor and guidance but it also would have larger bays than lambda. Why not just let it shoot too then. So I doubt they are specialised into ISR and the other for weapons. Both are weapons and since lambda might have folding wings, it could be for PLANAF and carrier capable. Navy wants it to go faster hence carets.
I listened to Yankeesama’s podcast from yesterday and they said that the air dominance drones were kept under wraps because they were real aircraft, not models.
I've been going through footage of equipments coming out from the parade, these drones do not seem to take the same route as everything else. Noone seems to have any photograph of them post parade.
Not unlikely that they flew back under own power.
Do we know where that staging area with the 4 hangars / shelters was? The place where we got sneak pictures of some of them, the day before the parade.
It could be nearby and maybe they were driven directly there?