J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
AI Slop.
Late J20s should be able to use the same radars, no? J20A is probably just better optimized but nothing game changing.
J-20A is probably not just "better optimized" but likely has a whole new avionics suite, probably with better architecture and software, and may have some structural changes to accommodate those new subsystems as well, not to mention improve power and thermal management systems to support those avionics.
It's possible late batch vanilla J-20s may have had some J-20A upgrades rolled into them, but probably only select bits that did not require significant redesign.
Between J-20A and J-20, it is better to view J-20A as closer to "game changing" rather than "just better optimized".
Tangential question: as far as we know (or can speculate), what kind of trade offs were made between the J-20A & J-20S? Would the latter have less powerful sensors due to the need to support a co-pilot & the associated drone control/communications equipment?
Just usual twin seat differences I personally suspect.
J-20A in the past has been described as a single seat version of J-20S after all.
I expect the relative advantages of J-20S in doing command/drone control relative to J-20A is more dependent on having a second human in the aircraft rather than hardware or software differences (which I suspect there to be few differences save for the cockpit for the rear crew member)
Keep in mind the usual weight and kinematic penalties.
Yeah, that's what I include/consider in the "usual twin seat differences"
Yes, think of J-10A to J-10C in the upgraded architecture. I'd imagine we are looking at the same here. And I would agree with @Blitzo referring to it as "game changing". A lot of the future aircraft upgrade will be in areas that we really can't visibly see from outside.
A lot of these upgrade problems ultimately comes down to power consumption of electronics. 300kw main radar already strains WS10C2 and can only be fully supplied by WS15 which has a brand new design with electricity supply in consideration. The bland J20 with WS10C won't have enough electricity to run these new power components. Just like F35 is struggling with a mere 85kw APG85 radar.