J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
How do you even know if its the engine ? Cant tell much from that videos.
WS-10C have that very obvious silver collar that would've been visible easily even at low res, also a much shorter nozzle.
Latest Chahuahui Update:
During recent exercises, the J-20 has been granted authority to call in PLA Rocket Force strikes against enemy radars and surface-to-air missile sites.
In one exercise, a J-20 was locked and ruled as "shot down" by a FN-6 (old version) MANPADS group while attempting to penetrate through a mountain valley along the edge of an enemy ground-based air defense envelope.
During recent exercises, the J-20 has been granted authority to call in PLA Rocket Force strikes against enemy radars and surface-to-air missile sites.
In one exercise, a J-20 was locked and ruled as "shot down" by a FN-6 (old version) MANPADS group while attempting to penetrate through a mountain valley along the edge of an enemy ground-based air defense envelope.
They probably shouldn’t be using stealth fighters for mountain air patrols tbh. America also learning this the hard way in Iran.
Probably a good thing to do such exercises to verify their feasibility (or lack thereof)
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Giving pilots in the air the authority (and more importantly, the organizational structure) to call in fires from PLARF speaks to a high level of jointness being pushed down.
So the J-20 is probably using it's optics and low radar observability to do recon on valuable enemy ground targets and call strikes on them while remain undisclosed itself.
Sounds like a possible use for Taiwan/Japan scenario or even carriers that ventured too close. Also removes the limitation of J-20 not able to carry anti-ground munition without going beast mode and therefore compromise stealth.
Sounds like a possible use for Taiwan/Japan scenario or even carriers that ventured too close. Also removes the limitation of J-20 not able to carry anti-ground munition without going beast mode and therefore compromise stealth.
Interesting it took this long - probably overflow of primary a2a mission focus.
LO+distributed targeting grade rwr is a powerful asset. On current genertion it's perhaps too early to expect EODAS to AI things out, but on J-20A/35 (second generation EODAS) it may be more feasible.
America got 1(one) F-35 damaged, by a nation that actually produces manpads(unlike, say, India). This is a nothingburger.
Terrain still absolutely screws over ground long-range detection assets, and as much as it adds vulnerability, it also breaks engagement loops for GBADs.
Sensor capability is probably not a limiting factor here -- whether it's RWR, or the EODAS or the chin EOIRST, or the radar having a SAR mode (or a combination thereof), all of those things probably should have been established capabilities for many years.
What probably is more of a limiting factor is getting an aircraft (especially a high end air superiority VLO aircraft that until the last few years was a limited quantity, high demand asset), to have the role and the organizational pathway to handover such data to a PLARF asset to conduct a strike.
Even if it is just a J-20 confirming the target and passing on the target coordinates, that information still needs to go up the air force pathway to the the air force element of the joint command post in the relevant "theater command" and then have the target and strike deconflicted with the rest of the joint force, then handed over to the PLARF element of the joint command post, who then delegates the strike to the relevant PLARF unit who prosecutes the mission. And possibly the J-20 does the BDA (or another asset does it).
And of course all of that would have to be done in a somewhat timely manner.
I imagine in the past, against less well defended target other manned fighter aircraft could also do that (and standoff ISR aircraft of course would have that mission as part of their job description), but if a VLO fighter can get closer to a more well defended target (holding all else equal), it makes sense to start giving that mission set to J-20s as well now that there are enough of them to be able to "spare" in that role depending on the contingency.
If J-20 can do this role then it is expected they might hand this capability to loyal wingmen or unmanned combat vehicles. So J-20 rather than risking itself can direct one of the wingmen to do the work, and maybe even engaging in the higher-risk low altitude work that saw one J-20 'shot-down' in the exercise example.