J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII

[Ali Qizilbash]

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.

Theoratically the acquisition and targeting process and authorizations should be is as, as these are described in your post. I wonder what role can AI play in reducing these steps? If you can hypothically shed light on this acpect, considering the ongoing US-Iran war?

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

The new J-20A prototype with #2057. The engines look to be WS-10C2. Posted by @Deino on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2039581146934395339

 

[Tomboy]

A new J-20A prototype with #2057. The engines look to be WS-10C2. Posted by @Deino on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2039581146934395339

It's one of the preproduction prototypes seen as far back as late 2024

 

[Deino]

The new J-20A prototype with #2057. The engines look to be WS-10C2. Posted by @Deino on Twitter.

View attachment 172795

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2039581146934395339

It is in fact not news, no. 2057 is known since April 2024



I only posted this since I saw this tweet:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2039581146934395339

 

[MeiouHades]

All this talk of engines but I'm wondering if we've ever gotten any info whatsoever on how the J-20's avionics stack up

 

[Blitzo]

All this talk of engines but I'm wondering if we've ever gotten any info whatsoever on how the J-20's avionics stack up

What sort of information would you consider as "info" on how its "avionics stack up"?

Keeping in mind that avionics are a pretty broad term, and that specifications and relative performance for major mission systems for most air forces are kept very close to the chest (and of course even more so in the PLA and especially for a relatively contemporary fighter type) so I hope your expectations are calibrated appropriately when asking the question to begin with.

 

[douglaxd]

All this talk of engines but I'm wondering if we've ever gotten any info whatsoever on how the J-20's avionics stack up

Trying to find any real information on the avionics suite of any modern Chinese fighter besides J-10C is a lost cause.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Trying to find any real information on the avionics suite of any modern Chinese fighter besides J-10C is a lost cause.

On the other hand you can interpolate based on what J-10C has. J-20’s avionics/radar are superior to what’s available on export variant of j-10.

 

[Atomicfrog]

All this talk of engines but I'm wondering if we've ever gotten any info whatsoever on how the J-20's avionics stack up

The leaps in electronics in the past 20 years means that any technology is a league above anything fielded 5 years before... China is nearly alone in designing new top end fighters in the past 20 years and the J-20a has just hatched. It would therefor be more appropriate to look up at them and imagine the gap they have created.

I thing that comparing is futile but even more in that area. Stacking up with what ?

F-15EX is probably the latest complete suite of fighter electronics from the US side and before that the F-35 who continue to try to be in spec with his initial design criteria circa 2006. Maybe they have tried to bite 10 years in the future with their initial design of the f-35 but that bite is right now 10 years in the past and not even functioning at the desired level.

 

[douglaxd]

On the other hand you can interpolate based on what J-10C has. I-20’s avionics/radar are superior to what’s available on export variant of j-10.

This is true, but still, all we know about J-10C is what you'd expect from an F-16V standard workhorse, except there's even less information available. There's still far less concrete information on Chinese fighters compared to Russian/Western fighters, even the designations of things like radars are not known, and this still mostly applies to J-10C/CE, which makes it difficult to interpolate with all those degrees of separation between the J-10C/CE and other PLAAF fighters.