Chengdu next gen combat aircraft (?J-36) thread

[Biscuits]

Hegemonial leadership isn't the goal of the H-20. A strategic bomber like the H-20 is for destroying or disabling the enemy's strategic-level C2, resources, military chokepoints like Diego Garcia or Midway military bases, and dual-use economic points of interests like dry docks and aircraft assembly lines. The 6th gen fighter is primarily and most likely a tactical fighter that will kill the most advanced aircraft the enemy can field, tactical level awacs, and etc. It may even have the capacity to destroy ground targets on the operational level, but not the strategic ones.

There can however be a real question of what a H-20 conceived in its original incarnation actually provides now.

Arguably:

- H-20 loses in survivability and penetration ability compared to J-XC.

- H-20 loses in volume fire to swarms of MALE and missile spam.

That leaves it with little niches.

Imho it would make sense to go back to evaluation stage with H-20. I think the bomber force China actually misses isn't a flying wing bomber but a stealthy version of the B-1.

Something that can keep pace with the 6th gens, zoom in mostly unseen, dump a ton of missiles and get out.

 

[_killuminati_]

But what does the USA gain by telling everyone that the US military is falling behind?

Increase defense budget.

The statements come from the MIC and affiliates, not the government.

________

Size comparison with J-20

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1872203775726989487

 

[henrik]

I expect that in confidential briefings to Congress, Chinese 6th gen aircraft programmes would be mentioned.

But let's suppose the US intel agencies had reported on the J-36 a few weeks ago, in order to appear "less clueless"

I expect there a lot of international debates and negotiations ongoing

The result would be a shift towards China and against the US.

International debates and negotiations among which countries?

 

[subotai1]

Has anyone commented on how thick the fuselage is? Look at the first photo and see how much fuselage is sitting above the wing line, then look at the second photo and see how much is sitting below the wing line. Surely the weapons bay could be very deep, or it is carrying a fckton of fuel or ECM equipment or something.

I would not be surprised if this designed is optimized for a number of different functions and was looking at that thickness as well. I could see aerial refueling being one of those but don't want to downplay how much space ductwork and its own fuel requires with three engines.

 

[Overbom]

Has anyone commented on how thick the fuselage is? Look at the first photo and see how much fuselage is sitting above the wing line, then look at the second photo and see how much is sitting below the wing line. Surely the weapons bay could be very deep, or it is carrying a fckton of fuel or ECM equipment or something.

Could very well be fuel. 3 engines and a rumoured 3000km combat range would need lot of fuel.

Need a good overall view of the aircraft to start making calculations about volume though

 

[siegecrossbow]

Don’t forget system redundancies. The J-20 is designed to survive getting heavily damaged within first island chain (like losing an engine bad) and being able to limp back to the base or loss of primary flight computer. I’d image that they upped the requirements for J-XD.

 

[AndrewS]

International debates and negotiations among which countries?

There's always negotiations and politicking ongoing.

Just imagine what happens at the United Nations every single day.

Or how closely should Japan follow US policy on semiconductor sanctions on China?

Or should Saudi Arabia continue to seek a US security guarantee, if the US military can be defeated in the Persian Gulf which is also 3000km from China?

Getting off-topic now, but you get the idea

 

[siegecrossbow]

Here’s Johnny!

 

[2=GT]

Just a quick suggestion there will be more coming in short future and it is not gonna be CAC or SAC, it will be a Chinese Advanced version of F/B-22 fron Xi'an so we may need another thread

There's some activity around XAC suggesting "first flight" of something. Maybe H-6O max pro++

 

[tphuang]

Btw @Jason_ made some calculations earlier
View attachment 141707

this is just a humongous aircraft. Those are some large wings that can hold a whole lot of fuel + just all that space in the fuselage.

Looks to be seriously optimized for top cruising speed. I think Shilao people said something about mach 3.0 cruising with next generation engine. I would not be surprised.