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

[AndrewS]

A few manned aircraft will die pretty fast against large swarms of unmanned, that's true.
But imagine how fast you'd die against a lot of 6th gen manned PLUS a large swarm of unmanned.

Americans just love their false dichotomy don't they, poor people mindset.

Consider how a J-36 could be used with drones against targets 3000km away.

1. Kratos Valkyrie drones with a 4000km range only cost about $4 Mn.
They could have a primary role carrying AAMs, but once depleted, be used as land-attack missiles against soft targets on Guam.

2. Piston-engine cruise missiles with a 3000km range would likely be less than $50K

And in the background, you have a J-36 directing operations.

 

[Kejora]

Another point why I think this aircraft has morphing control surfaces. Look at the way the split rudders bend compared to B-2's split rudders:

 

[Ringsword]

Is it possible the "large aperture optical sensors" on the sides are actually a directed energy weapon? If I recall, that was one of the proposed features for a 6th gen plane.

No cannon ..but a laser/partcle beam weapon-I know I am dreaming but-I am soooooo happy otherwise

 

[jerometa]

Confucius say… Treat American like Reagan did to Soviet Union. Make them spend money to catch-up and they go bankrupt.

He says it didn’t look like it was going to be maneuverable unless they’re going to have TVC. Doesn’t the NGAD have the same problem? I haven’t read if it we’re going to have it or not.

Many 6th-generation fighter design concepts emphasize stealth, speed, and advanced sensors. These designs often feature blended wing-body configurations or other features that can reduce aerodynamic control effectiveness. Therefore, TVC is often seen as a crucial technology for maintaining maneuverability in these aircraft. I think it's likely that the Chengdu program incorporates advanced control technologies to ensure sufficient maneuverability.

 

[horse]

Consider how a J-36 could be used with drones against targets 3000km away.

1. Kratos Valkyrie drones with a 4000km range only cost about $4 Mn.
They could have a primary role carrying AAMs, but once depleted, be used as land-attack missiles against soft targets on Guam.

2. Piston-engine cruise missiles with a 3000km range would likely be less than $50K

And in the background, you have a J-36 directing operations.

Yeah, exactly eh? Could not agree more.

Who needs bombers.

Just use this thing with drones.

 

[Biscuits]

This IS the PLA's/CMC's middle finger to the recent US's recent DoD "Report on Chinese Military Power-where it cited how China could even be better and more efficient "if the rampant corruption and inefficiencies weren't holding Chinese military development back so much" or to that effect.HAHAHA

Well from the start we know that corruption is negligible in the PLA community, even more so after Xi.

But I was inclined to believe that a low overall military budget limited China, because sadly in the last years, the pace of growth wasn't accelerating much. DDGs are not built that fast, there isn't much mass recruitment, not much news on subs or new CVs etc. I was even inclined to think that the current budget would really plateau out in capability around 2027, so it is necessary to take action *soon* if US would grow its military even faster in the next decade.

But it turns out that the pace of the PLA was maybe just limited because at least the airforce has an unprecedented amount of dark projects ongoing, which were hidden until the last moment and are coming to fruition in the upcoming years. So I don't know what to think anymore.

 

[Ringsword]

One detail I find very interesting is they used a J-20S as the chase aircraft.
Of course its practical, and symbolic in term of generational progression.

But another symbolic interpretation is J-20S is the world's first and only 2-seat 5th gen / CCA command platform.
Using it as the chase plane in a way tells Americans that all their cope about using CCA as 6th gen is cute.

Lived to see the day China will use its OWN advanced 5th Gen /J20s as a chase /tech monitor plane for its 2 6th Gen aircrafts -remembering when China talked about the developing the J8II "Peace Pearl" program with the USA and gnashing my teeth.Now I know a little bit how the retired PLAN admiral feels as he wept on CCTV interview seeing how far PLAN has progressed since humiliatingly putting tanks on ships during the 1996 Taiwan crisis for firepower.

 

[ougoah]

Some American bureaucrat saw their ngad iteration list and thought wow we doing century series level mass development. In reality all they probably have were some computed models running basic fluid tests.

Guess what nafo. Chinese teams were doing that in the early 2010s as soon as 2001 prototype was airborne. Doesn't mean much. Prototypes, flying prototypes is where it's at. What the US has in ngad form seems to be (by their own hints suggestions and admissions) be at iteration and evaluation of concept design phase with a few (they suggest three) concepts that moved to tech demonstrators (not prototypes... They use demonstrators as terminology), before claiming none of those were satisfactory for what they want out of their next generation manned fighter.

China did all that half a decade ago if not more. China's next gen manned fighter programs have long completed concept design and iterations.

 

[iewgnem]

Note that the center engine exhaust is different. It is possible that the side engines have TVC in vertical plane while the center one does not.

Also, having read the last many pages, people need to re-read Art of War: "Appear weak when strong, & strong when weak". Less said, the better.

Art of War contains a lot of things, Americans love this line the most because it helps them cope

 

[iewgnem]

For the “just a demonstrator aircraft” deniers, the hard truth is that PLAAF could have conducted the test flight at some random Northwest military airfield and guaranteed that the public wouldn't be able to get any pictures of it at all, and indeed they did.

As long as the aircraft is test-flown at CAC or SAC, it means that the overall design has been completed, and the only thing left to do is to continue to optimize and test-fly it until it becomes a mature product, which is why the aircraft needs to be at CAC or SAC, it needs to be constantly modified and optimized between the plant & runway, which cannot be done at a military base.

Not "could have", definately have, you simply dont first flight something with exotic control surfaces, no tail and of this size over a city of 20 million people in daylight without already flight tested control laws on other testbed and demostrators

I see this as more of a formal prototype flight test starting cerimony than first test flight of the program