That's just not how this works, if you read my post you'd see that some systems might be specifically designed for VCE and quite literally be non functional without it. Cooling issue is not a trivial concern, look at the F-35 it's not even at original design specs with the latest upgrade due to F-135 being underspeced and had been facing constant thermal management issues. J-36 with WS-15 would face the same problem but 10 times worse. FYI the third bypass stream is what gives VCE such massive thermal management capability and it's non replaceable. Stuff isn't plug and play especially aircraft engines, look at how long integration with J-20A is taking. WS-15 is in production for nearly 2 years by now yet we still haven't seen confirmed sustained production of J-20A at CAC. Also, unless you haven't been listening to CAC's head engineers word. In his vision 6th generation is literally built on the electronics and advanced aerodynamics and stealth is only a small part of it. So basically you are suggesting to chuck out everything that actually makes this aircraft so advanced and have it enter service effectively as a empty shell. I'm not sure why some members here are so eager to rush J-36 into service even when it's not ready, at this point I feel like to some people one upping the Americans is more important than actually having a fully functional aircraft. If that's the case then we are no different than the Soviets and the Russians. I'm still very much onboard with letting development run it's course and have it enter serial production once it's ready.
We had this sort of discussion six months ago below. The paper uses a large twin-engine stealth fighter (presumably the J-20 with WS-10 or Ws-15 engines) as the reference point.
https://x.com/Hurin92/status/1874139288407072779 Thanks to Hurin's work. He listed some design details. If you want a complete version, please refer to the original paper. @siegecrossbow posted very important chat about J-36 chief designer.. if you actually read last few pages of this thread...
www.sinodefenceforum.com
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We're still looking at 400 KW of cooling capacity. So we can expect a J-36 (with 3 engines) to exceed the J-20 in terms of cooling capacity.
And think about AWACs such as the E-2, E-767 or E-737.
They use 2x 150KW electricity generators as standard
So there is enough electricity with WS-15 engines to function.
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And at higher supersonic speeds, the only way to get rid of waste heat is by dumping into it the fuel. A third airflow in the VCE is simply not available for cooling
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Sure, a VCE could add a lot more cooling and thermal management at subsonic speeds
But then, the worse case scenario with WS-15 engines is the radars refreshing the radar picture less frequently, or potentially tracking fewer targets.
But a J-36 equipped with WS-15 engines should still outperform the J-20 in terms of sustained electricity usage.
And the J-36 radars themselves are way bigger than on the J-20