Are these AESA equipped J15’s, there is no pitot tube on the nose cone and the aircraft on the right with it’s nose cone lifted up look like it has a canted radar array.Yeah me too get well soon Seldom seen J 15 assembly line. Look line 2 line side by side any comment?
How many lines are there altogether ? Yup they are pumping out this beauty. Guess J 15 has to wait
But this building is brand new J 15 assembly line look like an old plant
China Flanker Thread II
- Thread starter sumdud
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Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Supposed to be J 16 assembly line and not J 15
What's your source for being either at or for Qiqihar? Oedosoldier states they were taken at SAC.
A lot of experienced watchers are saying NTC is getting their first J-16 brigade and 被遗忘的老班长 is saying it's Qiqihar.
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When did J-16 serial production start? Was it right after J-11B? Last truly confirmed squadron of J-11B was spotted in 2014, I believe. Before that, J-11B was produced at such pace that roughly 24 planes were made per year. If production of J-16 could have gotten to such levels with just one year of hiatus (of smaller batch production) then by end of 2018 we should have something like 80+ planes produced. Of course, various people threw around numbers of 100 or so, but I am not sure what logic they used to get to such figures.
Certainly, SAC did expand their facilities during said timeframe. And J-15s were produced as well. And third batch of J-16 was seen with numbers of 30+ planes. But then again, we don't know if batch equals a year. Certainly with J-10 it doesn't seem to be the case. Anyway, with all these brigades rumored to be operating J-16 it would seem that 24 J-16 per year is plausible estimate, even if very rough. This Qiqihar rumor puts the J-16 at 4 different units, in addition to test and training ones. Of course, they may be sharing the unit crew and pilots with older flankers, so maybe just 12 or so planes in some units are J-16. So in reality, anything from 60-100 operational J-16 is also plausible.
Certainly, SAC did expand their facilities during said timeframe. And J-15s were produced as well. And third batch of J-16 was seen with numbers of 30+ planes. But then again, we don't know if batch equals a year. Certainly with J-10 it doesn't seem to be the case. Anyway, with all these brigades rumored to be operating J-16 it would seem that 24 J-16 per year is plausible estimate, even if very rough. This Qiqihar rumor puts the J-16 at 4 different units, in addition to test and training ones. Of course, they may be sharing the unit crew and pilots with older flankers, so maybe just 12 or so planes in some units are J-16. So in reality, anything from 60-100 operational J-16 is also plausible.
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Thanks a lot, exactly what I was asking for.
FriedRiceNSpice
Captain
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I think operational and logistical costs and complexities from operating so many different platforms and engines. Not only would you need more different production lines and supply chains, you also need more different maintenance and logistics resources. At least the J-10 and J-16 can share a common engine in the future. It's kind of the motivation for why the US developed the F-35 with the goal of reducing the number of different airframes across the three services, but in that case they might have went overboard and ran into different complexities and added costs due to trying to have one design capable of performing so many different roles across the services.
Do we know that for sure? Maybe it's interest is not openly discussed in the public?
SinoSoldier
Colonel
Hopefully the appearance of the FC-31 at this year's Zhuhai airshow might yield some clues.
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