No neccesarily. It may be the end of new Flanker development before the arrival of J-13/14, but its not the end. Just as Su-27's purchaed in the early 1990's are soon about to be overhauled and upgraded with new engines nad possibly new avionics, 15-20 years from now similiar upgrades may be performed in the J-11B's being produced today. And who knows what kind of new technology that timeframe may yield.
J-10 vs J-11B
- Thread starter Londo Molari
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No neccesarily. It may be the end of new Flanker development before the arrival of J-13/14, but its not the end. Just as Su-27's purchaed in the early 1990's are soon about to be overhauled and upgraded with new engines nad possibly new avionics, 15-20 years from now similiar upgrades may be performed in the J-11B's being produced today. And who knows what kind of new technology that timeframe may yield.
Well what you said is normal periodical avionics upgrade during every fighter's lifetime. No major change in airframe, e.g. adding carnards, will be made in such upgrade. So I dare say what J-11B/BJ look like now is the ultimate form of Chinese Flankers.
Pointblank
Senior Member
Major structural work is also done throughout a fighter's lifetime. For example, with the Canadian Forces CF-18 IMP, the center fuselage barrel is being replaced in about half the upgraded jets due to structural fatigue. So in theory, they can be modified.
I am not sure if this plane can take off the Varyag without canards. Even with canards and an uprated engine, the Su-33 can barely takeoff with only A to A armament, and won't give you the payload to carry AshM armament. The naval J-11 will need some serious help, in addition to canards, probably TVC on uprated engines. In my opinion, going to the Russian route is better albeit more of a partnership where the Russians supply the airframe and engines, the Chinese will put their own radar and avionics.
Chengdu J-10
Junior Member
J-10 Lightweight multi-role fighter, J-11 Heveyweight multi-role fighter price is ABOUT the same but with J-10 being more cheap. J-11 more munition to lobby at the enemy, J-10 has less. Hardpoints both have 10, its not amount of hardpoint issue. MRAAM both equipped with SD-10, equivalent identical capability radar.
In the end its the purpose that you want the aircraft to perform, and base the design around those purposes. J-11 based around Su-27, wasnt from ground up pure Chinese built purpose aircraft nor was the J-10. The JH-7 was an aircraft built from ground up matching toe to toe the specific requirements of the PLAAF/PLANAF built purely for them.
As with concept of following US to some degree US did a hi-lo mix as in expensive-low cost mix. With China lets for argument sake take the J-11 as the expensive but the J-10 is not low cost (+$38 million/unit). With their mix its best intentions for them, as the people working their are the best. They arent people who sit on chairs and scratch their heads all day. (jokes)
In the end its the purpose that you want the aircraft to perform, and base the design around those purposes. J-11 based around Su-27, wasnt from ground up pure Chinese built purpose aircraft nor was the J-10. The JH-7 was an aircraft built from ground up matching toe to toe the specific requirements of the PLAAF/PLANAF built purely for them.
As with concept of following US to some degree US did a hi-lo mix as in expensive-low cost mix. With China lets for argument sake take the J-11 as the expensive but the J-10 is not low cost (+$38 million/unit). With their mix its best intentions for them, as the people working their are the best. They arent people who sit on chairs and scratch their heads all day. (jokes)
J-10 costs around $25 million (depending on the conversion rate), so it's actually quite cheap compared to a lot of the other fighters out there. J-11 on the other hand might be the $38 million that you mentionned.
Chengdu J-10
Junior Member
yeah conversion rate here is different to yours so its off in some peoples currency, this might not always be the case but J-11 also has another engine supplmenting the aircraft which jumps the price of unit up not to mention more materials used in construction/maintenance.
Indianfighter
Junior Member
Actually LCA costs an estimated $25 million and so maybe J-10 could cost more than that.
Maybe. But then the LCA uses an American engine, which will cost you more than a Russian engine, though Russian engines have seriously gone up in price due to their internal double digit inflation. The LCA also uses more composite than most planes including the J-10, so its construction may also be more expensive. The LCA looks like most of its skin is composite, while the J-10 seems only all the tail, part of the wings, control surfaces like canards, and ventral fins that are composite.
LCA with imported US engine, Isralie Radar, Russian Missile, plus large amount of composite and Less amount of production number, will probablely cost more than J10.
Actually, just check how much Indian gov has sanctioned for the first 20 LCAs, I remember it's close to 40Mil per plane. Of course, first batch is usually more expensive. But 25mil+ was quoted for the first batch of J10 as well.
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