J-12/13/14 enigma

Just a thought, but if China's next generation stealthy fighters were anywhere near flying, wouldn't we have seen folding fin versions of the PL-8 or similar next generation WVR missiles being touted at industry meets? The PL-8 with its compariatively large wingspan just isn't suited to internal carriage, at least not if you want to maximise space.

Even if planes are ready to start taxiing tests and flying anytime soon, its still a long time from that to weapons certification.

That being said, there is no way od knowing if there are nex get weapons worked on in secret, just like jxx is worked on in secret so far.

Anyway, yeah, i agree that smaller wingspan AAMs are a must for any kind of internal carriage. pl8 is absolutely huge, and pl12 is big as well... I would imagine clipped wings a la amraam C rather than folding wings to be the way to go. We shall see. In some 10 years time.

Airshow models of future missiles tend to appear years before introduction. The F-22 carries the older Sidewinders so I suppose PL-8 is possible for an equivilent fighter, but I would expect to see something akin to the ASRAAM or AIM-9X for the J-12~13~14