A small correction to my previous claims. If we stick with 40 cm maximum pacagable width of PL-15 missile, then 3 of such missiles, staggered, would take 1002mm in width, without any clearance. As well as 4300mm required for length, without any clearance.
Clearance observed in these recent images is 17 cm rear of the missile (missile end to rear wall of the bay) and 30-ish cm to the front wall of the bay.
Of course, clearance when packing 3 may be less. Much more so, to mere few cm. As is observed in F-22.
I measured F-22's bay and missiles. 3 amraams packed so their surfaces are touching, with no clearance, take 855mm in length and 4001mm in length. From what I can tell, they're packed in F-22 so so their fins aren't completely one in front of the others. Using same method as with J-20 to measure bay width, i get 1003mm wide bays (which may be wider than useful width but it's more fair since same method was used for J-20.
So 1003 minues 855 is 148mm. There are four points of clearance needed. For average clearance need of 37mm. As said, staggering is done so package length is less than 4001mm, but width is greater then. Still 2-3 cm of clearance per point is pretty much guaranteed.
Using the same 2-3 cm of clearance needed, four points of clearance needed would suggest 8-12 cm in total. To be added to 1002mm width needed by the 3-missile-package. For a total of 1010 to 1014 mm. Which is over the the width of the whole bay.
I am not saying 3 missiles can't possibly fit. There are a few caveats. Photo measurements can't be that precise. MM precision is out of the question, no matter if i use MM in my calcuations here. Error margin may be to a few cm. Which is actually inside the possible need to cram 3 missiles.
So why show 2 missiles in the unlikely case it can store 3? Perhaps it's maskirovka. Though, showing the belly with missiles inside it is counterproductive to such endavour, as it makes it easier for foreign services to asses the situation. Perhaps it's really elaborate maskirovka, though. With custom made dummy missiles for this occasion, with missiles made just a few cm larger than needed.
There's one issue that baffles me. PLAAF has the pl-12, which they're pretty happy with for most of their planes. They decide to make pl-15, but they retain the pl-12 body dimensions! (logistics issues ?) They make the fins slightly smaller though. Why even bother to make the fins smaller? When Amraam had its fins cut, it was done specifically for F-22 carriage. But for PLAAF, even though fins are changed, the missile still seems to be slightly too big. If it was too big by 10 cm, then fine. But it's too big only by a small, small fraction. So logic would dictate that the fin redesign MIGHT indeed have been made so missiles can fit inside j-20. Which would point towards photo measurement errors. Fins may have been made smaller for other reasons though. Perhaps the missile operates at higher speeds than pl-12. If so, smaller fins could make sense, providing similar performance. There's too many possibilities available, sadly.
Still, if i needed to asses the likelihood of outcome for the whole 2 or 3 missile deal, here's my opinion:
Chances of J-20 carrying 3 pl-12 per bay: Zero.
Chances of J-20 carrying 3 pl-15 variant with foldable wings: Almost non-existant. No one really does that.
Chances of J-20 carrying 3 pl-15 per bay: Small. As photo measurement could be wrong and logic of pl-15 variant even existing points to that possibility.
Chances of J-20 carrying 3 pl-xy per bay, hypothetical missiles tailor made for 3 pack: Small. Same as above.
Chances of J-20 carrying 2 pl-15 per bay and not carrying more within the next 10 years of service: over 50%.
Yankee confirmed that although the J-20 currently does not have a gun for reasons of weight and potential scorching damage to stealth coating, there is a spot reserved for a gun. He also confirmed that the current J-20 also uses a domestically thrust-enhanced AL-31s.
Who is that Yankee guy talking about gun? What's his history of posting like, his previous credibility?
J-20 is almost certainly not using 1980s variant thrust level AL-31. It's using anything from FM1 variant thrust FM2 variant thrust. so possibly up to 140 kn.
could there be further domestic enhanced variant of AL-31? Possible. If that Yankee guy has great track record, maybe it really was done. Usually trading engine life for thrust can easily be made, as producers basically derate their engines from the max possible thrust by some small amount to maintain service life and then market the derated figure as the max figure. Whether that's fiscally or operationally wise, that's another matter.
If other rumours are to be believed after all the J-20 *can* already mount 6 PL-12s.
Given that PL-12 has basically the same body (length/diameter) as PL-15, but with longer span fins and wings, it is basically impossible for J-20 to carry 3 pl-12 missiles.
No cases here, su-57 carries 4+2, as does j-20. It isn't about pure volume, it is about suspension points.
Accidentally, it mimics typical 4th gen air superiority low drag load out...
I couldn't find any images (that weren't PS) of Su-57 with open bay. Do you have any? My claim was based on *potential* width and length, certainly. One that is assumed from the outer lines of the bomb bay doors. And one that is based on R-77-1, a smaller missile than PL-15. Suspension points were assumed to be arranged whichever way needed to maximize use of space. Anyway, the jury is still very much out on Su-57 until we get some actual images of its weapon bay. Preferably ones with R-77-1 missiles inside it.