The "5.5 generation" claim is also one of the rumors made by one of the Pakistani "big shrimps" on PDF.
But, how credible is this guy?
Here is the exact quote from this fellow:
Translation: "This year, the J-20A will have more profound changes and performance, and in the near future, will evolve into the world's only fourth (and a half) generation multirole fighter!"
Nobody has put forth any proposals that would honestly constitute what would be considered a quantum leap from 5 Gen to 5.5 Gen, so its likely semantics..... I mean when the J-20 actually gets the WS-15, possibly OVT, and more sensor fusion?? it would be good marketing to call that 5.5 or from Chinese perspective 4.5, as the J-20 itself will see a quantum leap in performance from the initial prototypes powered by the Russian AL-31FN's or even the WS-10s......
The above discussion about J-20 sub-sonic and super-sonic maneuverability, put forth by another poster, ignores the fact that if you have good to great subsonic and supersonic maneuverability, and outstanding thrust that the WS-15 would bring, and if the WS-15 also incorporates OVT, you are able to manage your energy and balance any trade offs by moving the throttles to the forward stops...
Awesome thrust, with thrust vectoring is a winner, and definitely improves super-sonic maneuverability as well,,, we have only to look at the F-22 to see what Dr. Song anticipated for the J-20, and Yang Wei has brought that vision forward into a very honest airplane, that has the potential to be an awesome airplane, but we shall see...... going forward.
I fully expect the Chinese to move the ball down the field, they are actively pushing the J-20 performance forward with each engineering change, the WS-15 is the most important of those changes that we have been told to expect....
