Everything we’ve heard from insider sources suggests the J-20 was designed with a gun in mind. It’s just not installed.
J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VI
- Thread starter siegecrossbow
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Source? Not questioning you, just want to read it myself.
If a strike oriented variant is coming up, having a gun for optional install would be needed. Perhaps it could be related to future twin seated J-20s.
MastanKhan
Junior Member
Hi,
I do not think a gun / cannon is needed for modern fighter aircraft---.
But those who think the aircraft does need it---could anyone create a scenario---a realistic scenario at that where the 5th gen or a 4.5 gen aircraft can use it successfully without endangering itself---.
I do not think a gun / cannon is needed for modern fighter aircraft---.
But those who think the aircraft does need it---could anyone create a scenario---a realistic scenario at that where the 5th gen or a 4.5 gen aircraft can use it successfully without endangering itself---.
I think the last time this was mentioned was with something from Yankeesama. I would do a search with his name and some key terms, because there’s no way in heck I’m digging up years old posts with how busy my schedule has been...
It makes no sense to stick a gun into a strike version but not a dogfighter version. Using a stealth fighter to do strafing runs on ground forces would be a total waste of the platform, and for effective air to air gun fights you need to have great maneuverability. I’m not even sure you’d want to use an unstable design like the J-20 for any low altitude ground attacks. Remember they did a low altitude parade flight in the desert one or two years ago and a pilot mentioned just how hard it was to keep the plane still in those conditions. You’re not sharpshooting a tank at low altitude if those are your flight characteristics.
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PiSigma
"the engineer"
Actually, everything I hear from my inside source is there will be no gun.
Clashing sources ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Though I suppose the source I’m remember specifically said a gun was tested. They might have just decided to not follow through.
I guess we’ll see?
PiSigma
"the engineer"
My source is the guy that designed the plane from the get-go....
I’m not saying yours is invalid. I’m just trying to reconcile what we’ve heard.
I remember J-20 chief designer Yang Wei once said, it will be foolish for any 4th gen fighter to do a dogfight, when he was been asked about this particular gun/no gun question in an interview
Understandable, let’s just see whether those sources pan out later.
Guns for anti ground work have been proven to be useful, as long as air superiority is achieved.
US was experimenting with making a strike version of F-22 to replace their A-10. Both A-10 and Q-5 are outdated in today’s strike environment and have low survivability.
I’m not a pilot, but I don’t think being too maneuverable would necessarily hurt aiming at ground targets. The plane should be able to lock itself into a less sensitive control mode just before strafing to help the pilot line up the shot.
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