J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII

[ZachL111]

I also believe the J-20 is off limits for export but with them buying the L-15 it indicates a fighter aircraft aqcuisition is on the table. With the PAF also preparing to buy the FC-31, I believe the UAE will eventually get the FC-31.

In short, J-20 unlikely FC-31 highly likely.

Oh yeah, a fighter acquisition is highly likely. I usually just call the J-XY the J-31 in reality, but it's been called a few things, including the J-35 (pretty sure just the navalized variant) and the FC-31 (which I am pretty sure is just the name for the prototype). With that out of the way though, I think they are just going to do the same thing the United States is doing, and what Russia intends to do, which is make a dedicated fighter for their forces, non export, and then make a fighter that is still useable in their forces, but export based as well.

The US obviously has the F-22 and F-35, Russia has the Su-57 (and E variant for exports) as well as the Su-75 being developed, and China has the J-20 and the J-31.

 

[Deino]

Yes Andreas 'mostly wrong' Rupprecht! In this case you are quite right...

Oh come on! shall we really start a competition on our credibility, how often I was „mostly wrong“ in comparison to your claims?

 

[Atomicfrog]

There are reports the UAE is interested to buy the J-20. How credible is that?

A lot of countries would be interested to buy the J-20, but whatever the interest is they cant and will not.

 

[defenceman]

Hi,
by the way how delicate it is to bring out J35 from the Naval role to
be a normal fighter jet for airforce, anyone having any info on it
thank you

 

[lcloo]

Hi,
by the way how delicate it is to bring out J35 from the Naval role to
be a normal fighter jet for airforce, anyone having any info on it
thank you

Give you a hint. Check up the development history of F-4 Phantom II jet. F-4 was originally designed for US Navy.

More recent example is F/A-18 Hornet which was also designed for US Navy, both F-4 and F/A-18 were adopted by a USAF (F-4 only) and other foreign air forces a few years after their induction into US Navy.

 

[Atomicfrog]

Hi,
by the way how delicate it is to bring out J35 from the Naval role to
be a normal fighter jet for airforce, anyone having any info on it
thank you

From naval to ground based aircraft there's more or less no modification needed. You need to life with a jet that have a bit more wieght because of reinforcements. They wanted to do a ground model of F-18 to save weight but was to costly, they just used the same airframe.

 

[gelgoog]

I think it is perfectly possible that China would export a nerfed version of the J-20 eventually. Maybe a J-20 with lower performance radar and WS-10 engines at a time they themselves use a higher performance radar and WS-15.

China has offered the J-8 for sale in the past. And that was their highest performance fighter back then. It is just that no one wanted it.
Their traditional clients don't have the budget for high end interceptor aircraft.

The main question is who would buy such expensive aircraft from China.

 

[Moonscape]

I think it is perfectly possible that China would export a nerfed version of the J-20 eventually. Maybe a J-20 with lower performance radar and WS-10 engines at a time they themselves use a higher performance radar and WS-15.

China has offered the J-8 for sale in the past. And that was their highest performance fighter back then. It is just that no one wanted it.
Their traditional clients don't have the budget for high end interceptor aircraft.

The main question is who would buy such expensive aircraft from China.

Right, that's really the problem for China's high-end arms exports. China's arms customers haven't had the same mind blowing economic growth that China has had, so most of the customers that were buying Mig-21 derivatives in the 1970s (J-7s) are still buying Mig-21 derivatives today (JL-9s) or similar (JL-10s) instead of upgrading to J-10s or better.

This ties into one of China's incentives for the Belt and Road initiative - it's worthwhile to help your trading partners get richer through infrastructure investment, because then they can afford to buy more of your stuff.

 

[Gloire_bb]

I think it is perfectly possible that China would export a nerfed version of the J-20 eventually. Maybe a J-20 with lower performance radar and WS-10 engines at a time they themselves use a higher performance radar and WS-15.

Such nerfs take time and are mostly pointless (what they do is redirect customers elsewhere).

All those Mig-23MLs or F-16-79s do little other than tarnish the reputation of the product.

Real harm to the national security happens when national stuff fall into unfriendly hands. Monkey models are a meh idea - either sell more or less the same (sans certain omissions, obviously), or create separate lines of export-only equipment.

 

[_killuminati_]

I think they are just going to do the same thing the United States is doing, and what Russia intends to do, which is make a dedicated fighter for their forces, non export, and then make a fighter that is still useable in their forces, but export based as well.

But F-22 isn't a dedicated fighter in USAF, even if it was originally intended to be. It barely saw any reasonable combat in any war, USAF cut down orders (original intent of 750 units became 186) and fixed a premature retirement schedule. Meanwhile, US continued to order more F-16s and F-15s - the very fighters the F-22 was intended to replace, which indicates a major insufficiency in the system. Maybe that is why it wasn't exported.