SinoSoldier
Colonel
Why is a WS-15-powered J-20 automatically a different version ("B")?
J-20 5th Generation Fighter VII
- Thread starter siegecrossbow
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In the case of war, China would not be taking the fight to the US. It would be the other way around. PLAN alone has about 120 Flankers (not just the J-15s on CV-16/17 of course) in total, which can easily match the F/A-18E/Fs deployed in the Pacific. Keep in mind that although the USN has maybe 550-600 fighters (with, as of now, probably no more than 30-40 of them being F-35s), only slightly over a third of them would be deployed to face China in case of war. Additionally, since the fighting is realistically going to be relatively near Chinese shores, the PLAAF can easily bring in hundreds of fighters (and other essential air assets) as reinforcements. On the other hand, it would be more difficult for USAF to bring in any significant reinforcements, with distance being one of the factors, and that is if the air bases they take off from don't get transformed into crater farms by conventional missiles within the first few hours of hostilities breaking out. So while I am not saying that the PLAAF/PLANAF would effortlessly and decisively crush the USN/USAF under their heels, but you are making it sound like China is completely helpless in this domain.
A new engine is probably part of a package including other changes.
Two more high-resolution images to kick off Monday.
Oh well ... when will we finally see some new images!?
by78
General
Oh well ... when will we finally see some new images!?
Not for a while, but it will be a nice surprise.
They haven't done so yet for any of the modern flanker variants or CAC's products. The USN has built more F-18s than the PLAAF has in entire modern fighters >4th gen. China's industrial scale elsewhere has not quite translated to the aerospace field. High tech fields aren't as easy to achieve scale and low costs and I know the PLA hasn't been militarising for as long as the Americans but so far there's just talk and rumours of expanding production lines. The US has always had insane output rates since the second world war. Just to put things in perspective there are already well over 500 F-35 units produced. Many are for other nations but that's the production rate China's needs to eventually match. If it were a race, the US isn't just in front of China (in terms of already built fighters) but traveling at a higher velocity and possibly still accelerating faster given new production facilities for the F-35.
lcloo
Captain
The production numbers is to meet the demand by the PLAAF and PLAN Aviation. There is no point to make more than the orders received. It is not like toy factories where you can keep finished stocks waiting for next order to come in.
Also, the military has an approved budget to spend, they can't order all they want in a year. Thus they have to spread the numbers of new planes over the years.
Then there is the question of sustaining production proficiency on the side of AVIC. Their main customer is PLAAF and PLAN, foreign customers are very small in overall orders received. In peace time, they cannot afford to have high volatile annual production rate as this will affect their employment of production engineers and technicians, so instead of making 500 planes this year and 100 next year which would make many employees redundant, they will try to maintain output rate at minimum volatility.
Comparing US plane manufacturers and AVIC is flawed because US plane makers have large pool of foreign customers, they have to meet the large orders received.
Also, the military has an approved budget to spend, they can't order all they want in a year. Thus they have to spread the numbers of new planes over the years.
Then there is the question of sustaining production proficiency on the side of AVIC. Their main customer is PLAAF and PLAN, foreign customers are very small in overall orders received. In peace time, they cannot afford to have high volatile annual production rate as this will affect their employment of production engineers and technicians, so instead of making 500 planes this year and 100 next year which would make many employees redundant, they will try to maintain output rate at minimum volatility.
Comparing US plane manufacturers and AVIC is flawed because US plane makers have large pool of foreign customers, they have to meet the large orders received.
November Zhuhai airshowOh well ... when will we finally see some new images!?
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