J-35 carrier fighter (PLAN) thread
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
J-XY/35 made its first flight in October 2021, only nearly two years ago.
Everything is progressing about as expected for a PLA funded project like this.
It does seem that we saw a lot more of J-20, in the same period, after its initial reveal!
J20 from CAC is actually an exception to what Chinese MIC normally do in terms of information transparency, or lack of transparency to be precise.
J35 from SAC belongs to the normal category.
I totally agree and the lack of images and confirmed milestones should not be rated as "no progress" at all, but I must admit I indeed expected more and especially more prototypes to speed up development. So maybe there are indeed more and we simply don't know ...
It is J-20 development which was extremely fast actually. J-35 development has proceeded at a pretty steady clip. I wouldn't call it slow either. Would not be surprised if it was ready when the 3rd carrier enters service. Although the original plan was likely to put the J-15T in it.
I'd like to remind everyone that:
1. J-XY/35's "start date" for measuring its "progress" should be October 2021
2. The amount of pictures we get of ANY project by the PLA, is not always (in fact rarely) a reflection of week to week, or month to month progress of a given project.
3. SAC has a history of being more secretive and difficult to photograph than CAC.
Given all of the above, I advise anyone wondering about "why are we seeing J-XY/35 less" or "is the progress of J-XY/35 slower/less further along etc" to carefully consider if their question cannot first be reasonably explained by any of the above three factors.
1. J-XY/35's "start date" for measuring its "progress" should be October 2021
2. The amount of pictures we get of ANY project by the PLA, is not always (in fact rarely) a reflection of week to week, or month to month progress of a given project.
3. SAC has a history of being more secretive and difficult to photograph than CAC.
Given all of the above, I advise anyone wondering about "why are we seeing J-XY/35 less" or "is the progress of J-XY/35 slower/less further along etc" to carefully consider if their question cannot first be reasonably explained by any of the above three factors.
A J-16 spotted accompanying a J-35 in-flight. Posted by @太湖军I名 on Weibo.
In video format:
Screenshot from the video:
On the other hand, it has been alleged by @Oneninety on Weibo sometime ago that one J-20 and one J-35 have been spotted flying together on at least one occasion.
In video format:
Screenshot from the video:
On the other hand, it has been alleged by @Oneninety on Weibo sometime ago that one J-20 and one J-35 have been spotted flying together on at least one occasion.
Last edited:
Just saw a couple comments in a quoted post, claiming that this is actually the PLAAF variant (i.e. J-31) instead of the PLAN variant (i.e. J-35)???
Further information verification is required.
If this plane has been proven to be the J-31 instead of the J-35, kindly move this post and the above post of mine to the relevant thread.
(Edit: Clarification - The original post of the video by @太湖军I名 was quote-shared by @Oneninety. The "the plane is a J-31, not J-35" claim is made by some others in the comment section of @Oneninety's post. Not by @Oneninety himself.)
Last edited:
IMO difficult to say, at least the FC-31/J-35 in front is grey, so it's unlikely the first demonstrator FC-31V1
