Xi’an*
J-35 carrier fighter (PLAN) thread
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
No they don't. SAC makes Flanker varients and FC-31. XAC makes H-6.
Signs point to 2021 being the year the J-35 (or whatever it gets called) sees the light of day. With the 003 carrier expected to be completed this year and a commissioning to follow, the PLA either needs to start pumping out more J-15s if the Flying Shark is indeed the chosen fighter to for the 003's air wing. Thing is it doesn't seem like we're seeing a forth batch of J-15s being produced to go alongside the KJ-600 which was revealed last year to start forming the 003's air wing. With that line of thinking, logic points to the introduction of a FC-31 derived strike fighter in the works, especially when considering how lengthy the initial operational test and evaluation process will likely take. Just my two cents anyway.
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You are talking about the need and ideal situation, we also know that China's engine situation has never been ideal. Is there anything tangible to tell where they actually are?
About the need, I don't see how 003 can be completed this year, I think it's still two years away from sea trial. Even by then, they can use J-15T to fill the trial gap. If J-35 is not ready, it's not ready and they'll just have to work around it.
I think J-35 is still on the drawing board and we need to be patient.
PiSigma
"the engineer"
If 2021 is indeed the year J-35 becomes public with a first flight, then compared it to the J20 reveal in 2011. Been 10 years since J20 reveal and assuming we got 50 J20, that would be enough for 1 003 carrier. In 10 years, for sure 003 would be debugged and operational. The question is, would 004 be ready as well?
If there are two carriers to equip, then there might be a production bottleneck with J35 production, if only need to equip 003, then should be no problem.
J35 is also supposed to be cheaper and lighter than J20, so maybe the production rate would be a bit faster as well.
If J-20 can run off ws-10s I don't see why J-XY can't
PiSigma
"the engineer"
The planes are not in the same weight class, 2 ws-10s would be overkill for j35
I think he means running off interim engines like the WS-13 similar to the WS-10/J-20 situation. As to your previous point, the J-20 was China's first stealth fighter and the J-XY has already been in the oven for quite some time as the FC-31, both of those factors indicate that rollout will be significantly faster than the J-20.
Merely basing my assessment of a 2021 maiden flight from what PLA watchers have been saying. To quote @Bltizo posted back in September:
Also based on @Deino tweets:
I don't think the PLAN completely throws the J-15 off the 003's air wing anyway, we'd probably see them mix it up like the USN currently does with their Super Hornets and F-35Cs. If I had to guess, the air wing would probably be composed of a single seat J-15 squadron (or whatever the PLAN nomenclature is), a two-seat J-15 squadron, a J-XY squadron, and a squadron (3-5 planes) of J-15Ds for EW. Anyways getting a bit off topic, but just to illustrate that we'd most likely see a mix of J-15s and J-XYs to answer the 003 strike fighter needs.