maglomanic said:
The ubove article seems to be saying that stealthy version will fly in 2006. Tphuang posted a piece of interview with Yang Wei the J-10 cheif engineer who suggested the time to be 5 years.
Anyone comments???
actually, there is a difference between the two, there are possibly 2 or 3 different types of planes coming out of CAC in the coming years:
1. J-10 modified (but still single engined) with reduced RCS more composites, better avionics, AESA radar and ability to fire the newest Chinese missiles.
2. a twin engined version of J-10 that has and might be naval. So, I guess it won't be J-10 any more, but a lot of design based on J-10. More likely using two WS-13 engines.
3. a twin engined stealthy design that takes experience from J-10 and FC-1, but doesn't really use the as the basis of the airframe, but rather a new stealth aircraft. In this case, could use two WS-10 or WS-13 engines depending on whether CAC gets the contract from pla to develop a heavy fighter or a medium sized fighter.
The one coming out early is number 1 and the one I mentionned, I'm not sure which one it is. I'm guessing it's somewhere between 2 and 3.
I'm thinking of this:
1. modified J-10 flying in this year or the next and eventually will be equipped with AESA radar, uprated 3D TVC engine (compared to the current one), IRST, laser warner receiver --> ready for service by 2008/9?
The fact that pla appears to be ready to export J-10 tells me that the modified J-10 is getting close to being ready.
2. Yang Wei is most likely talking about the medium sized 5th generation proposal. I think CAC probably won the contract for this one due to its experience with medium/light fighter. Considering that WS-13A has a deadline of being ready by 2010 set by plaaf, I think it must be for this plane. Seriously, JF-17 is not that important for plaaf. For plaaf to impose a deadline like that, there has to be another plane much higher in plaaf's wish list. If it flys by 2011, then it will probably be ready for service by 2015/6. That's pretty much when some people expected it to come out.
I would think the first one is aiming for the Rafale/Typhoon level and the second one is aiming for the F-35 level. That's just my wild guess at this point.