I sure hope not. If the US 6th gen program is in this much trouble, this is an opportunity like EVs for China to make a generational leap ahead of its adversaries.
PLA next/6th generation fighter thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
At this point, with how things are developing US.
I'm honestly, actually doubtful it will even end up coming out (although ofc, one should assume it does come out, even if delayed).
I'm honestly, actually doubtful it will even end up coming out (although ofc, one should assume it does come out, even if delayed).
Reading the article and transcription it seems like the F-35 is eating the US Air Force budget. Who would have known.
It is a bad idea. It is way too early to focus on pure unmanned aircraft platforms. I would say we will still have the 6th generation. And I doubt unmanned aircraft will ever completely take over. What you will likely see is more optionally manned aircraft mixed with drones.
Like the articles say the US could also try to buy in into other multinational aircraft projects. But I doubt the US MIC would take that lying down. I still think the NGAD will likely be funded. What I do not understand is why NGAD and F/A-XX are two separate programs. They will likely merge both programs.
I think Chengdu is already developing the 6th generation. They probably started working on it with a small team right after the J-20 entered production. It should not take the whole engineering resource to just develop variants like the J-20A or J-20B. Now that the variants are out I wouldn't be surprised if all their engineers were working on the 6th generation.
It is quite likely that Shenyang will also have its engineering resource free in like a year or so. It is also possible that the Chinese government will want both companies to submit 6th generation designs before deciding on something.
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everything has been finalized. we have confirmation from Yankees and Co.. then J-20 first flight pilot confirmed too.. next generation fighter jet program going as per the schedule.
both Chengdu and Shenyang working on next generation platforms ..
next generation engine is also under development as per the Liu Daxiang ..
our project doesn't depend on US ..
The question isn't about whether or not the program exists, but rather does this change calculation on how what goes on to 6th gen?
If J-20A is already competitive to F-35 Block 4 in stealth, but has longer range, then a follow-on J-20B can come into service around 2030 and be competitive with anything America fields until 2040.
You are just not under the same pressure to have a 6th gen project going to production, which imo is just going to be more stealthy across all spectrum and have longer range. If you wait a little more time to freeze your design, then you will get an even more capable platform longer term
If J-20A is already competitive to F-35 Block 4 in stealth, but has longer range, then a follow-on J-20B can come into service around 2030 and be competitive with anything America fields until 2040.
You are just not under the same pressure to have a 6th gen project going to production, which imo is just going to be more stealthy across all spectrum and have longer range. If you wait a little more time to freeze your design, then you will get an even more capable platform longer term
You forgot about the mind games being played by both sides regarding the next gen fighter. You don't need to be reminded of 局座's famous interview about the J-10改.
Those unmanned options could still be as dangerous as the 6th gens.
Proliferation of reasonably stealthy, kind of attritable forward network nodes with all kinds of payloads is, as said, dangerous AF for the opposing force. But the real proliferation won't happen till 2030s so luckily there's still time to develop strategies against them.
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Also, AFAICS, the main differences between 6th gens and the so called 5.5th gens are, the deletion of horizontal stabs from design and VC/AC engines. Other differences such as more computing power, longer range, better RAM materials, acting as airborne UAV control stations, etc. can to some extend also be added to existing long range 5th gen fighters and thus significantly reduce the gap between the fighter generations.
In the 2030s, it might actually make more sense for some countries to choose 5.5th gens over 6th gens, meaning the Gripen vs F-35 situation is not likely to happen again.
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They’ve been at it for a while.
For the last part, the gap between stealth aircraft and non stealth aircraft is quite large. But I am not sure the gap between 5th and so called 6th gen is close to that large. After all, something like j20 is already pretty large and have enough space needed for a lot of capability you need to put there for modern sensors and computing power
Sixth gen will be harder to detect across the radar spectrum, not just X or L band.