Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator

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PiSigma

"the engineer"
"Special units geared to working on the 5th gen. carrier borne fighter jet program have been established at 601 and 701 following the securing of preliminary funds from PLAN"

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I always thought the J31 was a little small for what China might need for carrier operations.

But if need to change the current j31 to a carrier capable plane it'll take at least 3 or 4 more years of development. I'm assuming it's for catapult carriers only.
 

KIENCHIN

Junior Member
Registered Member
I always thought the J31 was a little small for what China might need for carrier operations.

But if need to change the current j31 to a carrier capable plane it'll take at least 3 or 4 more years of development. I'm assuming it's for catapult carriers only.
As a carrier air superiority fighter it is in a similiar weight class as the rest of the fighters use by other nations that operates aircraft carriers. We can expect the J15 to be further develop and play the role of a fighter bomber just like the F18's of which only the US and China would have as a combination.
 

SinoSoldier

Colonel
I always thought the J31 was a little small for what China might need for carrier operations.

But if need to change the current j31 to a carrier capable plane it'll take at least 3 or 4 more years of development. I'm assuming it's for catapult carriers only.

The current belief is that SAC is in the process of enlarging the FC-31. If funding has really been secured, development of a 3rd prototype would be far quicker than for the 2nd prototype. 3-4 years is a bit of an exaggeration IMO.
 

Lethe

Captain
Wouldn't J-31 be referred to as a fourth generation fighter in Chinese nomenclature?

As a carrier air superiority fighter it is in a similiar weight class as the rest of the fighters use by other nations that operates aircraft carriers.

Talk about fighting yesterday's war ... or do you really imagine that the US Navy's next fighter will not significantly exceed the F-14 Tomcat in range and payload capability? In fact, we can reasonably expect "more range" to be at the top of the US Navy's (and USAF's for that matter) requirements list for the next generation of aircraft to come online by mid-2030s, and for those aircraft to at least match and probably exceed J-15 in size/weight.
 
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