This sounds like a waste of resources to me. Either make the alleged land-based naval variant the same as the carrier-based variant so that they can be interchanged with the ones serving on board the carriers as they take losses from attrition or accidents, or make them the same as the air force variant, and make the air force capable of naval missions at baseline. TBH the J-31 should be capable of air-to-ground and naval strike missions at baseline, especially in the presence of 300+ J-20s that are far more suited to a primary air-to-air role.
Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator
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SinoSoldier
Colonel
CCTV screen capture of a model of a PLAAF-painted FC-31. Not sure if this means anything though.
It was taken from a documentary called "Journey to Life" which details the story of a pilot who had participated in the "Golden Dart 2018" exercises.
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A few days ago, a CCTV report also captured a photo of engineers working on what was allegedly a variant of the FC-31 project (possibly for a navalized version?):
It was taken from a documentary called "Journey to Life" which details the story of a pilot who had participated in the "Golden Dart 2018" exercises.
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A few days ago, a CCTV report also captured a photo of engineers working on what was allegedly a variant of the FC-31 project (possibly for a navalized version?):
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It means exactly anything. Anything can be, 1) PLA has adopted or is interested in FC-31 or 2) It is a gift from SAC to pilot, or the PLA units which means nothing special. In the end, a model in a TV program is not indication of PLA adopting.
Looks like the model could be an example of a naval version of the J-31.
With the vertical stabilizers from V1???
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
I suspect Fzgfzy’s comments sealed the deal for Henri K. Or I guess maybe his own contacts confirmed for him.
SinoSoldier
Colonel
Don't misinterpret his words. He stated that there are two diverging beliefs/theories put forth by numerous sources: (1) that the Navy has selected the FC-31 and (2) that there is still a competition between the J-20 and FC-31; this is almost exactly what I've been summarizing in my past 3-4 posts on this matter.
I imagine you would've read the piece... the last paragraph pretty clearly says (even through translate):
"Could the FC-31 finally serve under the flags of the Chinese army, like what can be seen recently in a TV report where a model of FC-31 in livery PLA Navy is seen behind an officer of the Chinese Navy interviewed? Or will the Chengdu J-20 end up monopolizing the Chinese VLO combat device market for the next three decades thanks in part to ? We could hope to have a (first) answer in the months to come ..."
In other words, it's still up in the air.
Putting it another way, the title of the piece is a question (FC-31 chosen by the Chinese Navy?) -- and the answer is "no, still to be decided". Punctuation is important
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