Can you give us a link to his statement that all but confirms it?
Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator
- Thread starter RedSky
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It was a statement made at Zhuhai 2021. I can't seem to find it. Either that or I misremembered or misattributed.
Yes, but did he mentioned anything that the land base variant is going to join plaaf for sure, or just another sac funded fc-31 v3.0 or v4.0?
An "air force variant" means a variant intended for PLAAF service.
Otherwise it would be called something else like "land based airframe".
Rumours of both the carrier based J-XY/J-35 have been going on for years intended for PLAN service, and in the last couple of years had dovetailed with a production ready land based variant of FC-31 intended for PLAAF service as well.
I personally am treating "land based variant of FC-31/J-XY for PLAAF service" with the same way I treated J-XY rumours in the last few years and the same way I treated J-XX rumours in the late 2000s.
That is to say, it is all but confirmed that it will emerge, and it's just a matter of time for us to wait and see exactly what it looks like.
Demanding additional sourcing for it at this stage imo is performative.
not really, "air force variant" in this content means "land based airframe"
SAC can develop any "air force variant" or "land based airframe" like the whole development process of FC-31, but the SAC intention of developing a variant for air force, doesn't mean PLAAF has requested SAC to developed an "air force variant" or "land based variant" based on FC-31
also, please bare in mind, J-20 has also developed in naval version, I guess if you asked Yang Wei at that time, he would also say something like, "yeah, J-20 was developing a naval variant", but that doesn't mean the navy would or had pick the J-20 naval variant.
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The rumours over the last few years of an air force variant have been referring to a variant that the PLAAF has committed to put into service.
In relation to what Sun Cong said at Zhuhai 2021, I do not recall him talking about a new air force variant or land based variant, but he did state quite clearly that the next generation carrier based fighter (J-XY) would soon appear.
But the last 2-3 years of rumours of the PLAAF FC-31 variant -- or rather, what I've been calling the "land based J-XY variant for the PLAAF" -- is very much a thing and widely accepted to be expected to emerge.
no one deny anything that a naval variant was under development, in fact we just saw that in a month or so
but as I just reviewed the interview from Sun in2018, he didn't mention any more concrete evidence other than 'yes, we are developing a naval variant and an airforce variant and an export variant at the moment', so I think that is far from the fact the PLAAF will accept a land base FC-31 developed jet.
I think with the experience of yours on Chinese military watching, you should be able to tell by now, there are a lot of people in Chinese community have some wishful thinking over the issue of SAC and CAC, and they always keep under/over-state certain quotes or speeches to support some random arguments, but that doesn't not make their rumor be more credible.
Just like the other day when Deino pointed out an rumor was forged on PDF about J-10CP with AL-31, a widely spread rumor doesn't mean it'w widely accepted, or if it should, especially on this SAC/CAC or FC-31 cases. so I will suggest don't accept any rumor on this until we see some more solid facts in the future, it's too early to conclude anything yet, and it's harmful to keep spreading this kind of rumor.
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We'll have to find the original text to recall what he said specifically.
It is exactly because from my years of PLA watching that I think that the rumours of a land based FC-31/J-XY variant for the PLAAF, is one that I am taking seriously and which I think is true.
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