Shenyang next gen combat aircraft thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Don't touch the Chinese stock market, especially the military sector. Chinese stock market is dominated by emotions, and only short-term trading is possible. After the excitement, there will be a sharp decline.
I was joking.
You buy when people panic, sell when they recover. Though in this case Shenyang barely rised these day unlike Chengdu. Who knows haha.
I suspect Chengdu ate all the hype from Shenyang, because their flying dorrito is unconventional. But people like us know Shenyang's design is complementary to it. China most likely buy both.
If anything the Shenyang one is more intriguing to me. J-36 seems to be China seeing all the talk about B-21, getting a bit on guard and making something meant to counter/mirror their hyped capabilities. The concept of a large penetrating all aspect stealth aircraft/aircraft leader isn't new, just the idea of a blend wing design and massive engines to make it not subsonic.
Shenyang on the other hand basically designed a F-22 with all aspect stealth? It looks like it's the current last word in A2A capabilities. Which I think is going to be more psychologically important when it comes to aweing the majority of people.
The J-20 and J-31/35 were never in competition, per my understanding. SAC started the FC-31 program after its own contender for the PLAAF 5th-gen heavy fighter contract - the J-18 Snowy Owl - was beaten by the J-20. What I was referring to is a fly-off competition in which the losing program ultimately gets abandoned or cancelled (think YF-22 vs YF-23). It was initially rumored that SAC and CAC 6th gens would be flying off against each other for the same contract. However, the SAC airframe turned out to be much different from the CAC one, not just in configuration/design but also role and fighter class, which has subsequently stirred up that question again.
Clues supporting a CAC vs SAC fly-off (i.e. only one will be developed into an in-service fighter):
- Initial rumors claiming that CAC will be competing against SAC
- Both airframes making their debuts very close to each other
- SAC's airframe being very different from CAC's airframe
- Rumors of SAC's airframe being carrier-capable
- There has been no prototype fly-off in Chinese military aviation history
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I don't think b-21 is somehow related to j-36.
Completely different platforms in role and execution; h-20 is still here.
In terms of annual graduates in STEM degrees, there is like a 10x difference.
So there's more than enough personnel to staff programmes.
Translation for the Weibo post:
There will not be a bid for (the Chinese) sixth generation fighters. Both of them have completely different designated roles while complimenting each other. CAC’s sixth generation prototype is a triple powerplant (designed for) “long range combat”, emphasizing on high stealth, large combat range, high speed and high munition carrying capacity. SAC’s sixth generation prototype is a dual powerplant (designed for) “sea-air twinning (probably has a carrier-based version?)”, emphasizing on stealth, supermaneuvrability, large combat range, high AAM carrying capacity. CAC’s prototype is around 26 meters long, (while) SAC’s prototype is around 21 meters long!