Shenyang next gen combat aircraft thread

MC530

New Member
Registered Member
If you think like this, you won't ever understand military procurement. Militaries cannot and shouldn't cost optimize to those levels. They aren't private companies. The J-35 provides China with means to rapidly close up the VLO jet disparity with the USA. What would be the cost of waiting 5 more years? Furthermore, existence of a newer platform doesn't make older things nonperforming. That is a weird way to think. You could only argue that something became nonperforming once most of the adversary assets start to overperform it. And even in such cases platforms usually find other niches they do adequately. The J-15T for example. It is not a stop gap solution at all. It will be better for stand-off strikes, buddy tanking, and CMD than the J-35 or a notional J-50T.
Cost? That's a good question. We're discussing how 25% of the US military budget is used to counter the US and other NATO countries. The military doesn't focus on cost, but it does assess cost-effectiveness.
Your understanding is that China needs to immediately produce new fighter jets to counter the arrival of US forces. This is ridiculous. There was a 13-year gap between the F-31's announcement and the J-35's entry into service. To this day, the Chinese Air Force is still using and gradually replacing the J-7, and has even phased out production of its successor, the J-10. Clearly, the Chinese military prefers a stable and reliable transition to new equipment rather than hastily introducing a large number of new fighter jets.

Performance degradation? I think my choice of words might have triggered your suspicions.

If the J35 enters service, it would be a crime for China to continue producing the J10, even if the J10 shot down a Rafale. However, if the J10 production rate is only 50, then all costs associated with the fighter will be sunk: logistics, production facilities, research funding, and so on.

The J35 has just entered service, Shenyang has expanded its production base, and within five years, the Chinese military has introduced the latest JXX? How many J35s should be produced annually to recoup the losses? In peacetime, no one in the military knew they would receive the latest fighter within five years, and yet they were forced to produce a lower-tier fighter. What a foolish thing to do.

The J15's multi-role capabilities, as you mentioned, do allow the development of two electronic combat aircraft and a two-seat fighter, all equipped with AESA radars, today. However, this remains a stopgap measure. The J35's inability to fully satisfy the Chinese Navy and its continued delay in development have given rise to the J15T. If Shenyang had not modeled the J35 after the F-35, but instead developed a carrier-based fighter based on a larger fighter competing with the J20, there would likely be no J15T today.

It was only until the J35 was nearing completion that the Chinese Navy was forced to accept a medium-sized fighter. Only then did the J15 find sufficient operational scenarios.
 

Tomboy

Junior Member
Registered Member
It was only until the J35 was nearing completion that the Chinese Navy was forced to accept a medium-sized fighter. Only then did the J15 find sufficient operational scenarios.
This is just flawed logic, J-35 exists because the navy ordered it not the other way around. Also what delay are you talking about? J-35 program has not had any known delays, why are you thinking that FC-31 and the J-35 are even the same program? J-35 only made it's maiden flight a mere 4 years ago and it's already in service, this is extremely fast.
If the J35 enters service, it would be a crime for China to continue producing the J10, even if the J10 shot down a Rafale. However, if the J10 production rate is only 50, then all costs associated with the fighter will be sunk: logistics, production facilities, research funding, and so on.

The J35 has just entered service, Shenyang has expanded its production base, and within five years, the Chinese military has introduced the latest JXX? How many J35s should be produced annually to recoup the losses? In peacetime, no one in the military knew they would receive the latest fighter within five years, and yet they were forced to produce a lower-tier fighter. What a foolish thing to do.
I'm not even sure what you are trying to say here. Are you suggesting that J-XDS should not be procured just because they want to "recoup the loses"? Production to J-XDS should switch gently from J-35, should J-XDS reach LRIP in early 2030, it would still take a while to ramp up to full production. That leaves J-35 atleast 5-7 years of production, enough for hundreds of airframes.
 

36011

New Member
Registered Member
This is just flawed logic, J-35 exists because the navy ordered it not the other way around. Also what delay are you talking about? J-35 program has not had any known delays, why are you thinking that FC-31 and the J-35 are even the same program? J-35 only made it's maiden flight a mere 4 years ago and it's already in service, this is extremely fast.

I'm not even sure what you are trying to say here. Are you suggesting that J-XDS should not be procured just because they want to "recoup the loses"? Production to J-XDS should switch gently from J-35, should J-XDS reach LRIP in early 2030, it would still take a while to ramp up to full production. That leaves J-35 atleast 5-7 years of production, enough for hundreds of airframes.
Everything he says is a figment of his imagination. To be blunt, he just wants to criticize SAC, it doesn't matter what the reason is. Even if everyone thought the J35 was a great carrier aircraft, he would still think it was just something the Chinese navy was forced to accept
 

ACuriousPLAFan

Brigadier
Registered Member
Cost? That's a good question. We're discussing how 25% of the US military budget is used to counter the US and other NATO countries. The military doesn't focus on cost, but it does assess cost-effectiveness.
Your understanding is that China needs to immediately produce new fighter jets to counter the arrival of US forces. This is ridiculous. There was a 13-year gap between the F-31's announcement and the J-35's entry into service. To this day, the Chinese Air Force is still using and gradually replacing the J-7, and has even phased out production of its successor, the J-10. Clearly, the Chinese military prefers a stable and reliable transition to new equipment rather than hastily introducing a large number of new fighter jets.

Performance degradation? I think my choice of words might have triggered your suspicions.

If the J35 enters service, it would be a crime for China to continue producing the J10, even if the J10 shot down a Rafale. However, if the J10 production rate is only 50, then all costs associated with the fighter will be sunk: logistics, production facilities, research funding, and so on.

The J35 has just entered service, Shenyang has expanded its production base, and within five years, the Chinese military has introduced the latest JXX? How many J35s should be produced annually to recoup the losses? In peacetime, no one in the military knew they would receive the latest fighter within five years, and yet they were forced to produce a lower-tier fighter. What a foolish thing to do.

The J15's multi-role capabilities, as you mentioned, do allow the development of two electronic combat aircraft and a two-seat fighter, all equipped with AESA radars, today. However, this remains a stopgap measure. The J35's inability to fully satisfy the Chinese Navy and its continued delay in development have given rise to the J15T. If Shenyang had not modeled the J35 after the F-35, but instead developed a carrier-based fighter based on a larger fighter competing with the J20, there would likely be no J15T today.

It was only until the J35 was nearing completion that the Chinese Navy was forced to accept a medium-sized fighter. Only then did the J15 find sufficient operational scenarios.

If you truly believe that Shenyang AC is capable of jacking up the annual production capacity of the J-XDS to reach triple digits within 3-4 years from the very beginning of the J-XDS' production run, then I have the Golden Gate Bridge to sell you.

As for the J-15T/DT - It's a rather wild and shaky claim that the J-35 has "failed to satisfy the PLAN" such that the PLAN had to resort to develop the J-15T. Both - And I mean BOTH - The J-35 and J-15T are useful to the PLAN in their respective roles and missions (which I suppose you should've known better).

You don't see the USN replacing the entirety of their F/A-18E/Fs (and E/A-18s) with F-35Cs, do you? And has the USN ever claimed that their F-35Cs are abject failures such that they had to keep the F/A-18 family production run going until 2027, all when the F-35C already started LRIP back in the late-2000s and serial production back in the mid-2010s?

Last-but-not-least - The J-XDH is THE primary successor to the J-15 family, and less so for the J-35. This is similar to the F/A-XX which is meant as the successor to the F/A-18 family, not the F-35C.
 
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BoraTas

Major
Registered Member
Cost? That's a good question. We're discussing how 25% of the US military budget is used to counter the US and other NATO countries. The military doesn't focus on cost, but it does assess cost-effectiveness.
Your understanding is that China needs to immediately produce new fighter jets to counter the arrival of US forces. This is ridiculous. There was a 13-year gap between the F-31's announcement and the J-35's entry into service. To this day, the Chinese Air Force is still using and gradually replacing the J-7, and has even phased out production of its successor, the J-10. Clearly, the Chinese military prefers a stable and reliable transition to new equipment rather than hastily introducing a large number of new fighter jets.
Those are your imaginations. In real life the J-10C was developed together with the J-20. They entered service almost simultaneously. Almost 300 of the former were procured in a short time period, altering the regional balance of power in a very significant way. Still, older J-10s are being modernized too despite the existence of flying 6th gen prototypes. PLAAF apparently doesn't think the existence of newer platforms make the older ones useless.
Performance degradation? I think my choice of words might have triggered your suspicions.

If the J35 enters service, it would be a crime for China to continue producing the J10, even if the J10 shot down a Rafale. However, if the J10 production rate is only 50, then all costs associated with the fighter will be sunk: logistics, production facilities, research funding, and so on.

The J35 has just entered service, Shenyang has expanded its production base, and within five years, the Chinese military has introduced the latest JXX? How many J35s should be produced annually to recoup the losses? In peacetime, no one in the military knew they would receive the latest fighter within five years, and yet they were forced to produce a lower-tier fighter. What a foolish thing to do.
There are no losses. The J-35 is competitive against literally everything China could face. Even in 20 years it will be competitive against the majority of adversary inventories. Since there are no service ready sixth gens all the comparisons of the J-35 to a sixth gen naval fighter are just entertainment.
The J15's multi-role capabilities, as you mentioned, do allow the development of two electronic combat aircraft and a two-seat fighter, all equipped with AESA radars, today. However, this remains a stopgap measure. The J35's inability to fully satisfy the Chinese Navy and its continued delay in development have given rise to the J15T. If Shenyang had not modeled the J35 after the F-35, but instead developed a carrier-based fighter based on a larger fighter competing with the J20, there would likely be no J15T today.

It was only until the J35 was nearing completion that the Chinese Navy was forced to accept a medium-sized fighter. Only then did the J15 find sufficient operational scenarios.
This quoted section is where your off thinking patterns are most apparent. The J-15 is a stop gap measure because you say so. The J-35 was forced and faced delays because you say so. All of these points are supported by the assumption that China will be outputting some newer aircraft "soon". These matters simply don't work like this and you are just exposing your lack of knowledge by insisting in these.
 
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