Thread: China Reveals New Combat Aircraft Design

China Reveals New Combat Aircraft Design
David Donald
January 7, 2011


The Chinese recently conducted taxi trials of a new combat aircraft, designated the J-20, and first flight is believed to be imminent.

Following months of speculation, fueled by tidbits gleaned during the Zhuhai airshow in November, the first images of China’s newest combat aircraft were revealed in the week before Christmas. Believed to be designated the J-20, the aircraft is under development by Chengdu (611 Design Institute) and Shenyang, with the former leading the effort having effectively won a design competition in 2008.

The J-20 was photographed during taxi trials by onlookers outside Chengdu aircraft plant 132 and, while there is no official acknowledgment of the aircraft’s existence, this illustrates an unprecedented openness on the part of Chinese officialdom to allow any access to such events. Recent photos of the J-20 lifting its nose at high speed on the runway suggest that first flight is imminent, if it has not already occurred.

Coded 2001, the J-20 is thought to be one of two built. The aircraft are probably technology demonstrators rather than true prototypes, and an operational fifth-generation fighter is expected to be rather different and some years from service. The J-20 is a canard-delta design of considerable size, indicating an aircraft optimized for long-range and high-altitude operations.

It is thought that a new engine, the WS-15, is being developed to ultimately power this class of aircraft. The Saturn 117S that powers the Sukhoi T-50 is another alternative. However, the prototypes appear to be powered by either the WS-10 developed for the Shenyang J-11 “Flanker”-copy or the Saturn AL-31FN, which currently powers the J-10.

The design incorporates stealthy features, notably the caret-shaped intakes with diverterless supersonic inlet bulges in the upper corner.

ainonline.com


J-20. Via Chinese Internet.



J-20. Via Chinese Internet.

War Is Boring

Does it have a cupholder for inflight noodle snacks?

They obviously haven't got the stealth part quite right yet, as it stands out like dogs balls in all the photographs.....

China's New J-20 Stealth Fighter Quietly Makes First Flight
Steve Levenstein



Look out, F-22. Step aside, T-50. The ranks of the world's most advanced fighter jets just grew wider, courtesy of China's stealthy J-20.

The J-20's first successful test flight marks a new milestone in China's growth as a front-line military power. Just the name J-20 alone hints how great this technological leap forward really is: China's current front-line domestically designed fighter is the J-10.





Developed for the People's Liberation Air Force by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, the J-20 "Black Eagle" is a fifth generation, radar-eluding, twin-engine fighter aircraft prototype of which only two exist: one with Russian engines and the other with engines of Chinese design.

Performance-wise, the J-20 is comparable to America's F-22 Raptor, Russia's Sukhoi T-50 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter though the J-20 is larger in size with a correspondingly longer range and the capacity to carry more weaponry.





According to Guan Youfei, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of China's Defense Ministry, said yesterday the development of the J-20 and of China's military hardware in general “is not aimed at any other country or any specific target”.


Guan reiterated China's traditional response in stating the nation's “weaponry was developed to safeguard China's sovereignty, national security and territorial integrity, and to adapt to the world's military changes.” Here's a short news video from Hong Kong's Apple Daily showing the J-20 undergoing taxiing tests along with footage of its competitors:



The first flight of the J-20 began at 12:50pm on January 11th, 2011, and lasted approximately 18 minutes. The location of the test was an airstrip at Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Group's main facility in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.



Though like Russia's new T-50 it will be a number of years before J-20s start rolling off Chinese production lines, the successful flight test of this advanced stealth jet effectively ensconces China among the world's top air powers. (via People's Daily Online, CSMonitor and Rednet)

inventorspot.com

Looks nice and it should come in really handy when the USA tells them that all the debt they bought is worthless

Seems there's a little mini-arms race going on between China and Japan; my money's always going to be on Japan for quality over Chinese quantity. Industrial espionage will only get you so far. It'd be interesting to see what the ranges are for these are.

The size of the J-XX/J-20 airframe, and the self evident focus on supersonic persistence, suggests, at a minimum, an intention to provide a long range interceptor for anti-access operations in the Second Island Chain geography. It is likely any production design J-XX/J-20 will incorporate an aerial refuelling probe to further extend its large operating radius.

A stealthy, supercruising, long range interceptor would provide the PLA-AF with the capability to penetrate an opposing IADS to destroy assets like E-3 AWACS, RC-135V/W Rivet Joint, other ISR systems, and importantly, Air Force and Navy tankers. This would significantly complicate if not close down air operations from Andersen AFB and fixed basing in the Ryukyu chain, Japanese main islands, and Korean peninsula, during the opening phase of any contingency.

Naval task forces structured around CVBGs and operating within the 1,000 NMI plus radius of the J-XX/J-20 would be at significant risk of rapidly losing their E-2C/D AEW&C and EA-18G Growler Electronic Attack coverage during the opening phase of any contingency.

Any notion that an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter or F/A-18E/F Super Hornet will be capable of competing against this Chengdu design in air combat, let alone penetrate airspace defended by this fighter, would be simply absurd. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet are both aerodynamically and kinematically quite inferior to the as presented J-XX/J-20 design, and even the shape based VLO capability in the J-XX/J-20, as presented, will effectively neutralise any sensor advantage either type might possess against earlier Russian and Chinese fighter designs.

Chengdu J-XX [J-20] Stealth Fighter Prototype / A Preliminary Assessment

A mature J-XX/J-20, with a full strike capability, would be a direct one-for-one equivalent to the proposed dual role FB-22A... ...numbers in the order of 400 – 500 aircraft are credible.

Seems it's being taken seriously. This looks like the start of a trans-pacific arms race as the next stage in the economic cold war between China and "the Allies".

Mitsubishi ATD-X ShinShin a Japanese Stealth Fighter | Defence Aviation
"Shinshin" ...the last character is also the "Kami" in Kamikaze... about as close as they dare get to that name hahaha!

China dismisses report that stealth fighter program benefited from downed US plane
CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
January 25, 2011

BEIJING (AP) — An official Chinese newspaper on Tuesday dismissed a report that the country used technology taken from a downed U.S. airplane in its own stealth fighter program.

Chinese officials this month staged the first-known test flight of the J-20 prototype stealth fighter that could one day challenge American air superiority.

The flight came during a rare visit to China by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and caught many defense analysts by surprise, seeming to indicate that China was acquiring cutting-edge technology more rapidly than previously thought.

China says the plane is based entirely on indigenous designs, and the Global Times on Tuesday quoted an unidentified Defense Ministry official as dismissing an Associated Press report citing Balkan military officials and other experts saying that China likely gleaned some of their technological know-how from an American F-117 Nighthawk shot down over Serbia in 1999.

"It's not the first time foreign media has smeared newly unveiled Chinese military technologies. It's meaningless to respond to such speculations," the official was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's flagship People's Daily.

Calls to the Defense Ministry's spokesman's office rang unanswered Tuesday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he had no information about the matter.

The Defense Ministry has commented little on the test flight other than to assert that China continues to arm for defensive purposes only.

The U.S. fields the only stealth fighter in active service, the F-22 Raptor, the successor to the Nighthawk. The U.S. is also employing stealth technology on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while Russia's Sukhoi T-50's stealth fighter made its maiden flight last year and is set to enter service in about four years' time.

No direct evidence or specific allegation has been offered on how China would have exploited the downed plane, although Balkan military officials say Chinese agents hunted for pieces of the F-117 wreckage and may have shared intelligence with their Serbian allies.

Western diplomats have said China maintained an intelligence post in its Belgrade embassy during the Kosovo war. The building was mistakenly struck by U.S. bombers in May 1999, killing three people inside, and cementing firm Chinese opposition to the NATO air campaign.

Serbia shot down the F-117 in March of that year, marking the first time one of the much-touted "invisible" fighters had ever been hit. The Pentagon believed a combination of clever tactics and sheer luck allowed a Soviet-built SA-3 missile to bring down the jet.

"At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," Adm. Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia's military chief of staff during the Kosovo war, told the AP.

"We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies ... and to reverse-engineer them," Domazet-Loso said in a telephone interview.

Parts of the downed F-117 wreckage — such as the left wing with US Air Force insignia, the cockpit canopy, ejection seat, pilot's helmet and radio — are exhibited at Belgrade's aviation museum.

However, most of the wreckage was simply carted off by anyone who desired a piece, according to Belgrade's Blic newspaper.

"It was not just the Chinese who got parts of the airplane. Anyone who wanted took them. The Russians ended up with an entire wing," Blic quoted Milovan Azdejkovic, who in 1999 was a department head at the Military Technical Institute in Belgrade, as saying.

While not completely invisible to radar, the F-117'S shape and radar-absorbent coating made detection extremely difficult. The radar cross-section was further reduced because the wings' leading and trailing edges were composed of nonmetallic honeycomb structures that do not reflect radar rays.

Experts say insight into this critical technology, and particularly the plane's secret radiation-absorbent exterior coating, would have significantly enhanced China's stealth know-how.

The newspaper report refuting the allegations that China used the F-117 technology comes one day after a U.S. federal judge sentenced an engineer of an earlier generation of stealth aircraft, the B-2 bomber, to 32 years in prison for selling military secrets to China.

Noshir Gowadia, 66, who was born in India, was convicted in August on 14 counts, including communicating national defense information to aid a foreign nation and violating the arms export control act.

Prosecutors said Gowadia helped China design a stealth cruise missile to get money to pay the $15,000-a-month mortgage on his luxurious multimillion dollar home overlooking the ocean on the Hawaiian island of Maui. They say he pocketed at least $110,000 by selling military secrets.

The defense argued Gowadia provided only unclassified information to China.

orlandosentinel.com

I'm sure the Yanks know all about it:

A former B-2 stealth bomber engineer was sentenced to 32 years in prison for selling military secrets to China in the latest of several high-profile cases of Chinese espionage in the U.S.

The timing of the announcement is jolly convenient. Mind you, I'm also sure the Yanks know these things aren't quite so stealthy these days.