Chengdu J-20 news and analysis Part III

I know we have to be careful since we were fooled much too often, but at least it looks fine at first sight: If legit the first clear image of the improved J-20A prototype no. 2052 powered by two WS-15 engines.
J-20A 20252 finally WS-15.jpg
 
Too true Deino, I am surprised that (if legitimate) they have gone and released a clear photo first.
 
Why did the PLAFF allow this photo to be released in the first place? I would have thought that they would have released an official photo first before allowing anyone else permission to release photos? It is all rather strange.
 
siegecrossbow said:
It’s prisoning time LMFAO. The photographer has broken a long agreed upon rule taking this.
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The problem is probably not that this image has been taken - in fact I'm 100% sure there are several much such gems on some spotter's harddrive - but that it has been released!

So there are IMO now two options: Either he indeed broke "a long agreed upon rule" or (what I in fact think) it is an old image just released now and so the consequences aren't that grave anymore (what I hope for).
 
Deino said:
The problem is probably not that this image has been taken - in fact I'm 100% sure there are several much such gems on some spotter's harddrive - but that it has been released!

So there are IMO now two options: Either he indeed broke "a long agreed upon rule" or (what I in fact think) it is an old image just released now and so the consequences aren't that grave anymore (what I hope for).
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Supposedly it has been taken in July but not released till today.
 
Strange about that, I would have thought that the Chinese Internet would have posted the photo ages ago since this is the first J-20 with home grown engines.
 
Deino said:
Well, the first "J-20 with home grown engines" are those with WS-10C?
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If you want to get really technical the core of WS-10 is not entirely domestic from a design standpoint, so WS-15 is a completely domestic product in that sense. An analogy would be J-16 has major foreign design elements but J-20 doesn’t.

1725881667182.jpeg

What you need to do to a photo to not get in trouble with the authorities.
 
FighterJock said:
Supercruise capability is one thing that the J-20 has been needing and has finaly got.
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It has long been (heavily)speculated that WS-10C equipped J-20s are also capable of achieving the same kind of "Supercruise" that F-35 and Rafale can.
 
Technically supercruise is just maintaining above Mach speed with military thrust. 1.6 Mach is supercruise and 1.1 is also supercruise. But obviously the former is more useful from an actual tactical standpoint. Could J-20 go supersonic with military thrust even with WS-10C? Probably. Is it as tactically useful? Probably not.
 
Supercruise tactically useful or not? No one has used it in a shooting war so far, so I do not know if it is worth having it in engines in the long run.
 
FighterJock said:
Supercruise tactically useful or not? No one has used it in a shooting war so far, so I do not know if it is worth having it in engines in the long run.
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That’s because there hasn’t been much relevant usage of fifth gen assets in a shooting war yet. Besides drones and balloons what have they shot down so far?

Of course it is tactically useful. Even without stealth F-22 can most likely dominate fourth gen because of the advantage it has in missile flight envelope.
 
It will be interesting to see what happens when two fifth gen fighters that are supercruise capable face off with one another, who gets to launch their missiles first.
 
FighterJock said:
Supercruise tactically useful or not? No one has used it in a shooting war so far, so I do not know if it is worth having it in engines in the long run.
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Being on average up to x2 faster, in a much higher energy state (missiles love that) over best part of (enemy) AAM maneuver envelope, and feeding much more power to onboard electronics helps.

It was questioned in a pair f-35/22, because the former is just a later and significant smarter bird(and not a dead end, above all), but for contemporary aircraft it's a powerful straightforward boost.
 
PL-17 on the J-20? I thought that only the PLAAF Flanker series were the only fighters to carry them?
 
FighterJock said:
PL-17 on the J-20? I thought that only the PLAAF Flanker series were the only fighters to carry them?
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In fact that image has in the meantime been identified as a fake but I'm pretty sure it is not impossible for the J-20 to use this AAM too even if at the moment it indeed seems to be used only by the J-16
 
So the image has been photoshoped Deino, but the J-20 could be capable of carrying the PL-17, I am surprised that the PLAAF have not test carried the missile with the J-20.
 
FighterJock said:
So the image has been photoshoped Deino, but the J-20 could be capable of carrying the PL-17, I am surprised that the PLAAF have not test carried the missile with the J-20.
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I think we simply don’t know…
 
siegecrossbow said:
Technically supercruise is just maintaining above Mach speed with military thrust. 1.6 Mach is supercruise and 1.1 is also supercruise. But obviously the former is more useful from an actual tactical standpoint. Could J-20 go supersonic with military thrust even with WS-10C? Probably. Is it as tactically useful? Probably not.
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While M1.1 is supersonic you are still in transonic flow area up to around M1.2, so I don't think one could call M 1.1 supercruise. I think you have to be confortably out of the transonic flow area to be a real supercruiser.
 
LEG said:
Why do you think a UOR was written up for 'stealth tanks and IRST on the rapid!'
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There is nothing “rapid” about it. The Low Drag Tank and Pylon and IRST programs have been going for almost a decade. Neither had anything to do with the J-20 or it’s armament.
 

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