Latest version of J-20 fighter jet completes maiden test flight

 

China's new version of its J-20 fighter jet completed its first test flight successfully Saturday, escorted by a J-10S fighter, a leading Chinese-language infotainment web portal cited sources as saying Saturday.

The mil.news.sina.com.cn website said the plane landed successfully at around 12:30 p.m.

Reports also said that the J-20 No. 2011 has undergone several improvements and upgrades in terms of engine capacity, as well combat and stealth ability.

Chinese military expert Du Wenlong, in a recent interview with China's CCTV television channel, said the new version of J-20 could mean that all the technical problems of the old versions of J-20 have been solved and that combat training tests will follow.

J-20

Russian Air Force Receives New Stealth Fighter Prototype

A new advanced fighter jet prototype has been delivered to the Russian Air Force for testing, the manufacturer said Friday.

 

The first T-50 “stealth” fighter had been delivered to a military airfield in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region for test flights, the Sukhoi company said in a statement.

  

The chief air force commander, Lt. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, said in December that combat squadrons could expect deliveries of the production version, known by its Russian acronym PAK-FA for future tactical fighter aircraft, in 2016 at the latest.

 

The PAK-FA is slated to replace the country’s aging fleet of Soviet-era fighter jets.

 

The Sukhoi T-50 is a fifth-generation fighter jet and features a stealth profile with internal weapons bays for air and ground-attack weapons, thrust-vectoring engines for high-acceleration turns and an ability known as supercruise to fly supersonic without the use of a fuel-guzzling afterburner.

 

An export version, called the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), is also under development in a joint project with India for that country’s air force.

 

Experts consider the plane comparable to the only fifth-generation fighter currently in operation worldwide, the American F-22 Raptor, which entered service in 2005.

 

The Moscow-based Sukhoi has been conducting its own test flights of several of the aircraft since 2010, including in-flight refueling and high-agility maneuvers. The company said in October that these had produced favorable results.

 

J-20 may have better ground attack capability than F-22

The J-20, China's prototype first fifth-generation stealth fighter, may have better ground attack capability than its US counterpart, a report from the Beijing Sina Military Network said after a photo of the newest version of the aircraft was released on the internet.

 
Judging from the photo of a J-20 with the serial number 2011, Sina Military Network said the electro-optical targeting system seen below the nose indicates that the fighter is designed mainly for ground attack. This is a similar design to American stealth fighters such as the F-22 and F-35. With stealth capability, the article said that J-20 can be a perfect bomber when used against a ground target.

 
Most missions carried out by American fighters such as the F-16 Falcon or F-15E Strike Eagle in Afghanistan and Iraq are against ground targets. The F-22 is also designed with the capability to attack ground targets with joint direct attack munitions and small diameter bombs. However, the F-22 may still be detected by enemy radar while tracking a moving ground target as its radar releases electromagnetic radiation.

 
After all 35 satellites of the second phase of China's Beidou Navigation System are sent into orbit, the J-20 will be able to launch precision attacks against ground targets like the F-22 as well, Sina Military Network said. Noting that the J-20 can carry four air-to-air missiles, the article also indicated that China is developing its own joint direct attack munitions and small diameter bombs for the stealth fighter.

 
The J-20 can carry a payload of up to 24 small diameter bombs compared to the F-22, which can carry about eight, Sina Military Network said. If the electro-optical targeting system can be used by fourth-generation fighters like the Su-30 and J-10, this would enhance the ground attack capability for these fighters from a longer distance, the report said.

 Concept art for the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter.

New Chinese stealth fighter heightens dilemma for Indian Navy - Indian Navy's 45 Russian MiG-29Ks are capable fighters, but they will be outclassed by stealthy J-31 when it enters service

Was last week’s inaugural flight of China’s second stealth fighter linked to the ongoing 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party? Was President Hu Jintao demonstrating his relationship with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), a powerful lever for elevating his protégés to the apex Politburo Standing Committee?

Several unanswered questions surround the October 31 debut of the J-31 Shenyang fighter, which the pathologically secretive PLA took unusual pains to publicise.

Having already unveiled the J-20 Chengdu stealth fighter in January 2011, China is the only country that is developing two separate stealth fighters. The US is developing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, albeit in three versions; Russia is working on a single design, the PAK-FA, to which India has hitched its wagon. Separately, Japan is developing the ATD-X demonstrator.

Other intriguing questions include: Given the J-31’s close resemblance to the US F-35 fighter, has China reverse-engineered it from blueprints that Lockheed Martin had reported stolen in 2009 from the computers of six American aerospace subcontractors? Is the J-31 for export only, which would explain the publicity that the PLA is giving it? Or will the PLA use the J-31 as an air superiority fighter while the larger J-20 strikes ground targets, an allocation of roles that mirrors the employment of the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 by the US Air Force? Or is the F-31 a competitor to the J-20, with the better of the two designs destined to go into production?

But the question that most worries the Indian Navy is: does the sturdy landing gear that experts have spotted on the J-31 indicate that the new fighter will operate from Chinese aircraft carriers, giving the PLA Navy, or PLA(N), an aerial combat capability that would outmuscle India’s in the Indian Ocean?

China is focusing keenly on naval air power. Just a month ago China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, had joined the PLA(N) fleet. The 58,500-tonne Liaoning — bought as scrap from Ukraine for a floating casino, but then renovated in Dalian shipyard into an operational carrier — is the PLA(N)’s first attempt at learning the complex skills of aircraft carrier operations. This is difficult learning. The US Navy lost some 12,000 aircraft and 8,500 airmen from 1949-1988 in developing its naval aviation skills. But Indian planners believe the Chinese will learn quickly, especially when the Liaoning is joined by more modern aircraft carriers that are already being built in China.

Indian Navy planners tell Business Standard that the PLA(N)’s three-pronged process — learning aircraft carrier operations; building one or two modern carriers; and inducting the J-31 — could take a decade or more. But after that, PLA(N) aircraft carrier battle groups could operate in the Indian Ocean, fielding fighters that are superior to India’s.

The Indian Navy’s 45 Russian MiG-29Ks, purchased for two new aircraft carriers, are capable fighters today, but would certainly be outclassed by the stealthy J-31 whenever it enters service. The navy’s new carriers — the 44,000-tonne INS Vikramaditya that could join the fleet next year; and the unnamed, 40,000-tonne Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) that will be ready only by 2017 — are both fitted with ski-jumps that are custom-built for the MiG-29K to take off.

If the navy wants a more capable fighter, e.g. the Dassault Rafale, which the Indian Air Force is buying, or the F-35C, which is the naval version of the Joint Strike Fighter, it will need an aircraft carrier with a catapult rather than a ski-jump. If the navy designs its second IAC (a 60,000-tonne vessel that is still being conceptualised) with a catapult on the flight deck, a fifth-generation stealth fighter could soon follow.

The navy has already signaled such an interest. In 2006, and again in 2007, New Delhi asked Lockheed Martin (which runs the F-35 programme) for briefings on the F-35B, a short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant that the US Marine Corps will fly off its smaller aircraft carriers called Landing Helicopter Docks. While the F-35B could operate from a ski-jump, the F-35C needs a catapult to propel it off the flight deck.

Will the J-31 push the navy towards more advanced fighters and a second IAC with catapult assisted launch? All options remain on the table. Then naval chief, Admiral Nirmal Verma, speaking in Delhi on August 7 shortly before he retired, did not rule out “having an entirely different carrier with a different complement of aircraft.”

That decision, however, would be a difficult one, keeping in mind that two carriers would already be fielding the MiG-29K, and a new fighter would complicate training and logistics.

“I can’t rule out anything or rule in anything. It is something at the concept stage and it will take a couple of years before we firm up our ideas on this,” said Admiral Verma.

The navy’s eyes will be focused on the Zhuhai Air Show, in China, in mid-November for more details that might emerge about China’s new stealth fighter.