The alarming news comes from the PRC, where the fifth-generation Chengdu J-20 fighter developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation made its maiden flight last January. As of February 2012, there are two flying prototypes with the same tail numbers (for secrecy). It is characteristic that the flight of the new generation fighter fell on the second day of the visit of the American Defense Secretary Robert Gates to China. On January 9, 2011, the head of the Pentagon, in an interview with reporters on board the plane on the way to Beijing, said that American intelligence had underestimated the pace of development of the Chinese defense complex.
Today, the level of development of Chinese industry is so great that it can easily copy any, even the most high-tech types of weapons. In addition, the PRC has already gone through the "stage of borrowing" and is now developing its own developments in many areas. I recall the contract for the purchase of 200 Su-27SK fighters. China then acquired exactly half, and politely refused to buy the rest, later building under license another 100 modernized Sukhoi under the name Shenyang J-11, but at its own factories.
Specialists from the Middle Kingdom can copy a sample even from a photograph and a meager technical description, which indicates a high level of engineering school, and where it is lacking, China attracts foreign specialists without much hesitation and studies hard again, absorbing the maximum amount of knowledge … how in the old Chinese proverb "Seeing is better than hearing, doing better than knowing."
I don't recognize you in makeup
What is, technically, a fifth generation Chinese fighter? As you might have guessed, this is a dump of technologies from all over the world. In the silhouette of the bow, along with the cockpit canopy, the F-22 is easily guessed. The shape and location of the air intakes of the engines betrays an affinity with the F-35. The aerodynamic scheme is largely copied from the experimental MiG 1.44 - the "Chinese", like the Russian project from the 90s, is made according to the "duck" scheme with a delta wing and a large number of deflected surfaces, providing high values of aerodynamic quality both on subsonic and on supersonic modes.
As for the aircraft's stealth, in addition to standard "stealth" solutions, such as "sawtooth" structural elements and internal weapon bays, the Chengdu J-20 has a vertical tail structure made in the form of fully rotatable keels. In addition to the tangible advantages in maneuvering, this sharply reduces the RCS of the aircraft (in part, this solution was used when creating the Tu-160). But the use of ventral ridges, on the contrary, will only please the enemy's radar stations, a very dubious solution for an unobtrusive aircraft.
Like the American F-22 "Raptor", the Chengdu J-20 is equipped with an uninterrupted cockpit canopy, which has a positive effect on reducing the RCS of the fighter. The Chinese have demonstrated for the first time that they are capable of producing such products, but there is still no confidence that the J-20 can withstand a long supersonic flight.
As for the Chinese radio-absorbing coatings (I also smiled here), it is generally not known whether they correspond to their purpose.
Many experts point to the rather large size of the bays for the J-20 weapons, which suggests that the Chinese 5th generation fighter will be in many ways a strike vehicle. The planned armament of the future aircraft is also matched: high-precision weapon systems PL-21 LRAAM, PL-12D MRAAM, PL-10 SRAAM, guided bombs LS-6 …
But despite the obvious successes, Chinese developers face a number of difficult challenges. The first of these is related to the J-20 power plant. In the Celestial Empire, as in the USSR, progress in the field of engine building lags far behind the pace of development of the aviation industry as a whole. The Chinese are faced with a number of intractable issues, first of all, in the absence of technologies for creating heat-resistant materials and alloys. To supply the Chinese aviation industry with modern materials that ensure the required service life of parts and high assembly accuracy, fundamentally new industries in the field of metallurgy and metalworking are required. Even though there is direct access to modern engines of the AL-31F family (installed on the Su-27), China is forced to buy turbine blades from Russia.
For the same reasons, the Chinese have failed in copying another family of Russian engines. The light fighter FC-1, better known under the export name JF-17 Thunder, is equipped with our RD-93 - an analogue of the RD-33 engine installed on the MiG-29, because China has been working unsuccessfully on its own WS-13 engine of this class since the early 2000s.
Hence, we can easily explain Beijing's interest in purchasing the Russian "product 117C" - the 1st generation engine for the PAK FA (similar power units are installed on the Su-35). Russia is fundamentally not opposed to such military-technical cooperation, which was confirmed by the words of Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov during his visit to the PRC in November 2010.
Like the Russian fifth-generation fighter, the Chengdu J-20 is planned to be equipped with engines of the second generation WS-15 with a thrust of up to 18 tons in the future. At present, the creation of the WS-15, like our "product 129", has not yet gone beyond the design drawers, so it is not possible to say something definite about this.
It is difficult to determine what engines are currently installed on Chinese 5th generation fighters. The Chinese do not give any comments, but, according to the conclusions of some experts who are closely studying the photographs of the aircraft, one thing is certain: Chengdu J-20, like the Russian PAK FA, are still flying on 4th generation engines. And this is a very important moment - until a powerful and reliable engine is created that provides a supersonic afterburner flight speed, any work on a new generation fighter is fun for designers.
The next systemic problem of the Chinese aircraft industry is avionics. The requirements for fifth-generation machines in this area are very high and there are suspicions that China is currently not able to provide its Chengdu J-20 with powerful information and control systems. The most modern Chinese radar - type "1473", a copy of the Russian "Pearl" radar, has very modest characteristics. And China's own radar stations with an active phased antenna array (PAR), which are in a stage close to being put into service, are not visible in the near future.
Despite the leading positions in the world in the production of computers and consumer electronics, China is significantly inferior to Russia and the United States in the development of avionics. On the other hand, people who are versed in aviation have repeatedly noted that the Celestial Empire has recently made tremendous progress in the field of avionics, having developed for its fourth generation fighters a whole line of onboard electronic systems based on Russian radars of the N001 family, which were equipped with export Su-27SK and Su-30MKK.
Stealing other people's thoughts, let him think
In general, it is not entirely correct to stigmatize the Chinese for plagiarism. Many well-known industrial giants started from copying other people's ideas. In the 60s, the object of ridicule was the Japanese auto industry, shamelessly copying American Fords and Chevrolets. But by the 80s, the Japanese automotive industry took over half of the European and American markets, displacing the former favorites.
During the Cold War, entire KGB and CIA units were engaged in technical espionage. The scale of the theft of ideas reached such proportions that an exact copy of the American B-29 - the Tu-4 strategic bomber - had a hole in the control panel for a can of Coca-Cola and an ashtray (although Soviet pilots were forbidden to smoke in flight). Legendary story.
Returning to the Chinese 5th generation fighter, I note that the creative originality of the Chengdu J-20 lies in the harmony of all borrowed solutions. The search for the "golden mean" is so close to the national identity of the Chinese. This approach is likely to make it possible to obtain high efficiency of the aviation system, but it is still premature to judge this. It is likely that this crude prototype will make a successful car, but its design already raises more questions and doubts than answers.
What does the appearance of the 5th generation Chinese fighter mean for Russia? - The news is definitely bad. In the not too distant future, a Chinese competitor, due to its lower cost, may squeeze the PAK FA on the world arms market. I'm not even talking about the F-35 - the J-20 looks much more attractive against its background.
As for the current situation, speaking of the PAK FA and Chengdu J-20, we are talking more about experimental prototypes than about pre-production combat vehicles with a full set of required tactical and technical characteristics. Much depends on the teams working on these machines.
The assets of Russian designers are invaluable technologies for creating modern jet engines (Russia is one of the few countries capable of independently producing such products), a whole stock of developments in on-board electronic systems, including completely ready-made aviation radars with headlamps such as "Zhuk" and " Irbis ".
The specialists of the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation have their own advantages. Excellent human resources. Engineers, technologists and workers of the Celestial Empire do not sit without work for a day, constantly "getting their hands on" copying or modernizing foreign models of equipment. The PRC has highly efficient production facilities. In addition, China has easy access to Russian technology. Here the Chinese follow their famous proverb exactly: "To defeat the enemy, do not strive to become stronger than him, but make him weaker than yourself."
