J-20 - SPECIALIZED MACHINE. IT IS NOT INTENDED FOR AIR DOMINATION IN ANY TACTICAL ENVIRONMENT
The irrefutable power, versatility and decent stealth of the promising multi-role tactical fighter J-20 from the Chengdu company has been a fact for about 5 years. Being a complex constructive aerodynamic hybrid of the prototype of the Russian promising fighter MFI ("product 1.44"), the C-37, as well as the American F-35A "Lightning II" and F-22A "Raptor", the J-20 received rather large internal fuselage volumes for bays of weapons, as well as impressive fuel tanks, which can hold up to 11, 1 tons of fuel. A wing area of 80 m2 was added to everything (total, together with the front horizontal tail), which provides excellent bearing qualities and aerodynamic quality of the airframe 12, 2, which is equivalent to the T-50 PAK-FA. As a result, a vehicle with a practical ceiling of 19-20 km and a combat radius of action at high altitudes of up to 1700-1800 km was obtained.
Such characteristics are excellent for use over the vast oceanic expanses of the Asia-Pacific region, which in recent years has become the main deployment area for the US Navy. Designed for long-range aerial combat, intercepting various air attack weapons, striking surface ships and the US Navy's and Air Force's island military infrastructure within the first "two chains" detailed in the PLA's National Defense White Paper, Mighty Dragons are not are fighters capable of getting involved and winning in any type of air combat; This is especially true for close combat, where the aerodynamic focus and wing shifted to the tail section do not allow for a high turn rate with a low thrust-to-weight ratio of the fighter. For these purposes, the Chinese aircraft industry provides for the serial production of another 5th generation multi-role fighter - the J-31.
HUGE POTENTIAL OF THE J-31 WILL BE UNLOCKED AFTER ALL VERSIONS OF THE FIGHTER COME INTO WEAPONS
The first prototype of the 5th generation multi-role air superiority fighter J-31 took off on October 31, 2012 from the runway of the Shenfei new aircraft test flight center. The design of its airframe and powerplant immediately tells us that the specialists of the "Shenyang Aircraft Corporation" sought to create a machine capable of effectively countering the best stealth fighters of the USA, Australia, India and Japan in the Indo-Asia-Pacific theater of operations. The J-31 "Krechet", thanks to the widespread use of composite materials, turned out to be quite light: the mass of an empty fighter is 12,000 kg, the normal take-off weight is 17,500 kg and the maximum take-off weight is 25,000 kg (in the mass-dimensional class of the MiG-35). At the same time, the mass of the fuel is 7,500 kg, which is about 30% more than the fuel supply of the MiG-35. Due to this, with an equivalent thrust and fuel consumption at maximum RD-93 TRDDF (5040 kgf and 0.77 kg / kg * h), the range of the J-31 reaches 1250 km, for the MiG-35 and F-35A, for example, it reaches 1050 km. The thrust-to-weight ratio at 80% fuel balance and air-to-air weapon configuration is confidently kept at the level of 0, 96-1, i.e. a fighter can conduct a maneuverable battle. The declared rate of climb is close to the best Russian and Western indicators - 330 m / s.
The engine nacelles are spaced by about 1, 2-1, 5 m, which indicates the desire of the developer to give the J-31 increased survivability in comparison with such fighters as "Rafale", "Typhoon" and even the F-22A "Raptor". The J-31 glider is a traditional high-wing aircraft with aerodynamic focus shifted to the center of the fuselage. This contributes to the high angular velocity of the steady turn in the pitch plane. The vehicle is lightweight, "nimble", and this gives all the grounds for the emergence of an additional project of the deck version of the J-31.
This is exactly what the famous test pilot of the PRC Air Force Xu Yonglin talked about at the 15th International Exhibition of Mechanical Engineering Equipment in Shenyang. He said that most likely one should not expect the appearance of the J-31 in the Chinese Air Force, but the arrival of the carrier-based version of the fighter into service with Chinese aircraft carriers is a very predictable event. He also spoke out in favor of multibillion-dollar contracts for the supply of J-31 to neighboring countries. Where is the truth in Xu Yonglin's words?
Large-scale production of export versions of the J-31, indeed, is a necessary and justified business, for which, in fact, this ambitious project was launched. The management of the corporation "AVIC International Holding Corporation", which is closely involved in the "Big Game", is well aware that numerous South American, Asian and African states, slowly moving away from geopolitical subordination to the States, are increasingly in need of modern tactical aviation for a possible solution of their own regional conflicts and simple preservation of the proper level of defense capability in view of the new military threats of the 21st century. Unlike the expensive F-35A (about $ 95 million per unit), the cost of one J-31 may stop at $ 35-40 million, while the combat effectiveness in DVB and strike operations will only slightly inferior to Lightning -2 ", but in close air combat, the Chinese" Gyrfalcon "will probably also" hit "the clumsy F-35A, as the Typhoons, Falcons and Strike Needles coped well with this during the exercises.
Of the states that urgently need to update their combat aircraft fleet with promising fighters, Argentina is in the first place. The Air Force of this country has withdrawn from service all modifications of the Mirage-III and Mirage-5 multipurpose fighters, which is why its airspace remains defenseless in front of the same carrier-based aircraft of the British Navy, with which the first is still "on temporarily covered knives "regarding the belonging of the Falkland Islands. As you know, Buenos Aires is still considering the issue of the forceful return of the archipelago, but so far it does not have the military-technical capabilities for this. In June 2016, after negotiations held between the Minister of Defense of Argentina Julio Martinez and the Minister of Defense of France Jean-Yves Le Drian, the question was raised about the acquisition of 12 Mirage F.1, as well as more advanced versions of Mirage-2000 (apparently we are talking about modifications "2000-5 / 9"), but the feasibility of such a contract seems to be very dim in light of the arrival for export of similarly priced fighters of the 5th generation J-31. Imagine for a second a long-range battle between the Mirage and the British carrier-based F-35B: I doubt that the Mirages will be allowed to get close to the line of use of the Magic-2 and MICA-IR missiles. But the more "stealth" J-31 will actually be ready for such a confrontation and at great distances. Of course, the export version of the Krechet is unlikely to receive the latest version of the AFAR radar available to the Chinese, but the intermediate version, installed today on the far from primitive J-10B, is quite likely, and, believe me, for superiority over the Typhoons and F-35B, it may be quite enough, because all modern airborne radars with AFAR can detect targets similar to the F-35B and EF-2000 at ranges from 50 to 110 km."Gyrfesses" for the Chinese Navy and Air Force will receive much more advanced radars with an APM antenna array based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) or gallium nitride (GaN), the latter has a longer service life and energy potential for radiation with less power consumption from the power source.
The next contenders for the possession of the J-31 may be Iran and Pakistan. The first one recently presented at the Tehran exhibition a very formidable and advanced air defense system "Bavar-373", built on the Chinese digital and radar element base. And now the Iranian leadership is already thinking about updating the rather outdated aircraft fleet with Russian MiG-35 or Su-30MKI; Chinese stealth fighters can also be considered as an advanced cover, since the FGFA program is unlikely to be extended to Iran. Here with India, not everything is completely clear.
Pakistan may be the first to receive the Gyrfalcons. First, the strengthening of the combat potential of its air force is beneficial to the Celestial Empire from a strategic point of view: the territorial disagreements between India and China are accelerating the FGFA and Super-30 programs, which pose the main threat to Beijing; and the strengthening of Pakistan, which has even greater territorial claims to India, seriously weakens the position of Delhi in the region. Secondly, for 15 years now, Chengdu and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex have been jointly producing and modernizing the FC-1 Xiaolong fighter-bombers (JF-17 Thunder), and from the 5th generation fighters Islamabad is unlikely to refuse. The emergence of a Sino-Pakistani counterbalance program for the licensed production of J-31 at PAC facilities is not excluded. This program can be developed as an asymmetric response to the success of the Russian-Indian FGFA.
The advancement of the Krechet into the Pakistani Air Force could fill the Chinese treasury with tens of billions of dollars, which will further strengthen the production capacities of the Celestial Empire, as well as contribute to the development of the missing links of the PLA - strategic stealth aviation and ultra-low-noise strategic submarine cruisers. As you know, the latter are among the most economically and science-intensive areas of the defense industry.
The next area for the promotion of export J-31s may well become the DPRK. The air force fleet of this country is hopelessly behind and requires immediate renewal, since any joint force action of the US Navy, as well as the Armed Forces of the Republic of Korea and Japan, can call into question the existence of the DPRK as such, albeit with terrible retaliatory consequences of missile strikes against pro-American aggressors. Forcing the PRC to transfer modern aviation (including J-31) to the North Korean side is quite capable of the neglected situation with the deployment in South Korea of a battery of the THAAD anti-missile complex, which has almost brought Beijing to the “boiling point”.
And finally, various African states, between which local military conflicts often erupt, or against which aggression is carried out by regional powers (recalls the F-15I Hel Haavir airstrike on a plant in Sudan), also do not mind purchasing a certain number of stealth fighters for "Scaring away" especially clever American "bedding".
Approximately such a portfolio of foreign orders for J-31 in the next decade can receive "Chengdu" and AVIC, which clearly justifies the reasoning of the Chinese pilot Xu Yonglin. But what about internal orders for the Navy and Air Force?
The carrier-based aircraft of the Chinese Navy is armed with the most modern machines of the 4 + / ++ generation - single J-15B and double J-15S. These fighters have outstanding flight performance and avionics comparable to those of the Indian Su-30MKI, although Chinese products have power plants without a thrust vector deflection system, which makes it impossible to perform unique super-maneuverable aerobatics. The J-15S, like their Russian counterparts, the Su-33, are capable of "twisting" any NATO carrier-based fighter in close air combat, but they can effectively withstand the same F-35Bs or stealthy Chinese Raptors approaching from the island's airbase. it will not be so easy for the sailors. In such realities, there is nothing better than to quickly adopt the J-31 Navy. The low takeoff weight of this fighter provides an excellent modernization groundwork for designing a deck modification with reinforced structural elements, as well as additional options for operation from the deck of an aircraft carrier (reinforced landing gear, landing hook, more complex and massive mechanization of a folding wing). It is logical that an increase in the mass of the "palubnik" will lead to some loss of thrust-to-weight ratio and maneuverability of the aircraft; in the future, this drawback can be eliminated by installing more high-torque RD-93MKM turbojet engines with a maximum thrust of 5800 kgf and an afterburner of 9500 kgf.
Now regarding the opinion of Xu Yonglin about the uselessness of the J-31 in the Air Force of the People's Republic of China. You need to be able to listen to any opinion and interpret it correctly, but not in this case. The fact is that the Su-27SKM, Su-30MKK / MK2 and J-10A / B, which are in service with the PRC Air Force, have neither stealth nor OVT. Most of these vehicles, except for the J-10B, are equipped with the outdated N001VE and Zhemchug radars, which cannot be opposed not only to the most powerful Japanese ATD-X Shinsin radars, but also to the A-APG-1 radars of the F-2A / B multifunctional fighters. … The Japanese representative of the stealth generation ATD-X can acquire initial combat readiness by about 2020, and will enter the Air Self-Defense Forces of Japan already with full "stuffing": deflected thrust vector, EPR of about 0.05 m2, cruising supersonic, far-sighted radar with a mode synthesized aperture can create a lot of trouble for the above-mentioned Chinese representatives of the "4+" generation. The radically modified version of the F-16C, the J-10C, will not be able to completely close the technological gap with the Japanese Shinsin, nor will the highly specialized J-20s, and therefore the only solution to preserve the advantages of China's continental fighter fleet is the J-31.
