Thanks for the pretty detailed and comprehensive answer.
I find it incredibly that even though the Chinese are catching up to the US in terms of aviation technology, that the US is pretty far ahead, probably a generation or two, especially in terms of propulsion and information fusion. At the end of the day, the F-22 is a plane conceived in the 1980s & built in the 1990s. A full decade and half older than the J-20 but still ahead in two critical categories.
Indeed. What China has accomplished in the aviation field is nothing short of miraculous. Miraculous in the sense that it's brought about by sheer will and effort, not by accident.
And those two categories I mentioned are not different in a significant way and I also could be wrong about them. But I do try and take every detail possible into account.
The WS-15 has an afterburner thrust of 185 KN, and a TWR close to 11.
The F119 has an afterburner thrust of 156 KN (177 KN without the 2D TVC nozzle), and a TWR close to 11.
I remember seeing infographs on the statistics of the both engines and actually do remember them. The WS-15s AB thrust was around 178 kN but that's not significantly different from your 185, so no argument from me.
The F-119s thrust of 156 kN you listed is at sustained supersonic speed or super cruise not at afterburner ma bro. I don't believe its AB rating is publicly available to tell you the truth, at least I haven't seen actual or even semi-official data on its max. AB rating. But most credible info out there has it guesstimated a between 165–174 kN range. I'd say best case scenario it's right up there with the WS-15.
China has started the ground test for the 6th gen VCE engine back in 2017, and its code name is Jomolangma (Mount Everest), The code name for the WS-15 is Mount Emei.
Hahaha, that is cool! Love those names. Those names couldn't be better since developing an engine is akin to climbing the highest mountain, only 100 x harder!
J-20's radar was developed nearly 2 decades after AN/APG-77 and takes advantage of developments not available at the time of ATF. It features a larger dimension which should be able to accommodate more T/R modules than AN/APG-77, not to mention a capable EOTS system similar to F-35 to augment its detection capabilities. Its avionics are known to be enhanced with AI assist. The larger airframe of J-20 also provides more room for future upgrades.
Good points, I agree with everything except I don't put too much stock into AI-assisted technology, at least not now in its infancy. There's a reason why it's "artificial" and only assists in ways that humans have programmed it to do. Not saying it's useless by any means, just not a huge advantage.
As far as a larger airframe, there are some advantages and certainly some disadvantages, particularly if the initial design was primarily focused on stealth features. Having greater fuel capacity by sacrificing low observability is a bit counterproductive. But it seems the designers of the J-20 realized that and accepted the sacrifice for the sake of prioritization the jet's mission parameters.
At the same time, the F-22 has IFR to compensate for the requirements of additional fuel. As far as I know, there hasn't been any published photos of the J-20 actually performing in-flight refueling that I know of, are there? Do we know if this is in fact the retractable IFR probe for the J-20 or is the bottom pic a photoshop? If it does, does anyone have a better pic showing the IFRP?
In terms of air to air weapons, PL-15 outranges current AIM-120D by a significant margin and PL-10 has similar performance to AIM-9X. You cite AIM-260, but it has not been confirmed to be in service as of today. J-20 has a slightly larger weapon bay which could theoretically house munition with greater range and variety compared to F-22.
True on the AIM-260. I should've been clearer in that it's expected to be operational in 2026. But the weapons advantage still goes to the Raptor since it carries 8 missiles to the J-20's 6. Some might think that's not a big deal, but that is a huge difference, especially in A2A combat. Not only having the 2 additional missiles, but back to my original gripe about the gun which also gives the Raptor the advantage. Those are super critical areas of consideration.
But this here in this pic, is nothing short of outstanding! That's been one of my favorite features on the Black Eagle. Not only having a side bay, but being able to open the bay door, pop the missile out and close the door while keeping the missile racked up is just great.
Some would say oh having the missile racked up outside the fueselage ruins its stealth but what they don't realize is that those two side bays are for the short range PL missiles. So using them is within short ranges and within short ranges, the importance of stealth is negligable, at best. So IMO, that is a great feature because in anticipation of a close combat engagement, he can rack up the two missiles and not have to worry about the time it takes for the doors to open and fire the missile. This, IMO, is hardly unimportant but the opposite, a huge advantage.
The WSO in the back will control multiple low observable UCAVs to perform strike missions. These drones will fly ahead of J-20S and scan for threats, relaying the data to paint a complete battlefield picture.
When the J-20B first came out, first thing I thought was I'm glad it still looks great! Usually the 2-seat variants end up looking like ugly ducklings, but that thing is sweet. I am wondering why the radome seems a bit smaller though, and if that is the result of a new radar perhaps. I guess we'll soon find out.
