sancho
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2009
- Messages
- 13,011
- Reaction score
- 27
- Country
- Location
The Chinese does not care.
The Chinese members here will take great offense at the argument that the J-20 is based off the MIG 1.44, but that is the fact and truth. Yes, Chinese designers and engineers are well learned and trained enough, but so far, China have made no conceptual/theoretical and engineering breakthroughs in aviation in general, let alone military aviation.
That's the point, that's why Russia was neither shocked, nor even surprised by the Chinese fighter developments, since they most likely was well aware of them, be it in fighter design, radar or engine fields.
But ultimately, the Chinese designers and engineers do not care on how much behind they are compare to American aviation. The 1.44's design served them well as the foundation for an indigenous 'stealth' fighter and they succeeded. Just like the rounded cube, they smoothed out the 1.44's basic design and with their own sub-systems, they can rightly claim the J-20 to be indigenous and in many respects, they are correct.
They succeded in re-producing what they got from other sources and I have praised their capabilities in the production field often enough, but wrt to own developments, they still struggle, which is evident by the fact that they remain to be dependent on Russia for radar and engine techs. The J20 might look like a NG fighter, but unless it gets a NG radar, engine and avionics, it isn't!
It is still not confirmed if J11B has an AESA, or what kind of radar J10B gets, recent reports hints on delays possibly caused by the difficulties they have with own radar as well as engine developments.
I don't critisize that they copy, they hardly have another choice, just like to spend huge ammounts of money, but they are technically still not on a level with the Russians now.
angled faceting, the PAK is really similar to the J-20 in that both are evolutionary from existing designs.
The angled faceting is the same for any stealth fighter and is even similar to US stealth fighters. Also how is J20 evolutionary from existing designs, it it's a mix of the Mig 1.44 and the F22?
That would have been the case if they have further developed the J10 design to a stealth fighter (as early speculations suggested), but that obviously wasn't the case and that is the difference of their current capabilities, compared to Russian or US. The later have existing knowhow to base such NG developments on, China will only have it in the coming years and decades, but they will go there way.
You are not saying anything new regarding money. Wealth allows leisure and eventually creativity and I am not going to feel ashamed at how much we spends on R/D, military or else.
But then you have the answer why Russia is behind and that it doesn't have anything to do with their general capability to develop things like this.