New US Strike Fighter or Chinese Fighter?

Just listening to a Podcast on the UK next Generation aircraft (Tempest) but at 23.30 minutes they mention the Chinese NGB and that the US has just released information hinting at a new strike fighter.

Anyone got any info?

Linky

a reply to: Forensick

About 15 years ago a company I was working for needed a radio circuit on a computer chip. At the time, we found a Chinese supplier. What was amazing was the level of sophistication of this circuit on a 50 year old application. It's was like $2 part. And the guy who designed the part was like someone who graduated Summa Cum Laude from MIT.

This made me think since the Chinese have pegged the Yuan to the dollar ALL manufacturing has moved to China. In the US, we no longer have a culture of engineering and engineering expertise. If the Chinese have huge numbers of extremely smart engineers developing the most sophisticated technologies then how can the US possibly complete with the Chinese on weapon technology?

When you have a nation of people working at McDonalds you have a much different culture of technology than you have when you have an army of extremely smart engineers developing high tech electronics.

Whatever jet the Chinese are developing I'm sure it's probably pretty good tech!

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: Forensick

About 15 years ago a company I was working for needed a radio circuit on a computer chip. At the time, we found a Chinese supplier. What was amazing was the level of sophistication of this circuit on a 50 year old application. It's was like $2 part. And the guy who designed the part was like someone who graduated Summa Cum Laude from MIT.

This made me think since the Chinese have pegged the Yuan to the dollar ALL manufacturing has moved to China. In the US, we no longer have a culture of engineering and engineering expertise. If the Chinese have huge numbers of extremely smart engineers developing the most sophisticated technologies then how can the US possibly complete with the Chinese on weapon technology?

When you have a nation of people working at McDonalds you have a much different culture of technology than you have when you have an army of extremely smart engineers developing high tech electronics.

Whatever jet the Chinese are developing I'm sure it's probably pretty good tech!

We are now doing exactly what China did to us.. we sit back and let them do all the work and then steal it once they near development. Why work harder when you can work smarter??

a reply to: Forensick

They're slowly releasing potential details of our next gen aircraft. The design requirements are to be finalized in three the next couple years.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
When you have a nation of people working at McDonalds you have a much different culture of technology than you have when you have an army of extremely smart engineers developing high tech electronics.

You clearly do not appreciate that most people in China live in rural poverty, at least by Western standards.

China has run a highly successful programme of state sanctioned/actual technology theft, the extent of which is only now becoming clear. They have not developed technology - just stolen it. Oh yes, I am sure there's innovation around the edges, but let's not demean the countries where innovation really happens.

a reply to: Zaphod58

The USAF effort seems to be well underway from the budgets. However, the USAF has not officially released its AOA as yet.

The US Navy is due to release their AOA this summer. which, knowing the navy, will be in september.

These are both covered along with the Tempest and FCAS in the 6th gen fighter meta thread.

The Chinese strike fighter is has been called on the sinophonic internet the JH-XX. The US intel community is pretty sure this is really being developed and it makes sense to do so. We have the mudhens. The russians have the Su-34s. If you're going to make a new strike fighter, a 5th gen would be the right thing to do. There are rumors the JH-XX has been spotted flying and looks vaguely like the J-31 with a side by side seating like the Su-34. However, take with a MASSIVE grain of salt since no pictures have come to light.

The Chinese are also working on the J-XY, a 5th gen carrier aircraft. This is possibly derived from the J-31/FC-31. However, that is not certain.

The Chinese are also working on a VSTOL. What the status of that is remains to be seen. A few rumors and the Chinese tried to acquire data on the F-35B via Rolls Royce. The Chinese have the first Type 075 LHD is under construction. While VSTOL fighters are not necessary to make LHD's useful, they are nice to have. The VSTOL fighter would make the Liaoning and "Shandong" even more useful.

The Chinese have also started their successor the J-20. They are calling successor a 6th gen. This is in the very, very early stages. Rumored first flight is 2035. We shall see.

The J-20 has had IOC. FOC is expected in the next couple years. Total number built is in excess of 20, but that number is a year old. if the LRIP for the J-20 continued for the past year at the pace previously, there are now 38 to 50 J-20s in service. The Chinese are keeping that number close to their vest though. However, sat imagery has a lot of them everywhere. My bet is they are trying to get the maintainers at the different bases trained rather than merely playing games with the sat images. They are certainly doing that as well, though.

The Chinese are working on multiple stealthy UCAVs: Dark Sword, etc. They are intended to be Loyal Wingmen.

There are at least two Chinese fastmovers in the works. The hypersonic UAV that was spotted via sat at an airbase and then a spaceplane of some sort, HTOL. Supposedly, it will take off and land horizontally. it is unclear whether this is a TSTO or a SSTO. Most of the verbage sounds like that latter. The images that keep getting posted show the former. Flight is planned for 2021. Given the massive work on hypersonics in China, I'm betting its a prototype and likely to be real. Whether its going to be what is advertised or just something related, time will tell.

Finally, there is the H-20. This stealthy bomber ought to be out in public in the next couple years. It's intended to be a B-2 equivalent. They do not expect to match the B-21. However, even a B-2esque stealthy heavy bomber would be a massive geopolitical game changer.

People keep thinking of China as it was in the 90s or 80s. That is not at all the China of today. We have been training their scientists and engineers for 40 years and that has born fruit: we're good teachers, at least for tech. The China of today has the money and nearly the tech to take us on. They lack the operational knowledge and the numbers (oh the irony) to take us on. The 2030s are going to be very...exciting.

a reply to: paraphi

You clearly do not appreciate that most people in China live in rural poverty, at least by Western standards.

And you are also ignoring China has a population the size of the US living at US standards as well. if not more. China has a combined population greater than Europe, the US and Russia.

China has run a highly successful programme of state sanctioned/actual technology theft, the extent of which is only now becoming clear. They have not developed technology - just stolen it. Oh yes, I am sure there's innovation around the edges, but let's not demean the countries where innovation really happens.

That was true 20 years ago. That is not true today. They are still stealing, to be sure, but the US and Europe has been training China's engineers and scientists for the last 40 years. We're good teachers. The Chinese are innovating. Chinese AI work blows Europe out of the water and is second only to the US. And they're catching up there so fast its ridiculous. They have their weak points: there are tricks of metallurgy they haven't cracked yet, frex. We - America! - have our own issues.

The laws of physics don't care what color your flag is. Anyone with the knowledge, time and money can crack them. China has those. People need to stop assuming the Chinese are unable to match the US. They will be able to soon. Very soon.

a reply to: dfnj2015

What makes you think that places like DARPA, the Air Force Research Labs, Boeing and Lockheed Martin do not still have the cream of the crop when it comes to engineers?

a reply to: PokeyJoe

They're going to need them. There are some interesting walls to climb with planned new technology.

An interesting dynamic today and into the future will be China publicly fielding any type of new technology that the US may have been reluctant to in the past. We may see some truly spectacular things come about.

Two separate sources have now reported first flight of the JH-XX. This is the strike fighter for the Chinese. It is supposedly of the F-15E class (or larger) and 5th gen. The first flight was supposedly June 10th, 2019 (putting the date in for future forum searchers). No pix yet.