JH-7 going Stealth?

i was looking up the latest news on the J20, and found this wareye.com... so is the J20 a smoke screen for the JH-7? or is the JH-7 a new breed of 5th gen fighters from China from the link

JH-7B fighter, a new type of Chinese fifth generation stealth fighter

they, the link authors, say this as a fact or statement, not as a question. What do they know, that the rest of us do not.

Originally posted by bekod
i was looking up the latest news on the J20, and found this wareye.com... so is the J20 a smoke screen for the JH-7? or is the JH-7 a new breed of 5th gen fighters from China from the link

JH-7B fighter, a new type of Chinese fifth generation stealth fighter

they, the link authors, say this as a fact or statement, not as a question. What do they know, that the rest of us do not.

Could all of their aircraft crapola be at the same level of reality as the wonderous, twin-hulled aircrafts carriers that is currently making the rounds of the internet?

"Going stealth" to a non-stealth design like the JH-7 is only going to be an incremental improvement in its radar signature.

by carrying fewer weapons internaly, using "stealth" materials where they can, etc, they may well achieve significant reduction in its RCS.

But if you were after any serious stalth capabilities you'd be ending up with a whole new aircraft regardless, and calling it a JH-7B sounds more like a propaganda/smokescreen exercise than any important actual relationship between the 2.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


I agree. The JH-7 is a particularly old fashioned design. It's on a par with the strike aircraft that western designers were creating in the late 50's and early 60's and wouldn't have looked out of place as a losing competitor for the European MRCA that resulted in the Tornado.

The idea of turning this Into a stealthy design seems like an incredible waste of effort. The designation JH-7B therefore is more likely to be either completely fictional, or an exercise in misdirection. A previous example of such misdirection was Americas first jet, the Bell P-59A, which had nothing in common with the slightly earlier P-59 propeller driven fighter.

Edit to add; since posting this reply I have come across several other articles similar to this one which seems to show the whole thing was made up.

www.flightglobal.com...
the-diplomat.com...

reply to post by waynos
ok so one says yes it was photo shopped, and he is from china ??? makes me wonder if it is fro real and they china wants to keep it hush hush from the link

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before a Chinese Web user admitted he had created the ‘stealth JH-7’ image using Photoshop software.

The most compelling aspect of the faked Chinese stealth fighter isn’t the creator's trickery. Rather, it’s that news audiences are so accustomed to big advancements in Chinese military technology that they assume any grainy image of a new warplane is, in fact, authentic.

and here is the link the-diplomat.com...

reply to post by bekod


Well, ihave to say Bekod that it doesn't make me wonder that, and I've got a pretty good track record on here over the last six or so years in choosing fakes from reality so I'm happy to stick my neck out on this one and call 'BLUFF'

I have my doubts about a stealth upgrade to the JH-7 but I have heard rumors of a naval upgrade so it could be used with the ex-varyag.

Originally posted by waynos
The idea of turning this Into a stealthy design seems like an incredible waste of effort. The designation JH-7B therefore is more likely to be either completely fictional, or an exercise in misdirection. A previous example of such misdirection was Americas first jet, the Bell P-59A, which had nothing in common with the slightly earlier P-59 propeller driven fighter.

As waynos points out making the j-7 into a stealth airframe would be a waste to time and effort and beyond some incremental improvements. Stealth has to be incorporated in the initial design for it to be truly stealthy (-30 dBs +)

Some things can be done to REDUCE an older airframes signature (Think F/A-18 E/F)

AESA radar reduces the RCS of an airframe because it is not as reflective as a conventional radar set.
Engine intakes: the rotating fan has a huge RCS. redesigning the inlets and using RAM can hide some of this.
Internal weapons carriage and modest structural changes like the F-15SE