https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/04/09/a-japanese-f-35a-fighter-jet-is-missing-remaining-12-are-grounded/

Yeah, they found the wreckage alright.
It sounds more like small pieces floating on the surface of the Sea. It was spotted from an P-8.
It will sadly be very hard to do a “Reconstruction” out of this F-35. It must have been a hard impact, there is the Sea current and dept in which will spread out wreckage radius.

When i said reconstruction, i mean means to find out what went wrong.

It’s going to be tough to salvage all the bits and pieces.

Russia and China.

Cheers

Both signed on to UN sanctions, which expires in 5 years IIRC.

Why did Iran never build a F-20 analogue with a RD-33?

The Turks claim their contractors are the sole providers for the F-35’s panoramic cockpit display and missile remote interface unit, and without their cooperation these capabilities would be delayed for years.

Su-15 has two gunpods under the belly. Su-15bis has R-25 engines with boosted afterburners, so thrust to weight should be impressive, at least for a minute.

J-8 is a lighter airplane with significantly greater range even without IFR.

Alpha Bravo:

Why would that be the case? What’s so special about a VTOL UCAV?

This has long been vapourware, seems like they’re going ahead with it. What role would it play, recon, attack?

Stealth aircraft are still vulnerable to airfield attacks, and they are still limited to very large aircraft carriers.

We still don’t know if Dark Sword is an active project. It’s unlikely to be for attack or ISR as a flying wing is better suited for those missions. It could be an autonomous deep magazine for the J-20.

QuantumFX:

DSI has a speed limit. IIRC, fighters with DSI will not exceed Mach 2.0. Original J-10/10A with the vanila AL-31FN supposed to have reached mach 2.2 (I’ve heard as high as Mach 2.3) at altitude. The newer J-10B/C despite having more powerful AL-31FN variants, will not exceed mach 2.0. Max speed must be around Mach 1.8 maybe mach 1.9. Su-57 is supposed to be a high speed fighter (Mach 2.5+). It has variable inlets.

Importantly, China has a major weakness when it comes to high powered turbofans compared to the US as well as Russia. So they will do whatever they can to reduce the weight of fighters until there newer generation engines come into force. DSI helps reduce weight, complexity, maintenance cost as well as helps reduce the RCS. US does not have that limitation. US flew YF119 and YF120 wa back in 1990.

Regarding 6th gen US concepts? Those are ‘concepts’ they’ve released for the public. What the final product might include is unknown to any of us outsiders. And as I said before, the US does not have engine limitations.

A good case has been made that stealth aircraft should avoid supersonic speed to avoid IR detection, especially now that long range long wave IRST is operational. Supersonic speed is still relevant to escape missiles but top speed is is only possible for a matter of seconds at specific altitudes. It is far less relevant than supercruising at say Mach 1.5 for 500km.

Looks about J-10’s size, prbably designed around the same parts.