Sin you must remember though that the Gripen benefited from a lot off the shelf technology… that wasn’t the case for the F-16 at the time.

Point taken.

FC-20 M-MRCA Emerges

The first single-seat FC-20 prototype was rolled out by CAC last December
By Prasun K. Sengupta

China’s Sichuan-based Chengdu Aerospace Corp (CAC) and its affiliated 611 Institute has begun a hectic but structured flight-test programme for the FC-20 medium multi-role combat aircraft (M-MRCA), whose launch export customer is the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). The PAF has an initial requirement for 36 single-seaters and four tandem-seat operational conversion trainers, and envisages a total requirement for 80 FC-20s distributed among four squadrons.

The first single-seat FC-20 prototype was rolled out by CAC last December and it made its maiden flight last March. Derived from the CAC-built J-10A Vigorous Dragon M-MRCA, the FC-20 incorporates an under-nose modified lightweight air inlet, redesigned vertical tailfin, strengthened underwing inner pylons designed for carrying standoff precision-guided munitions (PGM) like the glide kit-equipped LS-6, nose-mounted infra-red search-and-track (IRST) system, a glass cockpit equipped with a holographic wide-angle heads-up display (HUD), a pair of inverted-gull wings (with the inner upper portion extending slightly downward, while the outer portion extending flat), a fixed in-flight refuelling probe, a large vertical tail, twin ventral stabilisers for providing greater stability at high angles of attack, and a single AL-31FN-M1 turbofan engine rated at 132.4kN thrust with afterburning. In August 2005 China had inked a USD 300 million contract with Russia’s Rosoboronexport State Corp to acquire initial 100 such engines. The entire R&D phase of the FC-20 is being carried out under the oversight of China’s state-owned China Aviation Industry Corp (AVIC).

The FC-20 will be able to carry 4.5 tonnes of weapons payload, and will come equipped with 11 hardpoints for carrying a wide range of air combat missiles (both within-visual-range and beyond-visual-range) and PGMs. The FC-20’s performance parameters include a maximum combat radius of 2,540km (1,370nm) in a hi-lo-hi mission profile, or of 1,310km (710nm) in a lo-lo-lo mission profile when carrying a 1,810kg (4,000lb) weapons payload.

The M-MRCA will have an empty weight of 9,750kg, maximum takeoff weight of 19,277kg, internal fuel capacity of 4,500kg, maximum speed of Mach 2 at high altitude and Mach 1.2 at sea level, takeoff run of 500 metres, combat radius of 1,100km, and a service ceiling of 18,000 metres. The FC-20 has a wingspan of 8.78 metres, overall length of 14.57 metres, height of 4.78 metres, and a gross wing area of 33.1 square metres. The airframe features high-quality welding, but is overwhelmingly of metallic construction, with composites accounting for only 12 per cent of the fuselage area.

CAC and its affiliated 611 Institute are now preparing to roll-out a tandem-seat deep interdictor variant of the FC-20, which, like the single-seater, will be equipped with a laser target acquisition/designation pod, laser-/GPS-guided PGMs, as well as PL-9C within-visual-range and PL-12 beyond-visual-range air combat missiles built by the Luoyang Opto-Electro Technology Development Centre. Design of this variant of the FC-20 is derived from the J-10B operational conversion trainer that made its maiden flight on 26 December 2003.

The FC-20’s tandem-seat variant will feature a stretched forward fuselage and a single-piece bubble canopy. Its dorsal spine will be enlarged to accommodate those avionics displaced by the rear cockpit. The PAF is widely expected to equip its FC-20s with the SELEX Galileo-built X-band Vixen 500E airborne active phased-array fire-control radar. The glass cockpit avionics suite will includes a wide-angle holographic HUD with up-front control panel and a video camera, twin monochrome AMLCD-based multifunction displays, a single colour AMLCD head-down display, infra-red sensors for a helmet-mounted sight, hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) controls, ring-laser-gyro-based inertial navigation system, air data computer, ARW-9101A radar warning receiver, Type 634 digital quadruplex fly-by-wire flight control system using a MIL-STD-1553B digital data bus, and a digital fuel management system and stores management system.

The FC-20’s compound delta-wing configuration will offer two important aerodynamic qualities. The swept leading edge of the wing will stay ahead of the shock-wave generated by the FC-20’s nose during supersonic flight, thus making the compound delta-wing a very efficient aerodynamic wing shape for supersonic flight. The leading edge of compound delta-wing will also generate a massive vortex that will attach itself to the upper surface of the wing during high angle-of-attack (AoA) manoeuvres, resulting in very high stall points.

[Full Feature/Report]

Yes, and pig´s do fly…

Yeah, that’s what I meant. If you’ve seen one, it looks like a fan stage, but it’s really not.

Yes, they do look like the frontal fan stage of the engine.

The RAN wanted CEC capability which i’m not sure the Sachsen class has. In addition, the F-100 is a much larger ship with 48 Strike length Mk.41 VLS rather then 32 Mk.41 which again, i’m not sure if they are strike length.

I also don’t know how APAR compares with the AN/SPY-1D(V) that Hobart will be getting.

One of the RAN AWD requirements was the AN/SPY-1, there was never the possibility of using the APAR/SMARTL (or something around Sampson/1850) combination.
HDW offered a “F-124/SPY-1 Frankenship”, it was rejected.
And the MK41 VLS on the “Sachsen” and “De Zeven Provinzien” are tatical lenght.

Cheers

boeing aircraft choose chin air intake for XF-36 ,despite regard by some to be “unstealthness”,yet test show the aircraft has very low RCS.did boeing engineers coated the entire fan blade with RAM?

You mean the X-32, right?

Here you go, it´s called “radar blocker”.

“Aviation Week & Space Technology 03/19/2001

Stealth Engine Advances
Revealed in JSF Designs
DAVID A. FULGHUM/ORLANDO, FLA. and WASHINGTON

When Boeing revealed its full-scale JSF mockup at England’s Farnborough air show last summer, most observers were shocked to see what appeared to be the engine face placed a few feet behind the opening of the air intake. One of the basic rules of stealth design is that you find a way to keep radar beams from striking the rotating parts of an engine. Engine faces traditionally produce large, sometimes amplified, and distinct radar reflections that can be analyzed to identify the engine and aircraft.

In a clever use of technology (a technique considered a proprietary secret by the two companies), Boeing and Pratt & Whitney worked together to add stealth to the inlet guide vanes to mask the fan blades behind them. The inlet vanes are variable and open to provide maximum air to the engine in vertical flight, but close to minimize radar reflections during flight at operational altitudes.

It´s official, two RAF front line Typhoon sqn´s slashed. From seven to Five.

(Hansard 6 July 2009 Column 558W):

Bill Rammell: On current plans, once the RAF’s Typhoon fleet is at full strength it will consist of seven squadrons; five front line squadrons supported by an Operational Evaluation Unit and an Operational Conversion Unit. The distribution of Tranche 3 aircraft across these squadrons has yet to be decided.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090706/text/90706w0012.htm#column_558W

Ah you mean The Sun and its famous page 3

For those non-UK readers who may not know – WARNING – NSFW!

Actually, that´s “UP” (something) the hill literature… :p

Sorry that it has taken me so long to raise what has been my pet gripe for about 10 years or however long it is since I heard Eurocopter’s thinking on this. Is it just me who thinks that Eurocopter’s claim that the Tigre’s agility renders a cannon unnecessary is missing the point?

This is a strange claim!

The Tiger helicopter right from the beggining had a 30mm cannon equiped version.
Even the Unterstützungshubschrauber Tiger (you got to love the Germans) version, the one without the gun, had some sensible ideas behind its requirements. That heli was suposed to fight a massive armoured Soviet advance across the Fulda Gap. The idea was blowing T-80´s by surprise/stealth, and avoid like hell getting into “shooting outs” with ZSU´s, so lets delete the gun (avoids trigger happy pilots getting blown by 23 mm bullets by spending too much time and being too close around enemy formations trying to kill anything with a gun) and use speed and AGILITY to get the “helloutathere” the fastest that you can.
Eurocopter tried to sell a “no gun Tiger” to GB because of the original British requirements were still very much influenced by that “Fulda Gap Mindset”. After loosing that one to the Apache, Eurocopter learned is lesson and for the last decade has offered a multi-role, gun equiped, Tiger for export.

I was forgeting, the French, the Aussies and the Spanish, all of them use cannon equiped Tigers. The German version, the UHT, doesnt have a “organical” cannon capability (but it can use underwing poded guns)

Spanish HAD Tiger

German UHT Tiger
Cheers