Well maybe you didn’t get the point I was making, which was, why is it necessary to have a fully fifth gen fighter fleet in the first place?

I would much rather the PLAAF bought a lot more of the best fifth gen China could make and use conventional fighters to make up the numbers rather than settle for a tiny force of your best and waste their budget getting huge numbers of a watered down fifth gen that would not be as good in AA and have a stealth capability that will not be needed for 99% of strike missions.

I am sure there are plenty that wished the USAF had never bothered with the F35 and instead bought a few hundred more F22s and developed either something like the Eurocanards or a ‘silent eagle/hornet/whatever’ to make up the numbers.

Ok, sorry to miss your point earlier. I guess it makes economical sense to have a large 4++G contingent, with a sizable 5G cohort of fighters for the top end.

But I think drawing comparisons with the what the US did is an oversimplification. The problems with the F-35 is that 3 different, and very distinct mission profiles, were attempted to be incorporated in the same airframe. That was always going to cause problems, which we can see today with delays and spiralling costs. But that doesn’t mean China has to follow a similar path. Furthermore, China could probably develop a single engine 5G fighter for considerably lower cost than the F-35, which doesn’t necessarily require STOVL, carrier and land based varients from a single airframe.

Why would the PLAAF need an F35 equivalent to fill the numbers?

Does the USAF need the F35?

Yes, why do you think F-22 was capped at under 200 aircraft? It was too expensive to replace the hundreds of F-15s and F-16s, hence, the reason for the F-35 as a lower cost 5G to replace all those thousands of F-16s around the world and in USAF service….although that seems unlikely at this stage due to cost escalations with the F-35.

Doesn’t it also have a rocket engine and a V12 internal combustion engine?

I can’t figure out why it needs a V12 engine?

Considering that the PAF are saying that China has agreed to a J10B export in a few years time, I wonder if that may be CAC’s interim plan and focus – to sell the J10B as a 5th gen-. It does not have full stealth, but with AESA, IRST, sensor fusion and all that jazz, they could easily sell it as a serious alternative to the Eurocanards at a fraction of the cost that will be available in less than a few years.

Not everyone can afford to jump on the fifth gen bandwagon, and to these air forces, the J10B might be seriously tempting.

Another possible Chinese fifth gen export aircraft might come SAC. There are a lot of rumors floating around that even though they lost the PLA contract to CAC, they are still carrying on with their own design, funding it out of their own pockets.

If that does reach fruition and the PLA has no interest, it may be offered up for export, although I’m not to sure how well a PLA reject would sell internationally…

The J-10B appears as an attractive cost effective stepping stone between 4G and 5G, particularly for airforces that have no current 5G plans, such as the PAF. If it’s true that J-20 avionics and systems have been tested on the J-10B, then some of that tech may filter down to the J-10B.

However, the alternative simpler 5G contender from SAC sounds really interesting, if true.

But here’s a thought, won’t the PLAAF require something similar to the F-35, i.e. a single engine 5G fighter which can be produced en masse to make up numbers? Surely the J-20, or any further twin eginned heavy 5G varient, will be acquired in smaller numbers for specific roles, such as long range strike and air-dominance, similar to the F-22/F-35 setup in the USAF?

http://cnair.top81.cn/link.htm

Don’t let the amateur-looking website foul you, the creator of that website is considered pretty reliable in his speculations and writeups on the PLAAF and PLAN.

Thanks, I’ve been following that site for a number of years, it appears to discuss currently known fighter programmes and broader speculation, but it doesn’t indicate any form of single engine smaller 5G programme?

Wasn’t there rumours that China is also working on a smaller single engine 5G version, perhaps equivalent to the F-35?