GoldenDragondon’t make this kind of dangerous assumption. You have to remember that there are different blocks of FC-1 now.
If you don’t know what a term means, don’t use it. A “block” in aviation parlance is a production series. The FC-1 is still in prototype, there are no “blocks.”
There are Blocks 50, 52 and 60 for the F-16 production run. These are separate production series of the same run. Know the difference between a production run, a production series and prototypes? A series means a number of production aircraft made the same way during a run. Each series usually have new prototype (like the J-7G prototypes) after the last variant run.
You can get a FC-1 based on the original prototype or the new prototype. You can add FBW, uses the new MFDs and such. These are all extra options that can be attained with additional dollars.
Please stop it. There are three flying prototypes. Again, prototypes are not production so they can’t constitute separate blocks. If CAC began production of machines based on 01 and 03 then we would have a block. But there is no production now. There is no block.
04 is part of the same development cycle as 01 and 03. The changes from 03 to 04 all go into the same production machine in the future. 01, 03 and 04 are contributing to the same initial production run series or the same block when production does happen.
GoldenDragonIf China attempts to build a retaliatory strike arsenal the size of the USSR’s, it would bankrupt the country in the same way it did the Soviet Union. So China doesn’t even bother even though it has far more economic resources at its disposal than the USSR ever did.
At any rate, the US has HAD first strike capability on China for decades. What is happening now doesn’t change anything.
Simply put, American firepower is several orders of magnitude above China or anyone else. Russia has some residual retaliatory ability left behind in wake of the Soviet Union. But a first strike from the US has been already been possible for years considering the state of the Russian arsenal and submarine fleet.
GoldenDragonThat is absolutely so true. More interesting is the fact that the PAF is going for the “cheap” chinese radars which seem to be as capable as what the Europeans had to offer.. If we go for the same “cheap” version we’d still be quite okay. The JF-17 fits our requirements like a glove, not a day goes by that I don’t dream of it 🙂
The FC-1/JF-17 will fit many nations, MKII. Read the article from AFM just last year on the FC-1. Alan Warnes, editor of our host AFM, wrote that the FC-1 could have revolutionary effect on the air forces in the developing world. It was designed for smaller countries and featured from the very start a bvr, weapon, the SD-10.
BTW, this is the most publicized Chinese project ever. Far more than the J-7 and those sold extremely well (and still selling now.)
We could imagine how the FC-1 will sell after this kind of coverage AND CAC is already building on its customer-base won by the F-7.
GoldenDragonTake HK press with grain of salt. Hey, that J-11 WZ-10 picture is simply too good to be true.
And probably is.
But still an important picture even of the Z-10 was PSed in. The helo looks pretty real. Looks like the previous Z-10 but from a slightly different angle.
GoldenDragonBetween buildings?
I hope it was BEFORE the mass deaths from the Su-27 in Liv, Ukraine. I think that was in 2002.
Because if they were doing that after Lviv, it’s downright irresponsible.
GoldenDragonRussia succesfully exported a number of systems including Su-27. Additionally, there are more prototypes those state of development can only be speculated. Russia has other fields in which it has remarkable technology, unfortunately mostly military.
China in the contrast has until now only exported the J-7. Designs like the J-8 could not win any foreign customers. The FC-1 is still in development and the J-10 is object of speculation.From the safe point of view there is little to expect from China. None of their more advanced programs achieved a state of amturity yet that might give any conclusions about the potential of the industry. Although so many people write about it the information available is very poor and often influenced by cheerish newsfeeders. Where there are no facts, speculation and basic judgement step in.
Fair enough. Russia’s industry is more established and more experienced.
China cannot produce a competitive fighter aircraft at the moment without extensive help from Russia/Europe/USA.
Can’t disagree more. Competitive to whom?
Compared to the US, Europe is barely competitive and Russia is no more competitive than China. Look at the record of the F-86, F-4, F-15 and F-16 against Russian aircraft like the MiG-15, -21, -23, etc. US vs. Russian AC is an one-way slaughter on a massive scale.
Now, Europe, Russia and China are pretty much OVER competitive to the rest of the world. There’s a big gap between the US and the other three.
China undoubtedly trails Europe and Russia but not by the margin that each trails the US.
Another way of looking at it. Using price/cost analysis, you think a single $50m Su-27 or $60m Mirage 2000 can take on 3 or 4 J-8IIs or 7 or 8 J-7Gs when the same amount is spent? I think those two scenarios are pretty competitive.
GoldenDragonThey need an airforce to protect against drug runners and the type. Bangladesh is surrounded by India on three sides and the Bay of Bengal on the fourth. Wont be much use against India will they?
Xanadu, you’re one of the few who’ve been mostly clear-headed about these things.
But why does being surrounded on three sides mean Bangladesh must sit down and accept IAF aircraft or anyone else flying over its borders? Bangladesh has no right to safeguard its sovereignty?
Peace-time air space violation happens all the time. The old Drakens of the Austrian air force was tasked almost exclusively with chasing US jets that were always crossing their borders into Turkey and the Middle East. If they couldn’t catch up, the USAF simply denies it ever happened and it’s chalked up as an “UFO.”
GoldenDragonlet’s face it, any JF-17 that Bangladesh is going to get is one of those cheap, really downgraded versions, probably won’t have redunduncy in FBW and won’t have the all modern cockpit and will be restricted to a downgraded radar.
There is no proof of that. Going by history, China almost NEVER export a downgraded version. I doubt the JF-17 can be downgraded much anyways. Unlike the US, China doesn’t have the luxury nor have they the tradition of ever doing this.
That said, the FC-1 is meant to be an open architecture (very few planes are built without a planned engine and radar from the very start) but whether Bangladesh or China gets the less capable version, only time will tell. For example, the PLAAF J-7E fleet was distinctly inferior to the J-7PG and only now is the J-7G reaching the PLAAF.
China tends to treat its friends as equals if not better.
GoldenDragonOverly risky stunt.
I mean that is a perfectly good hole. Who knows what kind of damage a big Flanker could do to natural rock formations of this sort?
GoldenDragonHighly doubt the WS-13 or any RD-33 derivative can be put onto the JH-7A.
The Spey/WS-9 is a high-bypass (high for a fighter) engine configured for fuel efficiency over long distance and is perfect for the JH-7 striker needing range. The RD-33 is strictly a light fighter engine with a low-bypass ratio optimized for high speed and quick acceleration over efficiency.
GoldenDragonIt would be nice to see an export of the J-8II before it’s final retirement. But realistically the only time they’ll be able to send the Finback outside China would be when they are retired from the PLAAF and being unloaded at giveaway prices and armed with a bvr weapon like the PL-11 or FD-60.
GoldenDragonseems like US flag on the tail … or is it something else?
Special US flag with the 51st star representing Canada.
GoldenDragonThe same applies to every country on earth. Even the what we regard as western states, many of which face no strategic threat at all, and yet deploy far more expensive weapons systems, every country has within it situations that could be improved, yet just becouse a state is poor relative to another it does not mean it does not have the right to buy weapons.
Quite true. Especially the Western states. The US foremost among them, actually. They could better spend that money integrating their minorities so they don’t riot in South Central, London or the suburbs of Paris.
No one really threatens Western nations conventionally. It’s usually the other way around and has had been the case for the past 300 years or so.
Bangladesh is spending the minumum to defend its air space. Being poor doesn’t mean you need to leave your air space open to intrusion.
GoldenDragonMy friend,
Albania never got any J-5. It received in fact Soviet built MiG 17 via China in 1962. It got later one the JJ-5 or the FT-5.
Thanks for the correction and the FT-5 photo, Lika!
GoldenDragonYes, you did. But, one and the only one individual pilot rating is not going to represent the whole line of export.
It will not convince anyone.
Of course not. But he bought one.
When people (and countries) put their money where their mouth is, that is all the answer you need.
There is no standard “review” from a military pilot, especially not on current models. You can only go by what his air force operates. You see Chinese aircraft in air forces all over the world. That is all the review you need.
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