photos from Alert 5....
The Chinese have absolutely no shame. Its a copy...almost a direct copy.
But wait. It gets better. "Why the F-35 Blog" takes on the boys at Boeing who have obviously been smoking crack. Go to his site to read the whole thing but check this part out....
The bubba from Boeing actually said that. Piss poor timing on his part though. I'm sure he had no idea the Chinese would reveal a SECOND stealth fighter under development.
Its beyond obvious. China is our peer competitor and they're gearing up for a fight. I like the F/A-18 but its yesterdays technology and will be easily outclassed by threat weapons.
We must keep pace. We need the F-35.
NOTE:
Elements of Power blog gives a good primer and deconstructs the myths of the easily developed, flawless F/A-18 and compares it to the F-35's overblown issues.
But wait. It gets better. "Why the F-35 Blog" takes on the boys at Boeing who have obviously been smoking crack. Go to his site to read the whole thing but check this part out....
In a clear signal to F-18 supporters in the Navy, Chadwick added this barb: "With the F-35 continuing to have technical difficulties and to continue slipping to the right, they have to make sure they have the right capability for the men and women who go in harms way."Yeah.
The bubba from Boeing actually said that. Piss poor timing on his part though. I'm sure he had no idea the Chinese would reveal a SECOND stealth fighter under development.
Its beyond obvious. China is our peer competitor and they're gearing up for a fight. I like the F/A-18 but its yesterdays technology and will be easily outclassed by threat weapons.
We must keep pace. We need the F-35.
NOTE:
Elements of Power blog gives a good primer and deconstructs the myths of the easily developed, flawless F/A-18 and compares it to the F-35's overblown issues.
It might look like a Lightning II, but it wont perform like one.
ReplyDeleteEven if they have cracked the L/O side of it, can Chinese built engines put out half the thrust of American ones?
75%?
How noisy and clean are there radar?
of course you're right but we've super charged Chinese advancement due to global trade. they won't be far off consider this. they're building engines for GE and rolls royce...how long before those civilian applicatioons become military.
ReplyDeleteBefore we crap our collective pants lets wait to get some better photos of this bird. For we know this may just be a tech demonstrator like the J-20.
ReplyDeleteChina is currently waging an absolutely masterful psy-ops campaign, aided by sensationalistic reporting by the Western media and the US, in particular.
ReplyDeleteRemember the intermediate range anti-ship ballistic missile - the so called "carrier killer"? Of course, it couldn't be accurately targeted at something several hundred miles or more away and, therefore, is next to useless. Not bothering to look at the technical aspects, the media jumped all over it and instantly proclaimed the age of the carrier to be over.
Now, a JSF look-alike. Oh no. We're doomed. Doomed, I tell you! Either that, or the thing has been trotted out to jerk us around. Have the Chinese mastered stealth coatings? Low probability of detection radar? 360 degree sensing? Advanced integrated software to make the whole thing work? And so on? Possible, but I'm going to hold off on learning Mandarin until this thing actually is observed performing.
Appearance is not the same as performance.
ComNavOps
Navy Matters
While I agree the anti ship ballistic missile threat is over hyped it's also not insignificant. The Pershing II missile had active radar guidance and was developed in the 1970's and entered service about 40 years ago. There are multiple sensor guidance systems on various missiles around the world and one would assume on any Chinese anti ship ballistic missile system.
DeleteOn the new fighter the issue isn't that it's as good as the F-35 or F-22 but rather that the Chinese seem rather serious in developing next generation fighters and that our perceived advantage in these aircraft is a bit more tenuous than was thought a few years ago. How capable these aircraft are and how many get into service by when remains to be seen.
Eventually China will master advanced jet engine production along with other technologies required to create a competitive fighter. They seem to have little trouble stealing the technologies it's getting the manufacturing process down that seems to take them a while. That said many of their industries have taken giant strides the last 10 years including automotive and aerospace. It was only 15 years or so ago that we sold them all kinds of ballistic missile technology and now their launching more than us. It will be interesting to see the pace of their fighter development the next 20 years and I mean that in the Chinese definition of the word interesting.
Why on earth do our defense contractors even bother to have computer networks if they can't secure them?
ReplyDeleteUSS Helm: china-defense [*] has been checking this one for a while. Apparently there's some rivalry between firms and this _is_ a demonstrator of the rival firm to the J20.
ReplyDeleteAlso, does anyone know if that's the same Boeing spokesman who had to admit they would _not_ use slanted tail on the F15?
Take care.
Ferran, BCN
[*] http://china-defense.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/here-is-high-resolution-photo-of-j-21j31.html