Although the joy brought by the launch of 003 is still there, for military fans who "like the new and hate the old", they have obviously focused their attention on newer and more advanced weapons. But for a giant systematic project like an aircraft carrier, the construction and generation of its combat effectiveness is a complex and long-term process, and it is far from as simple as building a giant ship. For the aircraft carrier system, the core part is the carrier-based aircraft . Today we will talk about the last key carrier-based aircraft of 003 - the J-35.
No matter how many people are unhappy, the J-35 is my country's next-generation stealth carrier-based aircraft
The J-35 is deeply improved from the FC-31 "Falcon Eagle". After 9 years of rumors and nirvana, it will be launched in October 2021. It first flew in March, and the current test flight progress is good. The source even photographed several prototypes being put into test flight at the same time, and the progress is gratifying. It is even possible that the J-35 will conduct a carrier-aircraft matching test flight next year. You can see photos of a stealth carrier-based aircraft fully independently developed by our country taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier.
It looks similar, but the research and development ideas behind it may be very different.
Even though the J-35 has become my country's next-generation stealth carrier-based aircraft, there are still some voices that are not optimistic about it. For example, some people believe that the J-35 is a dual-engine version. F35, and because the engine is (temporarily) stretched, its performance is not as good as that of the F35C. I am afraid it will suffer a loss in future competitions at sea.
To evaluate the J-35, we must first consider a fundamental question: what kind of aircraft carrier-based aircraft does our country need, or what is our highest priority demand for the next generation of carrier-based aircraft.
The B-1B bomber that launches anti-ship missiles
For the future mission positioning of my country's aircraft carrier battle group , one of the core tasks is to establish a position in the Western Pacific outside the first island chain to intercept and block strong enemies. Our country's intervention in the war of final unification, especially the interception of powerful enemy naval, air and air power. This requires aircraft carrier-based aircraft to have excellent air control performance and interception capabilities, followed by sea strike performance.
This scene is basically impossible
So to a certain extent, if the J-20 can be put on the ship, then it can meet the Navy's performance needs for the next generation of carrier-based aircraft. Unfortunately, due to congenital reasons, it is too difficult for the J-20 to be mounted on the ship.
If we insist on making an analogy, the J-35 is closer to the F22
in terms of performance trade-offs. On the premise of meeting the requirements of ship-aircraft matching, the J-35 pays more attention to air superiority in terms of performance trade-offs, and will even have super patrol capabilities. This is a good match on the vast ocean. It is of great significance to fight for air supremacy against powerful enemy fighter jets and intercept bomber groups carrying anti-ship missiles.
Feedian
The F35, the opponent that competes with the J-35, is completely different in terms of performance choices. The F35 is essentially a stealth attack aircraft with "seven points for ground attack and three points for air superiority". In the US Air Force system, the F22 is responsible for air superiority operations, and the F35A is more responsible for ground attack missions, so in order to obtain better range performance and a larger bomb bay, making the body bloated and fat. It relies more on excellent stealth performance and situational awareness for air superiority operations, but its maneuverability, especially its supersonic performance, is relatively mediocre. The J-35 has a slimmer and lighter body, optimizing its maneuverability at the expense of payload and range performance. This also gives the commander-in-chief of the Falcon Eagle the confidence to say that the Falcon Eagle can kill the F35 in the air.
Therefore, although the J-35 and F35 look very similar, they are quite different in terms of performance trade-offs. Everyone should pay attention to this premise when comparing these two carrier-based aircraft. Then there is another question. Will the J-35, which successfully boarded the 003 deck, become the Air Force’s second stealth fighter after the J-20? After all, the topic of falcon "eating four birds with one machine" has been around for a long time.
When discussing this topic, we still have to start with the needs of customers.
The J-20 also has powerful ground attack capabilities (potential)
As my country’s first heavy-duty stealth fighter, the J-20 undoubtedly has strong air combat capabilities, and the innate advantages of heavy-duty aircraft also give it powerful multi-purpose capabilities ( potential).However, in terms of the Air Force's missions in the future, the J-20 will still focus on air superiority operations, similar to the role played by the F22 in the U.S. Air Force.
Of course, under the requirement of "both offense and defense", the Air Force will also need to optimize its strike capabilities in the future, preferably with a low price and high cost performance multi-purpose stealth fighter. To put it bluntly, it is a suppressed version of the F35A. With 200-300 J-20s supporting them, the New Four's requirements for air combat performance do not need to be so high, but the ground strike capability must be more prominent, and since our country still has a large number of J-7 and even J-10 early models It needs to be replaced, and the new four should be cheap enough.
The air force of a major country has a lot of pressure to change its equipment, and there are many places to spend money.
As for the J-35, which is currently a carrier-based aircraft, it overlaps with the J-20 in terms of performance trade-offs (and the air superiority performance of the J-35 may be comparable to the J-20), so the J-35 air force model must be reborn. The improvement can sacrifice part of the air combat performance to improve the payload range performance, and the cost will also widen the gap with the J-20.
If the J-35 gets the Air Force model as expected, I believe it will be very similar to the F35A in all aspects, fat and fat. This is not "copying" as some netizens say, but the convergence of technical paths under the convergence of needs. As the saying goes, different paths lead to the same goal.
