The J-35 may be hiding a secret!
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LearningTranscript
00:00Hey, in the first video of this series we have discussed the Chinese aircraft carrier
00:04type 003, which is probably going to be launched this year.
00:09In the second video of this series we discussed the force multipliers that are likely going
00:14to be part of the carrier wing.
00:16In this video we are going to discuss the combat component of the air wing.
00:21So be prepared for J-15, J-20 and something unexpected about the brand new J-35.
00:37The Xinyang J-15 is the current centerpiece of Chinese naval aviation.
00:44The translation of the Chinese name means Flying Shark, while the NATO moniker is Flanker
00:50X-2.
00:51Yes, because the J-15 is actually one of the many Flanker variants that populate non-Western
00:58aligned air forces around the world.
01:01I always stress that the Chinese do copy way less than is commonly believed, but in this
01:07case the J-15 is indeed a copy, a reverse engineering of a Suhoi-33 prototype that was
01:16sold by the Ukraine.
01:17The prototype was acquired in 2001, the project started in 2006 and the first flight happened
01:25quite quickly in 2009.
01:28Problem was Russia was not okay with China copying the aircraft and something similar
01:35actually happened with the J-11, so there has been quite a long and harsh confrontation
01:41about intellectual property between Russia and China, but this is a story for another
01:46time.
01:47In 2012 the aircraft landed for the first time on the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning.
01:54That wasn't the end of development, in fact in the same year the first dual seater took
02:00the skies.
02:01It is not clear how many aircraft are in service at the moment, we are in 2022, even because
02:06there have been a few accidents.
02:08It should be around 60 aircraft considering that right now the third production batch
02:14is running.
02:16These aircraft currently form the carrier air wing of the two aircraft carriers in service,
02:22the Liaoning and the Shandong, however, even though the two carriers and their air wing
02:28is considered combat ready, the main mission of these two carriers is to train pilots and
02:34personnel.
02:35About the aircraft itself, well, it's a flanker, so it looks like a flanker, it flies like
02:43a flanker, it has the same structure, performance and aerodynamics of a flanker, however, it
02:49is a Chinese flanker.
02:51In fact, the avionics has been derived from the J-11 and it is largely national, albeit
02:58it has been inspired by some Russian solutions.
03:01The Chinese have declared that 90% of the components are in fact Chinese, and if you
03:06consider that the aircraft may fly with Russian engines, well, judge for yourself.
03:13There has been a long-running quarrel among the western analysts.
03:18Some believe that the J-15 is superior performance-wise to the Suhoy-33, but not as sophisticated
03:26as the Suhoy-35.
03:28Others simply believe that it is utter junk.
03:31Sir, this is not politically correct.
03:35Ok, some believe that the reverse engineering was not adequate and this led to issues regarding
03:43the flight controls and the aircraft structure, and indeed, if the original Suhoy-33 was already
03:49a relatively heavy carrier aircraft, the J-15 is even heavier.
03:55It is actually an aircraft that polarizes the judgment quite a lot, which means that
03:59we are not really sure about this aircraft, because if we were sure, pretty much the judgment
04:06would have been rather uniform, no?
04:08The one thing that seems certain, though, is that the current carrier configuration
04:14is really penalizing for the aircraft.
04:17Since both carriers are ski-jump carriers, the take-off weight of the aircraft is really
04:23penalized and this is something the J-15 doesn't need because it is already quite heavy.
04:28So, for example, if a full fuel load is embarked, the aircraft payload is limited to two medium
04:35missiles and two light missiles.
04:37Now, this seems very bad, but this wasn't really penalizing for the original mission
04:43that these carriers had.
04:45In fact, these carriers are a derivation of an old Soviet design in which the carrier
04:51was supposed just to do the local air defense of the naval group if the aircraft just had
04:58to scramble to intercept the enemy, while range probably wasn't a big concern.
05:03Obviously, for a navy that has blue water ambitions, this is a rather severe limitation.
05:09This limitation is expected to disappear when the carrier 003 is going to enter service.
05:16In fact, it is going to be a catobar aircraft carrier with catapults.
05:21Some analysts expect that the carrier wing, at least initially, will still be composed
05:27of J-15s.
05:28In fact, there are confirmed news that two prototypes with catapult bars and strengthened
05:34structures are flying right now.
05:37It is not clear if the third production batch will actually feature this variant, which
05:43is believed to be named J-15T.
05:47We will have to wait and see.
05:48But the wait is almost over.
05:55The J-20 is currently the crown jewel of the Chinese aircraft industry.
06:01We have already discussed the aircraft at length on the channel, so I won't get into
06:05too many details, but I suggest you to watch the video, link above and below.
06:11Obviously, the J-20 is a land-based aircraft, so what does it have to do with the 003 carriers?
06:18Well, simple.
06:19In 2019, the Chinese press reported that the Chinese Navy had chosen the J-20 as the new
06:26carrier-based stealth aircraft.
06:28Shortly thereafter, other news appeared that Chengdu was working to a naval version shortened.
06:36In fact, navalizing a ground aircraft is no easy task.
06:40The first element to consider is the role of the aircraft on the carrier.
06:45In fact, analysts do agree that J-20 is not a multi-role platform.
06:51Considering the characteristics that we know, it is expected that the two main missions
06:56of the J-20 will be VVR air superiority and long-range penetrations for ground attack
07:04with precision-guided weapons.
07:06The absence of a cannon and the lack of usable external pylons greatly reduce the versatility
07:14of the platform.
07:16This means that an air wing cannot be flown by J-20 only.
07:20At least at the beginning, a component of J-15 will be required.
07:25A second consideration is about the structure and the design of the aircraft itself.
07:31In fact, a naval aircraft, while taking off and landing, is subject to loads that are
07:38different and generally higher than a land-based aircraft.
07:42The front gear assembly is subject to inertial loads when taking off from the catapult.
07:48The gear and the tailhook are subject to violent impulsive loads when landing, and the points
07:54where the gear legs and the tailhook are actually connected with the aircraft structure should
08:01be capable of bearing these loads and not breaking, and this is the easy part, but should
08:08also be dimensioned in a way not to show metal or material fatigue in the long term,
08:16and this is a bit more difficult to design despite the fact that today you have all these
08:21kind of computer simulations and so on.
08:23The whole aircraft must not be too flexible, that is, the wings and everything that is
08:28hanging underneath should not slam into the deck in case of a rough landing, and when
08:35launching the aircraft should not arch on the catapult.
08:39All of this must happen while we consider that the state on the flight deck and in the
08:43hangar is at premium, so at least the wings are better befolding.
08:49And finally, the marine environment is salty, hence it is very corrosive, so an adequate
08:55anti-corrosion treatment must be implemented.
08:59All this means that a carrier-based aircraft is at least a 5% heavier of an equivalent
09:05land-based aircraft, so Chengdu is modifying the aircraft in order to make it suitable
09:10for carrier use, and he is going to make it shorter, so he is going to occupy less space.
09:17So far, despite the fact that the development of the J-20s is usually quite quick, we have
09:22seen no prototypes flying.
09:25And one element that I suspect is making this job quite difficult is the aircraft configuration
09:32itself.
09:33For a carrier aircraft is desirable to have a relatively low landing speed in order to
09:40reduce the amount of energy that needs to be dissipated by the arresting gear, and reduce
09:46the landing loads.
09:48This is the reason why carrier aircraft tend to have wings larger and wing loads lower
09:55than equivalent land-based aircraft.
09:58The J-20 configuration has quite small wings and probably relies quite heavily on the body
10:04to generate lift.
10:05It is unclear, at least it is not clear for me, if such a configuration is conducive of
10:12being adapted for carrier use, even considering that the small wing size doesn't leave too
10:16much room for high lift devices in terms of sophisticated flaps or slats.
10:22So I wouldn't be surprised if the aircraft was undergoing a partial wing redesign just
10:27for this reason.
10:28But this is speculation, so we'll see what happens.
10:31What is not speculation, though, is that now we are sure that the J-20 is not the only
10:38stealth aircraft that is going to operate from the Chinese carriers.
10:42A few weeks ago an official tweet from a Chinese government account referred to an aircraft,
10:53a naval aircraft, as the J-35.
10:57This means that what has been known in the past like the FC-31 or the J-31 has now finally
11:04received an official J number, which probably means that it is going to enter service with
11:09the Chinese Navy.
11:10The aircraft originates from the losing design of the competitions that gave birth to the
11:17J-20.
11:18Shenyang, rather than abandoning the project, kept developing the aircraft autonomously.
11:23There is a long story behind this aircraft and we are going to dedicate a specific video
11:28to the J-35.
11:30However, there are some points that in the context of the composition of the carrier
11:35wing should be addressed now in this video.
11:38And to immediately address the elephant in the room!
11:41Sorry, I forgot every time you mention, the suspection has arrived.
11:50So the thing in the room is the striking resemblance of the aircraft with the F-35.
11:56The common opinion is that the aircraft was designed on the basis of stolen F-35 designs.
12:04While it is true that the theft happened, there is actually a judiciary sentence that
12:09clarifies that.
12:10It is possible, though, that this is a misconception.
12:15In fact, in 2020, Yang Wei, who was the chief designer of the J-20, published an article
12:22in a Chinese professional aeros magazine.
12:25In that article, he explained how the J-20 was designed, having the F-22 and, in general,
12:32the American design philosophy as the reference point.
12:36But in the same article, he also states that the Shenyang competitors did not get inspiration
12:43from the American designs, but they got inspiration from older Russian designs.
12:50And the aircraft he is talking about is actually the predecessor of the J-35.
12:54I couldn't access the original article because it seems that now that scientific magazine
13:00is behind the Chinese Great Firewall, however, I could find references of the article in
13:08Chinese press, pretty much in the same terms.
13:14So it may be possible that the article exists.
13:17You should have told me before, sir.
13:22While I was in China, I could have acquired a copy.
13:26No comment.
13:27By the way, if you want to have access to the sources that have been used for this video,
13:31they will be published on Patreon and for the channel members.
13:36So if you like what you are seeing and you want to actually support the channel, you
13:41will have access to this extra perk.
13:43However, we are not done.
13:45There is more.
13:46Vladimir Barkovsky, an executive of MIG Bureau, discussing the aircraft in 2012, despite the
13:53fact that the aircraft was featuring some solutions that have been already tested in
13:58some Western design, it was in fact an indigenous design.
14:02How did he know?
14:03Well, the MIG Bureau at the time was consulting for Shenyang officially for the integration
14:10of the engines, but you never know.
14:12Even though there are strong similarities, there is a good possibility that the aircraft
14:16is in fact not a copy of the F-35.
14:19However, if you want to leave a comment that all of this is nonsense, that the aircraft
14:23is definitely a copy of the F-35 and the Chinese, after all, are only capable of cheap rip-off,
14:29please feel free.
14:30The comment section is open to everyone, even those who don't listen to the video.
14:35As I said, we will be covering the aircraft in the near future when probably a bit more
14:39information will be available, but still we have to consider which role it is going
14:45to have in the carrier wing.
14:47Well, the role it is expected to cover on the 003 and 004 carrier wing is that of the
14:53multi-role light fighter.
14:55In fact, the aircraft is relatively small, it is much lighter than the J-15, it has about
15:018 tons of payload, with two internal bays that can host compact precision guided weapons.
15:09Plus, the aircraft can have up to 6 external pylons for all kinds of payload.
15:15And it also seems that the Raider will be one of our old acquaintances, but you will
15:19have to wait a dedicated video for that.
15:22However, while you wait for the J-35 video, there are plenty of other videos dedicated
15:27to the Chinese Air Force, the Chinese Navy and China in general, and they are going to
15:33appear beside me.
15:35An enormous thank you to all those who are supporting the channel on Patreon or by being
15:41a member, I bring you all in my heart.
15:44And for now, thank you very much for watching and see you there!