For Sale to the World: China’s fifth-generation J-20 Fighter [Video]

This was quite a find. CCTV Video News Agency published a video of its presentation of its J-20 fighter jet at an airshow in Paris, France.

One of the most interesting comments here is that, unlike the US F-22, which is its premier stealth fighter, and which is not for sale even to NATO allies, and the F-35, which is not a bad plane, but its failure lies in the fact that it tries to be too many things at once, and its sale is also highly restricted…

Well, the J-20 is for sale to any nation who wants to put them in its air forces.

The effect of this is obvious: the Chinese can effectively defang the NATO tiger by simply flooding the market with equipment which is just as capable.

Let’s do a specifications comparison.

Here are the listed specs for the F-22 as shown on Wikipedia:

Specifications (F-22A)

Data from USAF,^[109] manufacturers’ data,^{[255][256][257]} Aviation Week,^[121][258] AirForces Monthly,^[111] and Journal of Electronic Defense^[132]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 62 ft 1 in (18.92 m)
• Wingspan: 44 ft 6 in (13.56 m)
• Height: 16 ft 8 in (5.08 m)
• Wing area: 840 sq ft (78.04 m²)
• Aspect ratio: 2.36
• Airfoil: NACA 6 series airfoil
• Empty weight: 43,340 lb (19,700 kg)
• Gross weight: 64,840 lb (29,410 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 83,500 lb (38,000 kg)
• Fuel capacity: 18,000 lb (8,200 kg) internally, or 26,000 lb (12,000 kg) with two 2× 600 US gal tanks
• Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 augmented turbofans, 26,000 lbf (116 kN) thrust each dry, 35,000 lbf (156 kN) with afterburner^{[N 14]}

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 2.25, 1,500 mph (2,414 km/h) at altitude
  • Mach 1.21, 800 knots (921 mph; 1,482 km/h) at sea level
  • Mach 1.82, 1,220 mph (1,963 km/h) supercruise at altitude
• Range: 1,600 nmi (1,800 mi, 3,000 km) or more with 2 external fuel tanks
• Combat range: 460 nmi (530 mi, 850 km) clean with 100 nmi (115 mi, 185 km) in supercruise
  • 590 nmi (679 mi, 1,093 km) clean subsonic^{[N 15]}
• Ferry range: 1,740 nmi (2,000 mi, 3,220 km)
• Service ceiling: 65,000 ft (20,000 m)
• g limits: +9.0/−3.0
• Wing loading: 77.2 lb/sq ft (377 kg/m²)
• Thrust/weight: 1.08 (1.25 with loaded weight and 50% internal fuel)

Armament

• Guns: 1× 20 mm M61A2 Vulcan rotary cannon, 480 rounds
• Internal weapons bays:
  • Air-to-air mission loadout:
    • 6× AIM-120C/D AMRAAM or 4× AIM-120A/B AMRAAM
    • 2× AIM-9M/X Sidewinder
  • Air-to-ground mission loadout:
    • 2× 1,000 lb (450 kg) JDAM or 8× 250 lb (110 kg) GBU-39 SDB
    • 2× AIM-120 AMRAAM
    • 2× AIM-9 Sidewinder
• Hardpoint (external):
  • 4× under-wing pylon stations can be fitted to carry weapons, each with a capacity of 5,000 lb (2,270 kg) or600 U.S. gallon (2,270 L) drop tanks^[260]
  • 4x AIM-120 AMRAAM (external)

Avionics

• AN/APG-77 or AN/APG-77(V)1 AESA radar: 125–150 miles (201–241 km) against 1 m² (11 sq ft) targets (estimated range), more than 250 miles (400 km) in narrow beams
• AN/AAR-56 Missile Launch Detector (MLD)
• AN/ALR-94 electronic warfare system: 250 nautical miles (460 km) or more detection range for radar warning receiver (RWR)
• Integrated CNI Avionics
• MJU-39/40 flares for protection against IR missiles^[261]

Here are the specs for the F-35 Lightning II, also as listed on Wikipedia:

Specifications (F-35A)

Data from Lockheed Martin: F-35 specifications,^{[463][464][465][466]} Lockheed Martin: F-35 weaponry,^[467] Lockheed Martin: F-35 Program Status,^[99] F-35 Program brief,^[148] FY2019 Select Acquisition Report (SAR),^[326] Director of Operational Test & Evaluation^[468]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 51.4 ft (15.7 m)
• Wingspan: 35 ft (11 m)
• Height: 14.4 ft (4.4 m)
• Wing area: 460 sq ft (43 m²)
• Aspect ratio: 2.66
• Empty weight: 29,300 lb (13,290 kg)
• Gross weight: 49,540 lb (22,471 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 65,918 lb (29,900 kg) ^[469]
• Fuel capacity: 18,250 lb (8,278 kg) internal
• Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 afterburning turbofan, 28,000 lbf (125 kN) thrust dry, 43,000 lbf (191 kN) with afterburner

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 1.6 at altitude
• Range: 1,500 nmi (1,700 mi, 2,800 km)
• Combat range: 669 nmi (770 mi, 1,239 km) on internal fuel
  • 760 nmi (870 mi; 1,410 km) interdiction mission on internal fuel, for internal air to air configuration^[470]
• Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,000 m)
• g limits: +9.0
• Wing loading: 107.7 lb/sq ft (526 kg/m²) at gross weight
• Thrust/weight: 0.87 at gross weight (1.07 at loaded weight with 50% internal fuel)

Armament

• Guns: 1 × 25 mm GAU-22/A 4-barrel rotary cannon, 180 rounds^{[N 16]}
• Hardpoints: 4 × internal stations, 6 × external stations on wings with a capacity of 5,700 pounds (2,600 kg) internal, 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg) external, 18,000 pounds (8,200 kg) total weapons payload, with provisions to carry combinations of:
  • Missiles:
    • Air-to-air missiles:
      • AIM-9X Sidewinder
      • AIM-120 AMRAAM
      • AIM-132 ASRAAM
      • AIM-260 JATM (To be integrated)^[471]
      • MBDA Meteor (Block 4, for F-35B, not before 2027)^{[472][173][473]}
    • Air-to-surface missiles:
      • AGM-88G AARGM-ER (Block 4)
      • AGM-158 JASSM^[166]
      • AGM-179 JAGM
      • SPEAR 3 (Block 4, in development, integration contracted)^[160][473]
    • Anti-ship missiles:
      • AGM-158C LRASM^[474] (being integrated)
      • Joint Strike Missile (integration in progress)^[475]
  • Bombs:
    • Joint Direct Attack Munition
    • Paveway
    • Precision-guided glide bomb:
      • AGM-154 JSOW
      • GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb
      • GBU-53/B StormBreaker
    • B61 mod 12 nuclear bomb^[476] (being certified)

Avionics

• AN/APG-81 AESA radar^[477]
• AN/AAQ-40 Electro-Optical Targeting System^[478]
• AN/AAQ-37 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System^[479]
• AN/ASQ-239 Barracuda electronic warfare/electronic countermeasures system^[480]
• AN/ASQ-242 CNI suite, which includes
  • Harris Corporation Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) communication system
  • Link 16 data link
  • SINCGARS
  • An IFF interrogator and transponder
  • HAVE QUICK
  • AM, VHF, UHF AM, and UHF FM Radio
  • GUARD survival radio
  • A radar altimeter
  • An instrument landing system
  • A TACAN system
  • Instrument carrier landing system
  • A JPALS
  • TADIL-J JVMF/VMF

My two key stats – top speed and service ceiling have these numbers:

F-22 Raptor: Mach 2.25 and 65,000 feet.

F-35 Lightning II: Mach 1.6 “at altitude”, and a service ceiling of 50,000 feet

The stats on the Lightning are what makes it inferior in my views, especially as the US has much cheaper and faster planes in its production history. This debacle was supposed to be cheap, but came out to be 100 million per plane. Not much of a bargain there!

Now, for the stats on the J-20, again from Wikipedia:

Specifications (J-20A)

Data from Tsinghua University^[218][219]

General characteristics

• Crew: one (pilot)
• Length: 21.2 m (69 ft 7 in)
• Wingspan: 13.01 m (42 ft 8 in)
• Height: 4.69 m (15 ft 5 in)
• Wing area: 73 m² (790 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 17,000 kg (37,479 lb)
• Gross weight: 25,000 kg (55,116 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 37,000 kg (81,571 lb)
• Fuel capacity: 12,000 kg (26,000 lb) internally
• Powerplant: 2 × Shenyang WS-10C^{[34][39][220]} afterburning turbofan, 142–147 kN (32,000–33,000 lbf) with afterburner^{[N 4]}

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 2.0^[219]
• Range: 5,500 km (3,400 mi, 3,000 nmi) with 2 external fuel tanks
• Combat range: 2,000 km (1,200 mi, 1,100 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 20,000 m (66,000 ft)
• g limits: +9/-3
• Rate of climb: 304^[9] m/s (59,800 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 340 kg/m² (69 lb/sq ft)

Armament

• Maximum weapon capacity: 11,000 kg (24,000 lb)
• Internal weapon bays
  • PL-10 Short Range AAM^[221]
  • PL-12 Medium Range AAM^[222]
  • PL-15 Long Range AAM
  • PL-21 Very Long Range AAM (future implementation)^[222]
  • LS-6/50 kg and LS-6/100 kg Small-diameter precision-guided bomb (intended)^[80]
  • Anti-radiation missile^[85]
• External hardpoints
  • 4× under-wing pylon capable of carrying drop tanks.

Avionics

• Type 1475 (KLJ-5) AESA Radar
• EOTS-86 electro-optical targeting system (EOTS)^[71]
• EORD-31 infrared search and track^[71]

While not listed to be quite as fast as the Raptor, the J-20 can easily outrun an F-35, it can fly higher than the Raptor (Top speed Mach 2.0, service ceiling 66,000 feet), and its price is a hefty $110 million, but its nearest American competitor, the Raptor is $143 million at purchase and with servicing costs, potentially over $228 million per aircraft.

The Chinese are pushing a good bargain to the world.

One more comparison: The Russian fifth-generation fighter, the SU-57, comes in at $35 million. So for bargain basement fifth-generation fighters, it is the Russians who win the price war. However, the F-22 is no longer in production, because it costs too dang much.

Ouch, America. Just another sign that something is really rotten in the United States.