China Bans on J-20 Mighty Dragon Export

The Chengdu J-20 is a stealth, twin – engine, fifth generation fighter aircraft which is being produced by the Chengdu Aerospace Corporation for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). The J-20’s first appearance was made on 11 January 2011 after which six prototypes were produced with various modifications. The latest two prototypes of the J-20 are equipped with active electronically scanned array radar. Three of the six J-20 prototypes were delivered for test flights in the year 2014.

Chengdu Aircraft Company has produced J-10 and JF-17 for overseas markets, but China has made a decision not to export the J-20 overseas. This news is likely to disappoint the manufacturer of the fighter aircraft. The J-20 is expected to be operational during 2017-2019. China wants to keep the J-20’s high-end military equipment all to itself. The ban on export of the Chengdu J-20 was revealed in an interview with the China’s Phoenix TV news program.

“The export of advanced Chinese military technology is prohibited,” Song said. “This is in order to keep J-20’s fifth-generation technology out of hostile hands.”

The J-20 prototypes are said to be very similar to the Lockheed Martin’s F-22. While in shape, weight and engine power the J-20 resembles the McDonnell Douglas’s F-15C which was designed during the Cold War Era. The J-20’s maximum weight is estimated to be 36 tons.

Suspicions are that China’s J-20 is produced using America’s F-35 data, which was stolen by some Chinese hackers.

“If one day the United States decides to export the F-22, China might consider lifting its ban, as well,” he said.

The reason for the ban according to Song is that if American allies possess F-22s, China’s allies need the J-20s to balance it out.

The J-20’s disadvantage is that China is still not able to build a powerful engine for it. The power of the engine is the same as the F-15C. The engine approaches the thrust of the F-22 only when the afterburner is turned on, but the afterburner can be turned on only for a few minutes because of excess fuel consumption. The J-20 is able to super cruise without an afterburner just like the F-22, Eurofighter and the Gripen.

China has been trying to develop a more powerful WS-15 engine for almost two decades but the date has not been set as to when it’ll be fitted to the J-20 fighter.

On the other hand China plans to export the J-31 fighter to global customers who cannot afford the Lockheed Martin F-35. The J-31 was revealed at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China Exhibition hall on Nov 10 during a pre-show of that week’s airshow China in Zhuhai.

The aircraft is designated with “J” for fighters and “FC” for export. The J-31 was referred to as the FC-31, which meant the FC-31 was ready for export.

Stealth Changes for China’s Stealth Fighter

When China unveiled its J-20 stealth fighter in 2011, analysts noted the aircraft’s potential to shift the regional balance of power further in the favor of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. And the country is clearly committed to investing in military hardware. On Wednesday, China announced it was increasing its defense spending in 2014 to 808.23 billion renminbi, or about $132 billion, a rise of 12.2 percent. 

 

Sonic boom of J-20 Mighty Dragon

But many analysts have suggested that the J-20, ostensibly the showpiece of the air force’s modernization, had the “look” of being stealthy without actually incorporating many of the details that make aircraft difficult to detect on radar, as the defense journalist David Axe noted in The Diplomat in 2011.

For one thing, Mr. Axe wrote, “several rear-aspect photos seem to show traditional, fixed, round engine nozzles. The F-22, B-2 stealth bomber and now-retired F-117 stealth fighter-bomber all have carefully shaped, angular nozzles meant to scatter radar waves. In the F-22, these nozzles can move, ‘vectoring’ the engine thrust to boost maneuverability. The T-50 can pull the same vectoring trick with its round nozzles. The apparent absence of stealthy nozzles and thrust-vectoring places a hard limit on the J-20’s ability to evade radar detection from behind.”

The J-20’s nozzles are also mounted in such a way that infrared sensors could easily detect their heat signature. (The engines themselves pose a different type of engineering challenge for China, which may be more difficult to overcome.)

But the three aircraft seen so far are prototypes. Their manufacturer, Chengdu Aerospace Corporation, appears to be learning as it tests, based on photos circulating this week.

The first prototype, serial number 2001, shows significant differences from the latest prototype, serial number 2011, in the position and serration of the landing gear doors, the shapes of the nose and engine intakes (just to the rear of the cockpit) and the shape of the vertical stabilizers, or tail fins.

All those areas have been adjusted, presumably for performance and stealthiness reasons, as The Aviationist points out. The latest version also has a different paint scheme, which could mean absolutely nothing, but could also indicate a different type of radar-absorbent coating. The F-22, B-2 and F-35, the world’s only operational stealth aircraft, all use such coatings. 

 

The Chinese J-20 stealth fighter, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in 2011.

The J-20 made headlines when it was unveiled, not just because of the technology it represented, but because it came during Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’s visit to China. At the time, Mr. Gates questioned “just how stealthy” the Chinese fighter really was, then said the Pentagon was stepping up investments in a range of weapons, jet fighters and technology in response to the J-20 and other aspects of the Chinese military buildup in the Pacific. A Pentagon spokesman later said that the J-20 “has not changed the strategic calculus at all.”

The Pentagon has since suggested that the J-20 will be ready for deployment no earlier than 2018, but it remains unclear how many of the planes China could field. China’s other stealthy aircraft prototype, the J-31, produced by Shenyang Aircraft, has been suggested as a potential export. So far the J-20 has, officially, only been earmarked for use by the Chinese military.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how much the J-20’s design changes matter and indeed how effective an aircraft it is. But it is evident that the plane’s flight testing, at least, is far more than just a publicity stunt.