Military Technology by Millennium7* History & Technology - Dailymotion

Millennium7* History & Technology

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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!

The New Chinese J-35 is a Russian design and it looks like the F-35 on the 003 CHINESE CARRIER...

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