Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

I never said China bought Blackjack or Backfire bombers.
But I have a friend who works in the government (desk job, non-classified material) who can confirm that China has Fulcrums.

The engines are the biggest concern for the J-20, though there are several engines that China can either make, or buy that will suffice.
The airframes are almost complete, and the training of the pilots have commenced.
They have one experimental squadron (performance + formation flight evaluation), but is not combat read, nor combat capable.

I'll try to get some websites that support this, but it might be a little difficult, as MiG-29 is the best plane that china currently has.

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Apologize to confusion and double-posting, but here are some links that kind of support my side.
http://www.asian-defence.net/2011/07/ch ... r-jet.html
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/3721 ... n-spratlys
http://toad-design.com/migalley/index.p ... hter-deal/
The last one details how China wants to buy SU-35's, not MiG-29's.

Contradictory, and my contact doesn't know planes all that well, so I might be mistaken.

Apologies to all.

The Su-35S deal are long gone.
Russian side state the numbers was way to low for any meaningfull contract, allthough there might be other issues at play as well
Copyright issues to be exact.

The Chineese side state such negotiation never happend in the first place..

In essence, this mean the 117S engines are off the Chineese grid for years to come.

China import jet engines from Salut, not Saturn.
That means AL-31FN(J-10) and AL-31F engines.
Hardly any engine aimed for the J-20..

You will not find anything credibly on any Mig-29 export to China.
China has not shown any interest towards Mig-29, while Russia has marketed them heavily in Asia.

Quote:

About China, I've been thinking for as long as I've paid attention to military issues that we don't have the power to beat them at war.

In a black and white, WWII style our tanks in your capitol type engagement, I agree. The US cannot 'regime change' China.

Very few wars however, ever reach that level historically though, they are mostly engagements over a specific resource and whoever commands the resource in the end wins that particular chapter. That said, we are likely to get involved with China as they attempt to crack the ring of allies and US bases that were built up during the Contain Communism era. There are many in China that want to change the behavior of others beyond their borders. When others don't change because they believe publicly or privately, that the US will back them up, then the test of political will and military balance of forces may be tested.

Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

Studies show AF lacks stealth aircraft to fight China