Chengdu J-20, The fantom menace !



Chengdu J-20 during first taxi trials, 12/27/2010

 One year after the Russian T-50, The first pictures of what seems to be the mysterious Chineese J20 are all over the web. The airframe is very 5th generation like (F-22 like) with stealth shapes and a voluminous fuselage which probably has internal weapon bays. At this stage, it is difficul to figure out if the plane has forward canards (many early CGI showed the Jxx/J20 with a delta-canard layout) or TVC. Anyway, this new Chineese plane represents a new challenge for the european fighters, which have been mainly designed to counter the su-27/30 and MIG-29 family. Indeed, these new stealth fighters will most probably be available on the export market in the coming years (10 years seems to be a reasonable bet) hence the Rafale counter-stealth capabilities as well as own passive and active stealth will have to be improved seriously.

Edit : These  new pictures indicate that the J-20 is actually a twin fins delta canard unlike the F-22/35 and T-50.

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