Project Sword
On the morning of February 10, local time, 7 J-10s of the Bayi Air Show Team flew 4,000 kilometers back to China under the support of the tank-20 tanker. The strength of China's aviation industry can be seen from this, of course, the highlight is still at the air show site, where the Chinese side has launched a variety of advanced models to the market, including JF-17 "Thunder" fighters, L-15 "Falcon" trainers, J-7E fighter-bombers, Y-20 strategic bombers, etc. Among them, the most special is the FC-31 "Falcon Eagle" ** fighter, although it has appeared many times at international air shows, but this time it has painted the J-31 number and made public, it can basically be considered that the "Falcon Eagle" has matured, and it is not surprising that the Air Force's own use and foreign trade will be put on the table.
J-10 long-range strategic flight
The J-31 number painted on the left side of the nose looks at the world, and there are few countries that have the ability to provide this kind of advanced fighter in the whole system, although China, the United States and Russia belong to the first echelon, but Russia's aviation strength has not been able to keep up with the pace of China and the United States in recent years. As the world's fourth successful first flight fighter and the world's second fifth-generation aircraft sold abroad, the FC-31 "Falcon" has been improved and upgraded over the years, and its overall performance is not weaker than that of the F-35, and compared with the F-35 with a unit price of more than 200 million US dollars, the "Falcon" that is obviously very mature in Saudi Arabia this time is breaking the US monopoly and entering the international arms trade market to form competitive pressure.
With the continuous appearance of the Navy's J-35 carrier-based aircraft and the design positioning of the "Falcon Eagle" one aircraft and four types, everyone has some doubts about whether the model painted on the J-31 at the air show is a special model for foreign trade or a version for the Air Force's own use. You must know that this is a fifth-generation ** fighter, in addition to its own use, if it is external, it must be considered that there will be differences in technical secrecy risk and performance. From the analysis of potential opponents, its target is the American-made F-35 fighter, and the comprehensive strength of the twin engine against the single engine is only strong but not weak, and there will be more opportunities for confrontation between the two in the future in the international arms trade market.
FC-31 "Falcon Eagle" fighter
F-35 fighter
In order to ensure that there will be no technical fault in the future, employees will not go hungry, so they raised funds to build a medium-sized twin-engine fifth-generation aircraft. That's right, it was the FC-31 "Falcon" ** fighter, without official support and lack of technical funds, in fact, after its first flight in 2012, it has been up and down for nearly a decade, until it was favored by the Navy before it was able to enter the fast lane of development. Generally speaking, there are at least two versions of the Navy and Air Force, and there is a passage that describes it like this: Yunyue faintly Snow Owl goes, Changhong Liubo Eagle comes, I don't know if everyone is not impressed, to the effect that since the "Snow Owl" has not succeeded, then create a new generation of "Falcon Eagle".
Overall. In the fourth and fifth generation aircraft projects, Shen Fei is obviously lagging behind Cheng Fei, although there are still J-11, J-15, and J-16 projects under development, but this kind of "flanker" magic reform will sooner or later exhaust its potential. With the changes in the demand of the navy, air force and international market, the FC-31 "Falcon" finally has a clear positioning, because there is only F-35 in the international market of the first fighter, so there are not too many conditions to restrict the FC-31 launched in time, it can become a sales hit. Secondly, the Air Force J-20 is a heavy fifth-generation aircraft, with strong performance but high cost, and large-scale equipment is obviously not cost-effective, so it is necessary to match the FC-31 medium-sized fifth-generation aircraft with high and low matching.
Comparison of "Snow Horn" and "Weilong".
Snowy Owl ** fighter renderings
In addition, Shen Fei has another advantage, the Navy's first-generation carrier-based aircraft J-15 was developed by it, and it is obviously the strongest in China in terms of experience and technical maturity and reliability. Therefore, after the development of the catapult aircraft carrier began, the first carrier-based aircraft that needed to be matched would inevitably be inseparable from Shen Fei, and it became the most suitable choice to upgrade the FC-31 "Falcon Eagle" and go directly to the ship. Therefore, in the past two years, with the acceleration of the development progress of the Fujian ship, the J-35 carrier-based aircraft has also frequently appeared in various pictures, and even has its model on the deck of the Fujian ship. Now it belongs to the state of aircraft and other ships, as long as the Fujian aircraft carrier begins to go to sea for testing, the J-35 carrier-based aircraft will be ready to recruit.
"Falcon Eagle" and J-15 carrier-based aircraft
J-35 fighter.
In addition to the aircraft carrier carrier-based aircraft and the vertical take-off and landing version, the J-35 fighter "Falcon Eagle" is also left with the Air Force self-use version and the foreign trade version, which are actually simpler. After all, the FC-31 has been developed for more than 10 years, and the technology must be very mature avionics equipment and **reference J-20, so the clear numbering is just a final process. Of course, there are still certain rules for the number of export types, such as the J-7E and Z-9DE that appeared at the air show, all of which add an "E" (on behalf of export) after the self-use type. Taking the J-10 fighter as an example, the latest model for the Air Force is the J-10C, and the J-10CE is given to Pakistan.
Correspondingly, the FC-31 "Falcon Eagle" Air Force self-use version should be the J-31, and the corresponding foreign trade model is changed to J-31E after adding letters, that is, a downgraded version that limits its performance. The reason for the renumbering may be related to the statement made by the chief of staff of the Pakistan Air Force in early January, who said that the foundation for the purchase of the FC-31 "Falcon Eagle"** fighter has been laid, and the fighter will become part of the Pakistan Air Force in the near future. Since some customers have made it clear that they want to buy, it is not surprising to change the number of J-31 at the Saudi defense exhibition a month later, and perhaps the Pakistani Railway Air Force will become the first old user to buy it.
There are many customers who visit.
Customers at the air show.
Pakistan Air Force livery.