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China is rapidly expanding the production of its large, long-range J-20 fighter jet.
Since 2017, China has started to deploy the J-20, which was mass-produced in advance, to frontline units. Although the pre-production J-20, which is superior to China’s main fighter jets represented by the J-10/J-11, had excellent performance, it could not fully perform the mission that the Chinese Air Force wanted because it had to accept some performance compromises due to the development schedule.
Therefore, China has embarked on additional performance improvements to achieve the performance targeted at the initial planning stage of the J-20 development project and to equip the performance to respond to future wars, and finally, the J-20A has appeared.
We have analyzed in detail the J-20A stealth fighter, known as the biggest threat to the Korean Air Force, through the 2311th issue of the Military Review. In particular, as South Korea is also planning to develop an F414-class engine that can be mounted on the KF-21 Boramae, the efforts and trials and errors of China’s engine development will provide a great lesson.
The emergence of the J-20A model.
The new improved version of the J-20 will be similar to the J-20 2052 prototype, which was first photographed at the end of 2022.
The 2052 prototype is difficult to distinguish from the existing J-20 in appearance. The differences between the existing J-20 and the 2052 prototype are some shape changes in the nose section, changes in the canopy shape and DSI shape of the air intake, modifications to the body connection structure extending from the canopy, and changes in the shape of the engine nozzle.
China has established a J-20 production system at an abnormal speed. The annual production capacity of the J-20 production line in Chengdu is currently comparable to the world’s largest production system of the American F-35 fighter jet.
◆ The emergence of the completed J-20.
However, the internal changes are much larger. The WS-15 engine, which had been postponed several times, was installed, and it seems that a new radar and electronic warfare equipment and interface were installed internally.
Considering the specifications applied to the previously confirmed 20XX prototype and the process of applying them to the production aircraft, it is highly likely that the equipment applied or the modified structure applied to the 2052 prototype will be applied to the production aircraft soon or that the same specification aircraft is already being produced.
China distinguishes the improved version with the same specifications as the 2052 prototype as the J-20A. The pre-production type equipped with Russian-made or Chinese-made WS-10 engines, which were distinguished as J-20A/B in the Western world, are all marked as J-20 without a separate sub-name.
On the contrary, the first J-20A with an official code can be said to be the completed J-20 that fully implements China’s primary performance requirements and is a mass-produced type.
In order to understand the improvements of the J-20A, it is necessary to first understand the development background of the J-20.
China planned the J-20 fighter with a high emphasis on long-range offensive air missions. In order to perform long-range offensive air missions under the geographical conditions of China, which has a very large territory and conflict areas located far outside the territory, they needed a fighter with a very long cruising range.
China’s demand for long-range offensive air operations, which has been raised since the 1990s. They required the ability to advance up to 1400km from the main national border air force base and perform missions.
The operational areas that China has been considering since the 1990s were the entire area of Japan, including Tokyo, based on Yanji, the border between North Korea and Russia, the entire area of Taiwan from Wuhan, the entire area of Vietnam and most of Thailand from Hainan, the entire area of Myanmar, the northern part of Borneo Island, and the major cities of India, New Delhi and Kolkata, and the entire area of Bangladesh, based on Lhasa, Tibet.
In order to perform such a wide-area operation, a wide combat radius of at least 750NM (1,400km) is required, and when converted into a cruising range, it is practically over 3,000km.
We need a large, long-range interceptor!
Such a superior performance interceptor capable of long-range interception was developed by only a few countries, and it is virtually impossible to purchase overseas because it can also be used as a small-scale bomber. Therefore, if China wanted to have such a fighter, there was no choice but to develop it independently from the beginning. The J-20 was developed under such a prerequisite.
In order for a fighter to achieve a long cruising range, it is inevitable to enlarge the aircraft and carry a lot of fuel in the fuselage and wings. Therefore, the J-20 was designed as the largest large-scale aircraft among the 5th generation fighters, and achieved an internal fuel carrying capacity equivalent to the representative long-range fighter Su-27 series through optimal internal shape design.
This is the J-11 fighter, which is a license of the Russian Su-27. China was deeply impressed by the operational capabilities of the J-11, which can perform long-range operations with internal fuel, and reflected similar requirements in the J-20.
Another factor considered by the Chinese Air Force was speed. The Chinese Air Force referred to the U.S. ATF (Advanced Tactical Fighter) project and set long-range supersonic cruising capability as a core target for the J-20.
You cannot perform the entire mission in supersonic flight due to fuel consumption and heat dissipation problems. However, there are situations where you need to achieve a surprise or quickly pass through dangerous airspace. And there are situations where you refuse to contact the enemy’s air power. If you can maintain a speed 30-50% faster than the usual cruising speed without using a large amount of fuel-consuming afterburner in such specific situations, you can enjoy operational advantages in various situations.
However, it is difficult to maintain supersonic for a long time with a large aircraft for a long cruising range, so in order to implement supersonic cruising capability, an excellent shape design with a good lift coefficient and an excellent engine that can maintain high output for a long time without an afterburner were needed.
The ATF project, where YF-22 and YF-23 competed, was a major benchmark for the Chinese Air Force.
Tactical maneuverability is also important!
The Chinese Air Force also considered tactical maneuverability as a very important factor. Generally, aircraft with excellent high-angle of attack flight capability or instantaneous/sustained turning capability are considered to have excellent tactical maneuverability, but in actual air combat, high-altitude flight capability and high-speed flight capability have much more impact.
