Challenging F-22 Raptors, China Plans To Amplify ‘Thrust Vectoring’ Capabilities Of Its J-20 Stealth Fighter Jets
Posted: January 21, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, F-22, J-20, US, WS-10C, WS-15 8 CommentsBy Sakshi Tiwari- January 21, 2022
China has often been accused of espionage and stealing American military technology, especially that of the F-22 Raptor, considered the most potent air-superiority fighter in the world.
While Beijing refutes all such claims, it has been certainly making efforts to match the capability of the fifth-generation American stealth jets, F-35 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor even as geopolitical tensions heat up in the Asia-Pacific region.
It has now emerged that China will begin upgrading the engines of its most advanced stealth fighter jet, the J-20, this year in order to bring its performance closer to that of the American F-22 Raptor.
It is believed that J-20’s performance has been limited due to the use of the WS-10C engine, a stop-gap arrangement. The WS-10C is an advanced variant of the basic WS-10 engine which is used on other fighters in the PLA Air Force inventory.
These WS-1OC engines have new thrust-vectoring nozzles, a technology that the Chinese engineers had been working on for two decades. This was first demonstrated at the 2018 Zhuhai air show. In the long run, the J-20 fighter jets are to be integrated with the WS-15 engines to match the Raptors.
A few days ago, a speculative report had emerged that the J-20 was flying with the WS-15 engine to test its capability. The assessment was apparently based on some leaked photos. The report had suggested that the J-20 was flying with a WS-15 and WS-10 engine. However, it could not be independently verified.
The WS-15 had been in the works for a while now, with the objective to power the J-20 as well as the J-31 (FC-31) fifth-generation stealth aircraft but a series of failed tests and evaluations have led to its deferment. This is the reason why China chose to integrate the WS-10C engines and is now upgrading the same.
The J-20 Engine Upgrade
A 2021 Pentagon report on the Chinese PLA submitted to the US Congress had stated that Beijing was carrying out upgrades to its J-20 fighter jets.
The report had then revealed that with the installation of indigenous WS-15 engines, the Chinese are adding a thrust-vectoring nozzle and an F-22-like “supercruise” capability. The thrust-vector technology allows the Raptor to alter the direction of engine thrust, allowing it to do abrupt maneuvers that previous generations of aircraft couldn’t.
Chinese engineers have been working on the WS-15 high-thrust engine to allow their most sophisticated fighter to reduce the gap on US warplanes. As of now, all WS-10C engines attached to J-20s will be given thrust vectoring capabilities this year, the latest report suggests
“Because verification of the two-dimensional thrust-vectoring nozzles, the technology used by the F-22, has been completed, the maneuverability and stealth capability of the J-20s will be upgraded,” a person familiar with the engine development program, told SCMP.
“The upgrading project aims at meeting the PLA’s intensive training demands, as the country plans to deploy about 200 J-20s.”
State broadcaster China Central Television aired footage this week of PLAAF J-20 aircraft conducting night-time combat training. Additional clips revealed the planes were equipped with WS-10C engines.
Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Tong said: “It’s the first time the PLA showed simulated dogfight drills between different J-20 brigades, which is supposed to be regular training for PLA fighter jet pilots.
According to the source quoted by SCMP, testing on the WS-15 engine is currently underway and will be completed next year. “The J-20 engines will be replaced by the WS-15 once the checks are completed,” the source said, adding there would be no technical problems because the existing Russian and Chinese engines were of similar size and shape.
Further, the state media has reported that the modern warplane has proven its operability in adverse circumstances, including high altitude, harsh cold weather, and high humidity and temperatures, since China’s J-20 stealth fighter jet switched to locally built engines.
This indicates that the current engines being upgraded with the vector technology is a prelude to the indigenous engine that will ultimately power the Chinese Mighty Dragons to match the American Raptors.
Can J-20 Match F-22 Raptor?
The American F-22 Raptors have super-cruise capability enabled by the thrust vector technology that the Chinese are imbibing, through upgrades and through a planned installation of the indigenous WS-15 engine.
The F-22 Raptors’ ability to achieve and maintain Mach speed without using an afterburner is referred to as ‘supercruise’. This is possible owing to the engine’s power and thrust. As a result, the jet can fly longer and carry out more detailed assault missions without having to refuel as frequently as a conventional fighter jet.
A super cruise-enabled J-20 would be able to stay in high-speed battles for significantly extended periods of time without having to leave the combat and return for refueling, similar to an F-22 Raptor.
However, since Lockheed Martin and the US Air Force have changed the software of the F-22 Raptors in recent years, upgrading J-20 stealth fighter jets to compete with them will be a challenging task for China, according to National Interest.
In the end, these improvements might not be enough to make the J-20 stealth fighter plane really competitive with the F-22 Raptor unless the weapons range and guidance systems can match or outperform it.
Additionally, there is considerable skepticism regarding the upgraded J-20 engine matching the power of the Raptors, let alone rival them.
“The thrust of the J-20 will still lag behind the US F-22 until China delivers the WS-15 engines for the aircraft”, Antony Wong Tong told SCMP.
So, the current upgrade to the J-20 engine with cutting-edge thrust vector technology is in a way, a breakthrough for the J-20s. However, they might need more technological upgrades to be able to rival the most lethal and air-superiority fighter aircraft in the world.
Source: EurAsian Times “Challenging F-22 Raptors, China Plans To Amplify ‘Thrust Vectoring’ Capabilities Of Its J-20 Stealth Fighter Jets”
Note: This is EurAsian Time’s article I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the article’s views.
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The writer Tiwari is a one eyed cock when it cones to the f22. The f22 like it’s f35 is unproven in combat. Among the many reasons for the termination of f22 production is to replace it with a more versatile fighter known as the f35 and it turned out to be a flying turkey. There was a lack of clarity on the f22 A2A missions during production and the plane cannot be reconfigured, it was disadvantaged as a fighter and after several crashes, the number of f22 is down to around 180, less than half is in service. The f22 failed as a practical design to replace the ageing f15, which by the way is a refurbishment of (f15ex, etc). The continual production of f15 is testament to the failure of f22 A2A superiority. Due to lack of quantity, the f22 cannot project power if war breaks out especially in the SCS/ECS, a number of US analysts regard the f22 program a failure. Due to US problematic stealth capabilities, the maintenance cost of the f22 is too expensive, ….. the list endless.
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let’s hope j20 never catches up to F22.. Will be like going back to the past… only totally deluded, like eurasia times, believe that US gave up on F22 after only 200 units because it had no rivals on sky.
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Don’t count on it to have the Eurasian times reporting correctly. It was Eurasian Times who made that Indonesia was afraid of American sanctions when we canceled the Su-35 purchase, when the truth is that we canceled the Su-35 purchase because the American threat is no longer relevant. And they have been parroting about Indonesia interested in buying Indian Brahmos missiles. What ridiculous is, Indonesia has the original Yakhont missiles, purchased directly from Russia, why would we want a generic one from India that is not even guaranteed to work. Indian! They think they are prominent in the region. Heck, there is not even one Indian restaurant in the country.
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This report is incorrect. WS-15 engine easily surpasses the Pratt & Whitney F119 found in the F22. Thrust vectoring is useful in close combat dogfight but uses up more fuel but J-20 weapons already out ranges the F22 while the Raptor is too short range to be a threat to be a threat to China when it can already force the Americans out of the First Island Chain in a conflict.
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Thrust vectoring is an energy robber in the event of a close in dog fight. Results obtained from Red Flag and other exercises have proved this true. The best moves are slashing attacks where you keep moving to maintain energy. Ask the Israelis who have written the book on air to air dog fighting. The rookie Chinese know nothing about air to air combat. China went up against the Thai air force and was badly mauled.
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Israeli? Are you high, boy? What does the Israeli know about dogfightings? Apart from uneven shooting down some inexperienced Arab fighters, the Israeli is largely untested in battle. Even if their pilots were, fighting under the American air force, bombing enemies that did not fight back is some poor experience, unless if you want to shamelessly cheat on experience, scores.
The truth is, the only people who had true combat dogfighting experiences in evenly match are the Chinese, the American and the Russian, between the F-86 vs the MiG-15 over the Korean War. No other equal dogfights were fought after that. What remarkable about the Chinese pilots were that they were really rookies at the beginning of the battle. They saw and trained on the real jets, literally since jets were brand new at the time, only three days before their first dogfights, while the Americans were ace since they had, years of experience, fighting the Japs. Still, the kill ratio was comparable. If the American aces did this bad against Chinese rookies, how would they fare against Chinese aces? No wonder the American stay clear of the South China Sea sky. What’s wrong with those F-35s they supposed to be carrying on the South China Sea? No fuel to fly? Or no pilot to fly? Or perhaps, no gut to fly? Chicken!
If rookie Israeli wants to have real combat experience outside the video games consoles, they should stick on their unsuspecting and untrained Middle Eastern neighbors. Real combat is for grownups, not for filty rich and spoiled Jewish kids on daddy’s safe playing ground. Do not even try it on the Chinese. Even the American is not that stupid to square off with the Chinese. If you have more luck shooting down untrained Middle Eastern pilots, perhaps you should try your luck on the Indians.
Funny that you glorify the Western-design Thai simulators to be the real combat in only, one, simulation. But what can be expected from simulator boy, with no experience in programming whatsoever. Do you check if they input the data correctly? Or did they input the presumed data since they know nothing about Chinese aircrafts. Why was the Thai rather sceptic rather than proud in the simulation? In the end, if you have the analytical brain rather than parrot’s brain, then you would now that the Thai only lend the simulators so the Chinese can gauge capability the Grippen, and the Grippen is Sweden, not even American. But if you are so fond of simulation battle, then you should check on the Indians, they always won in simulation battles against the American. Still they crash their aircrafts more than the American to get the notoriety as flying coffins, or are they the same rate since the American is notorious to conceal their loss. Right, in the aircraft carrier trainings, so far China only lost one aircraft, while the American lost, a lot, to get the procedure correct.
In any case, leave it to the Israeli to spread the rumor and got really spooked about it when they spread the rumors about the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning docking on Syrian port of Tartus back in 2011, when the aircraft carrier itself had not even been fully finished. And the Israeli had been panicking like the scene in the War of the World movie. If you are correct about one thing, to fight the Israeli, there is no need to send experienced Chinese pilots, rookie ones would suffice. It is enough to wet their pants. Israeli, huh? Get real!
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Masking yourself with fake names again ..?
If you are referring to falcon strike 2015, It’s called giving face to Thai ‘Gripen-C’, it was a very friendly first encounter with Thai airforce. Read the reports – China used a much earlier version J-11A, by virtue of its lack of upgrades and easily PLAAF’s oldest and least capable 4th gen. The Gripen-C had superior BVR, datalinking situation awareness, modern avionics n cockpit, etc etc. The Chinese are good at giving face.!
Let’s talk about the latest encounter part 2 over 2 years ago, Thai airforce used its latest JAS39C/D against Chinese J-10C and the result..? The superior handling and maneuverability of J-10C completely outclassed the Gripen with a huge score and complete victory in All aspects of the dogfight. The Gripen could not find the J-10C before been shot down.
Read the report ‘J-10C defeats JAS39C/D with a high score in Sino Thai joint exercise.’ The White house was bitterly disappointed as this result would enhance the actual combat capability of the PLAAF. The US f35 is now a bargain sale price and the Thai airforce is negotiating to buy at an even cheaper price. Wait for the next close encounter between the Thai f35 vs J-10C or to be more realistic Pakistan’s state of the art J-10C vs Indian Ninja Rafale. Pakistan purchase of J-10C is more advanced in its upgrades than the one used in the Thai encounter, the Indian Rafale is getting old as soon as it landed in India.
Don’t use worn out news to bullshit your comments.
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The Middle East don’t even have an airforce, what dogfighting experience book is the Israelis writing ..? Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya has No airforce, Talking nonsense ….
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