J-20: Mighty Dragon 

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F22 is definitely the best 5th Gen jet. Recently it has successfully strike down a weather surveillance balloon.

All stealth aircraft can be detected by some radars. What stealth means is the radar profile is so small that you can’t get a missile lock. The actual limits on maneuverability is down to the amount of g force the pilots can withstand. The most important part of a warplane are the radars and electronics. We have no idea how good they are until they go head to head. Then tactics and the ability of the pilot will also have a major impact on the out come.

J-20 has: -Long fuselage -Small wing ratio -No auto cannon -Large internal weapons bay with only 4 missiles + 2 small internal weapons bay for short missiles Clearly this means : - not for dogfight - large fuselage to carry more fuel, which means more range in expense of manuverability - big internal weapons bay but only 4 missiles means big and long missiles like PL-15 and PL-21 which really effective to hit large aerial target like AWACS and tankers Their canards are just used to counter balance weight of their internal weapons (look where they were positioned) and shave their take off length (its a big boi) Go check SU-30 and why they have canards, and why SU-35 dont and you will understand why J-20 use canards And you know why india can detect J-20? Because ALL stealth jets use luneberg lens in peace time to amplify their cross sections so it doesnt threaten neighbors, US did it first, but India being India, they like to talk big although its stupid

Do note that there is a difference between being able to detect a stealth aircraft vs being able to get a weapon lock on a stealth aircraft. Stealth aircraft are generally going to focus on being stealthy to high-band radars due to their usage for weapon locking. Being able to know a stealth fighter is "somewhere over there" is less useful if your missiles don't know where to go.

Fun fact: Americas F-35 and F-22 cannot destroy even a single Su-57 squadron. This is due to the fact in order to form a squadron you need about 12-15 planes, and russia has 8

A few things to consider - A) every plane looks/sounds impressive on paper until proven in combat - this goes for every nation's 5th Gen fighters. B) The numbers available, unit cost, reliability, ease of maintenance, and availability of weapons will all influence the potency C) Modern long range missile tech render hyper-manouverability fairly pointless. D) The shift to pilotless fighters and greater computerisation will further change all nations strategy and fighter capabilities (i.e. no pilot fatigue, expendability). 🤔 I really have no clue and hope i don't find out which is best 'in action' 😬

This channel is great, they view much of the technology from different countries from an unbiased view and give their honest opinions and facts on it which is very hard to say for many other western military channels.

Thank you for the content!

Next Megaprojects episode: Simon's Majestic Beard

really loving all these aircraft videos's lately.

I was very sceptical at first but the design is starting to grow on me. I'm getting the feeling that the J-20 is probably not as stealthy as the American craft are, yet is still going to be a quite capable platform to perform it's roles. Very hard to say at this time. The Chinese have long struggled to produce domestic jet engines with the power, economy and reliability that's needed so I'll be interested in the WS-15 development.

This is the first time I've seen it called the "Mighty Dragon" and now all I can think about is the part from Tropic Thunder where he's on the phone with Tom Cruise like "THIS IS FLAMING DRAGON!!" 🔥🐉🔥

No serious analyst claims that the J-20 is a copycat. The aero and control surfaces are extremely different and that is before we even start guessing on the internals and avionics, which are entirely indigenous Chinese designs (that also in many ways cannot be a copy because the external structure of the plane has a huge influence on the internals and how they have to be designed). The people claiming the J-20 is a copy have little to no understanding of engineering and aerodynamics,. The J-20 is as much a MiG 1.44 / F-22 / F-35 copy as the Porsche Cayenne is a BMW i3 copy; they both have 4 wheels and look like a car.

Thanks for your unbiased analysis. 👍

I think there are a demo few days ago, and now we know the second seater is to be used for drone swarm controller and it is looks cool

I think the scariest part of that air frame is that it's in production at scale. More planes mean more opportunities for refinement. Every day one of those fighters take off the Chinese get another data point. Something that gets overlooked when talking about American stealth is that we've had almost 50 years of stealth flights under our belt. We KNOW how to use it beyond being able to make it. We know how to fight and defend against it. Now the Chinese are playing in the same arena as we are. Learning the same lessons as we have. I'd imagine the research and experience from J 20 flights will do far more damage to the F 35 than any dog fight between the two.

A well thought out and produced episode, very high quality as always.

beautiful plane

Thanks for the video.

I always liked the SU-47. It was only a prototype yet highly maneuverable.

This is great and all, but Tom Cruise on an F-14 is still superior.

I still find it fascinating how CnC Generals predicted the J-20 a decade before it's introduction

I really love your channel. You give a balanced presentation.

Fair? objective and educated reporting. We need more channels like this to counter wrong and lies reporting.

I found a toy of one of these at a Canadian flight museum. I thought it was the Firefox from the 1980's film but only later was disappointed...

I'd love to see a megaprojects video covering the Iowa Class Battleship. If it can be done

Awesome Jet !

A small factor can affect the aerodynamic performance of a fighter. You compare the front views of two planes, but you don't want to let the audience see the side, bottom and top views, because you know that the two planes have very different shapes, but you want to prove the existence of "copy".

13:55 it should be noted detection is not necessarily the primary use of stealth tech. the f-35 is also fairly easily detected. nearly anything with some reflective properties can be detected on radar, from trees to the little bits of foil dropped from bombers in ww2 to confuse the radar. the point of stealth is not to be undetectable, but to prevent and confuse weapons locking onto the jet. what good is knowing a jet is in the air if your missile cant tell it apart from a bird or any other object protruding into the skyline?

You cannot copy a copy a fighter jet, or it must be identical. Any changes on the design affect the aerodynamics of the jet.

Just before some haters wanna talk about tofu dreg construction or whatever just remember that china is the ONLY country who has its human rates ION HALL THRUSTING space station currently orbiting earth. They've also done a soft landing and put a Rover on Mars. This was done in a 3 in 1 mission, where the orbiter, lander and rover were sent together and autonomously programmed to work in cooperation, using all new information gathered during the mission. For example. When they finally reached mars since it was China's first time, they spent months (like 6 months iirc) just to map mars using the orbiter. All the while this was going on, work and debate was going on earth to pick from the preselected potential landing sites(they weren't doing in totally blind even if NASA can't work directly with Chinese marijuana doesn't mean China doesn't also know what everyone else already does). Then China picked out the landing site, prayed it will survive the 6-14 minutes of terror(with all comms blackout), and luckily for China, it survived and made usas only peer these days in space even if Russia can get there they can't do anything with it alone unlike China can. China has also done moon return sample mission and succeeded, first time since 1970s someone brought material from the moon back. All 2.5 KG worth which china happily shared with the world's scientific community. This obviously includes USA also. China also put a drone on the far side of the moon that is always facing away from earth, so to achieve mission success, China needed to put a relay station in place to link up Rover with relay orbiter back earth. Maybe relay orbiter talks with other orbiter since China has sent at least 3 rovers to the moon(all successful), same with the incredibly ambitious and incredibly successful mars mission, and then of course how can we forget the permanent Chinese presence in space inside the Tiangong Chinese Space Station. Always 3 Taikonauts, and 6 crew at once for about 1-2 weeks during swap over of crew. So with that tofu dreg nonsense out of the way, back to the topic. China is the only other country apart from USA to bothbe able to and also to fully produce and maintain a fleet of thousands of 5tg gen fighters. I also heard that usa relies A LOT on Chinese IP and technology when it comes to raw minerals and refinement technologies since China mines, refines and research and developes everything that they are the world's most advanced asn have the most full top to bottom supply chain as the world's factory also. Stuff like gallium which is essential for semiconductors and other high tech stuff comes as a by product of refining other stuff that China needs to define anyway as the worlds factory But something is telling me China is going for 6th Gen and have all drones do dangerous or unknown work. Even if usa oe anyone jams or takes out thar oir of the thousands you sent in formation, you will now know exactly where the target is and the drone swarm can just kill it automatically. Even if you had a whole carrier group with you, how many missiles do you have vs Chinas drones? DJI already dominates and has like 75-80% of the whole global civilian drone market. Even american soldiers buy and use this, Same as both sides in Ukraine war. America gov banned the jsd of dni drones by us military but many sjs not care since it's their lives on the line. In the end usa tried to make their own domestic version but ended up with a drone that cost twice as much and with half the capability. On the battlefield as the eyes and ears, the costs of losing the "drone wars* vs China will be the eye opening moment for USA and west as China restructures it's economy into war time configuration and our producers usa 100-1 or even 250-1. Just like Soviet Union, it will spend itself into collapse. Ita just simple maths and logic. China already produces EVERYTHING for the WHOLE WORLD, and with "civil/military" fusion which every country has and would use in war time, just who and how is anyone going to beat China in a war of attrition, assuming that no one is crazy and dumb enough to attack China proper either conventionally or nuclear wise. Against except Russia since they have a massive land mass, China could literally destroy all their capital cities in less than 30 minutes tops and for every country except China, Russia and USA, this just means doom. The nuclear contamination where leave nowhere to hide in small countries like SK, Japan Taiwan,.Singapore etc etc. Even Australia without its 6-7 major cities is basically done as a country. It would be like a literal mad max society afterwards. All in all, a war vs China who's the longest, most successful continuous civilization in all of recorded human history and who has faced dozens, even hundreds of existential threats that have been much much worse then conceivable today, even after such a setback or loss, life must go on, the Chinese people must still eat and Chinese civilization will undoubtedly continue. You can't kill a concept that is in the hearts of 20% Chinese themselves, buf include the world and how much affect China has in it and it would be near 100%. You'd have to be living in a cave for over 5000 to not know the contributions China has given the world over millennia. Like compass, paper, printing press, fiat currency/money, guns and gunpowder, missiles and rockets, silk, ceramics/china etc. Now Chinese innovation is back like Huawei 5g which is why USA tried to destroy their biggest threat.

From the program and comments, I didn't see any professional opinions. J20 is a fighter jet different from other existing design concepts. Its appearance features, as well as its difficult and complex detailed gas design, are all centered on the supersonic mode of air combat setting. In addition to having a similar low RCS design to other stealth fighters, it is a completely new species. The design scheme must pass the large-scale wind tunnel test before it can be finalized, which is by no means a complex work that can be completed. In addition, if the manufacturing process is not up to a very high standard, you can't make stealth fighter jets. It is a demonstration of the whole industry of a country, not just the design level. The SU-57 is an example. It is a good design, but the overall level of Russian industry does not make it as good as it should be.

How long does it take you to research these videos? They're incredibly informative and a delight to watch.

A while back everyone was saying that the primary role of the J20 was to remain undetected and take out high value support targets with long range air to air missiles. They were supposed to go after the tankers, AWACs, and submarine hunters. That might be an attack that we'd have a hard time stopping.

13:31 Being able to detect a J-20 near your border doesn't really mean anything about how good its stealth is. Stealth fighters aren't good at hiding from low frequency radar as used in early warning systems. What they are good at is avoiding high frequency radar used by targeting systems. You know when stealth aircraft are around - you just can't shoot them.

I like your comment about the plane. It is more objective. As to my thinking, you can change the style, but you cannot change the physics behind it. Therefore, if no better style that fits the current physics principles, similar design is the obvious result. Just like F-1 race cars, they all look pretty much the same.

Simon needs to expand the Mega part of this video, in particular, having the information is not the same as being able to build from it. The amount of infrastructure needed to build a combat jet is mind boggling. Some of the things that can't be bought off the shelf, for example, are: tiny screws with enormous strength, adhesives to glue stealth surfaces, the software to run the plane, the helmet mounted UI (can't use the American English version). All the developments have to be funded, and then further funded to build to scale. One side note: Without international sales, building combat aircrafts is expensive on a per unit basis. The Chinese couldn't sell many combat aircrafts internationally because its airplanes depended on Russian engines. Russia is a competitor in arms sales, forbidding China from selling aircrafts with Russian engines. Hence China had to design and build its own engines.

1:15 - Chapter 1 - A new player 4:35 - Chapter 2 - Design & weapons 8:40 - Mid roll ads 10:00 - Chapter 3 - Competitor of copycat

It doesn't matter if it's a copycat. It's a killing machine, not an artwork. As long as it can kill, even an 1:1 copy is still formidable

Keep growing that beard #BeardGang

seeing someone on your radar is not the same as having the ability to lock and kill a target

The Canards were chosen because they didn't originally have directional thrusters. Also super high speed is kind of overkill. US studies of fighting speeds shows that when engaging in air to air pilots would slow down to about 700 mph for more maneuverability. Further high speed burns more fuel and reduces effective combat range.

loved the video 👍

I now know why I've always thought the J-20 reminded me of a short necked Firefox from the 80s movie with Clint Eastwood.

the 2 seater version of j20 can become a command center for a group of stealth drone fighters and surveillance. a recent focus is the j35 for carriers.

J20 targets heavy attack aircraft，At present, the engine has been replaced with a turbofan 15，Its air combat capability is comparable to F22...The advantage is that the control ability is very strong, and the coefficient can reach 2.0.Of course, J20 only has a strong anti air capability, and is relatively weak against the ground and sea.At present, J20 has deployed 5 squadrons, about 150 sorties, and may expand to 300 sorties in the future，Now China's focus is on the J35, and the benchmark is the F35 light fighter

Nice piece of equipement for sure

2 seater variant is for loyal wingman drone operator. It would be good to get more info on that.

just to update the J-20 has a squadron fitted with WS-15 about more than 20 of them

It’s kinda like with F1. There’s a set of parameters and to meet them you get convergent designs. And yes they may have copied some tech and reversed engineered some tech but when it comes to tech it can sometimes be harder to understand why stolen tech works and to figure out how to produce it than to develop it yourself

thank you so much

The J20 is not a multirole fighter. Its an interceptor- primary mission, taking out enemy AWACS, Re fuelers. Bombers

The lesson Russia taught us is the ability to design and produce a small number of advanced fighters is one thing. It’s quite another to produce significant numbers, maintain them, update them as needed, effectively deploy and support them, and for them to have a positive impact in that nation’s offensive effort.

Great video, love the fair and simply neutral coverage of a foreign jet.

Awesome plane!... thanks Simon✈️👍🇳🇿

love it , your videos are very obejctive.

Request to do a video about the massive ‘HSL’ (High Speed Line/Hoge Snelheids Lijn) in the Netherlands. It’s a huge tunnel right through the country.

It definitely is hard to rate a plane that has most of its details hidden. 1. Detecting stealth fighters is nothing new, low frequency radars can do that; however, getting a weapons grade lock with a high frequency radar is extremely difficult. India's claims about tracking the J-20 therefore make sense, but tell us nothing about the plane's stealth capabilities. It is safe to assume it is less stealth than US planes, but equal to or better than Russia's Su-57 (canards do hurt its stealth abilities) 2. The design is probably based of the MiG 1.44 blueprints MiG sold to China in the 90s. While the basis may be the MiG 1.44, this is not a carbon copy and China did do more than just a couple of changes. 3. The largest weakness of the J-20 is its engines. Making jet engines is ridiculously hard, being considered a type of art rather than science by many in the field. China has zero past experience with jet engines and it shows when compared to the Russian engines. Russia inherited the experience of the USSR, which was still behind the US in jet engines. While the domestic engines are a breakthrough, the US will enjoy superiority in this aspect for many years to come.

About 250 x J-20 are already in service with the PLA Airforce. They are intended to be able to take out the AWACS, IFR, EW and reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft.

The Mig-28 is simply the better jet. Pure antagonist energy.

I'm sure espionage played a role, but the physics of stealth and delta-canard designs probably leads to at least some convergent engineering here. There's probably not that many designs that are possible in this space when the radar cross section stuff is being dictated by a computer model. And even if they did copy stuff, developing a 5th generation fighter and the manufacturing base to mass produce them is no joke. USAF is likely taking these plans very seriously when considering programs like the 6th gen fighter.

I've always thought it looks a bit strange, it's very long like a limo, it reminds me of the Foxbat in that way like it's designed to be a fast interceptor and the twin engines support that, but the canards add drag which doesn't support that, the canards do increase maneuverability but it doesn't seem to have the thrust vectoring to make it super maneuverable, so it's like a Typhoon but longer and probably heavier. So in a roundabout way they've ended up with basically an F-35 but maybe less stealthy due to the added surfaces, the lack of a cannon supports that since the F-35 is about fighting with advanced weapons more than dog fighting, the length gives it more stowed munitions which supports that further, so now it's entirely about their advanced weapons and systems and we probably won't know anything about that unless one suddenly lands on a NATO runway, it could be pure magic inside but it's a little suspect on the outside :P.

Unrelated topic but...........that's one COOL sweater. Awesome!

F-35 core processor is PowerPC 7448 with 90nm technology note chip. F-22 core processor is PowerPC 603 with 500nm technology note chip, while J-20 core processor is 28-40nm technology note chip. F-35 radar APG-81 is AESA with gallium arsenide second generation semiconductor technology, 1676 T/R modules, F-22 radar APG-77 is AESA with gallium arsenide second generation semiconductor technology, 1956 T/R modules, Power 20kw(peak), while J-20 radar KLJ-5 1475 is AESA with gallium nitride third generation semiconductor technology, 2200 T/R modules, power 100kw.

Modern fighter manufacturers no longer make jets that can dogfight but they forget you still need high g maneuverability to defeat sams and amraams, etc

The J-20 doesn't look just like an F-35, but the Shenyang FC-31/J-35, is pretty spot on, except for having a twin engine layout.

Long aWaited 💥

In case some viewers are not aware, each of these J-20 jet fighters is armed with multiple attack drones controlled by AI. In essence, each J-20 is a squadron. Not even Hollywood movies have this kind of imagination. Let alone that China has already done it. LOL

J20 very beautiful👍

Let's be honest here what hasn't China stolen ? And to add just because you copy someone else idea doesn't make it better just means your always behind.

The auto cannon could be stealth covered until use which pokes a hole in a thin panel

I guess you can have a plane that can do many things. The deciding factor is it’s ability to detect enemy planes from far and lock missiles to it and take it down. For modern aviation combat, opposing pilots may not even see each other, let alone engage in a dogfight. Arm chair military strategist here. 😂

Your Square Space ad was soooo long!

Lack of a canon means nothing. If you need to use such a thing in an air-to-air engagement in modern combat something went very, very, very wrong.

I think you are missing something. It's more than possible that the Chinese put the canards on for stability reasons. Stealing some of the plans doesn't automatically ensure you can build the same fighter, it just might give you some insights and short cuts, but you still need to make it work. I don't think it's nearly as ridiculous as you are making it out to be that China stole the plans and then used them to build out the J-20, especially the stealth aspects. It's kind of what China does after all...that's how they finally got homegrown jet engines after all.

There is a lot of nuance here. Low frequency radar can see an F-22 100 miles away. But you cannot get a weapons lock with low frequency. Another consideration is that the radar absorbent materials degrade with temperature and ablate with speed. So supersonic fighters have degradation of material. There are some ceramic materials coming to light that might be able to help with this but for the time being those coatings are a big factor. Production tolerances are key here. Otherwise you’ll be flying while covered in RAM tape.

The PL-15 is a strong missile

The biggest different between the two is that J-20 can command 4+ drones carrying dozens of bombs and missiles while F-35 can only hold 4 misslies.

I really really REALLY enjoyed watching this video. Your very neutral opinion based on available info and humble calm attitude is something this world needs more of. Thank you, I loved every second and will continue to support u

Me: Can we get f35 lightning 2 5th generation stealths fighter Mom: we have f35 lightning 2 5th generation stealths fighter at home. The f35 lightning 2 5th generation stealths fighter at home: j20

the most important thing here i think is that China has the mass production capacity that Russia lacks, which means they could actually compete with the US properly. the biggest thing in military readiness isnt just tech advances, its also the ability to produce equipment and deploy it. Russia has proven this with their complete failure in the skies even though they have "better tech". just because you can build a 5th gen fighter doesn't mean you can win a war with them

When do we expect this aircraft to be available for sale on Amazon?

So you're telling me there is a greater than 0% chance a Marine(Aviator) can actually slay a dragon!?!?

Let’s not forget that the F-117 that was shot down in Serbia I believe, somehow made its way to a Chinese Industrial park which I’m sure helped them. The other thing is you don’t have a carbon copy and F 22 or F35 to benefit from access to American fifth GEN production documents. Production of radar absorbent material used on F22 and F35 comes from decades of trial and error. having access to that production process, saves you decades

Their canards may be the most stealthy ever made, but canards are a big radar cross-section when they are moving. I'm sure they can lock them into place in while cruising. If they need to maneuver quickly, they'll need them. It most likely generates most of its lift from its main is fuselage. With small delta styled wings, the canards are a big part of its maneuvering.

Consider that current 5th gen fighters are generally detectable by modern radar. What matters is if you can get a missile lock and shoot it down. That is rather difficult, so I hear.

Stealth fighters use Lunenburg Lenses during non war times. It's common practice even for the US. India does not operate fifth gen fighters so they aren't aware that fifth gen are not utilizing their stealth capabilities during normal CAP.

I feel like those are just going to be another "Parade Fighters"

I've seen this rerun before. "russian has the most advance fighter." one defects to japan "nvm, its a piece of shit." Also other countries have a huge problem with maintenance and keeping things up to date. Russian has this problem, it's a huge army on paper. Then they invade a little country and can't defeat a couple drones or resupply its troops effectively. It's all Kabuki theater.

My specialty was avionics development and testing. Imagine back engineering software code? A near impossible nightmare to do - pitfalls galore... 😎

OK maneuverability is a function for close in dog fighting which given the US air force BVR weapon development was 'dialed' out of the F-35 and F-22 as they foresaw shooting the enemy down before they got into visual range and the need for a highly maneuverable airframe.

China had successfully tested their aerospace aircraft

As an American, I'm not too worried about China, or any other nation for that matter. Yes, our government sees them as a military rival. But, unless we really go to war with them, I don't see their advances as a problem. I think every country should develop themselves and seek after their own best interests. Likewise, each should seek thrir own security interests. If they stole military technology from the U.S., that just means we need better security. I would prefer the U.S. stop being threatened by others and start focusing on more domestic issues. Our government should be there more to simply protect American individual rights. Meanwhile, the public can interact with people of other nations however they like. Trade with China and do business abroad. Leave our governemnt out of it. It always seems like our government creates tensions with other governments that just make it harder on average citizens. Unless someone actually attacks us, I have no interest in seeing any other country as an enemy.

Prepare for the Chinese military stans ....

Obviously the J20 is not a.literal "copy" of the F35, it doesn't have the same stealth level and it doesn't have its operating capabilities. The J20 is a hard-to-counter missile truck, meant to unload lots of large missiles meant to counter ships (the US pacific fleet) or to pound fixed ground installations (US bases, Taiwan). They think that building hundreds it will be a good enough tool to accomplish the strategic objectives even accounting they'll lose quite some.

J20 will be a team leader of a drone team. Each of drone have different functions, like missle truck, oild truck, scape goat, dog fighter, etc.

Well I will say it does look cool! Frankly, I think that cool looks is all it has, kind of like an '82 Toyota Supra. These J20's came out a few years ago and a USAF guy I was flying with told me that from what he can see, this thing might be pretty stealthy, but stealth depends these days on a lot more than airplane design; The whole battlefield along with information from ground sources needs to exist for stealth to be maintained. Information transfer is the key. The B-2 stealth bomber can be seen by the Russians and Chinese now, since it has come out that using low frequency radar tends to show it, so stealth helps but it isn't the be all and end all that it was 20 years ago. There is a reason the USAF got rid of the F-117. -Four years ago over Syria, two USAF F-22 Raptors were able to close within 1.2 kilometers of a pair of Russian Sukhoi 29's. In fact, the only reason that the Russians figured out that the two Americans were 1200 meters behind them was because one of the pilots just for some reason decided to turn his head around and look behind him. The point is that the Raptors could have taken the Russian junk out about two dozen times because the AIM-120C missiles have a range of about 27 nautical miles/30 statute miles. All this DESPITE the fact that the Russians had serious air defence radars positioned the whole time. The Raptors got to within 1200 meters which of course works out to uhmm....about 3900 feet. Hello? Anyway, the USAF guy told me he looked at the design and he thinks that in any close in engagement, the Chinese jet would lose a lot speed quickly during maneuvering, kind of like the A-10. The F-22 can maneuver very quickly and NOT lose speed.

Many experts said because of those engines and canards they're not completely stealth. It's 4.5 Gen i think f35 and 22 are only stealth jets till date.

I have just seen a Chinese film (wandering earth 2) which featured CGI on this aircraft, interesting how it is portrayed