Just enough for Gaijin to go alright you win. I really believe most of the issues came down to how the USA pushes its F-35 as they need countries to buy the plane and the extra the USA gets out of it. (the whole theoretical off switch) F-X or the Turkish TAI Kaan would be mostly immune to issues like that in theory.
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As already mentioned by others I don’t considered it a failure since it was never meant to go into production it was for testing purposes. And the program in a way lives on as it shifted over to gen 6 studies and now GCAP.
If anything the fact that they even made such a vehicle before kaan and kf-21 shows Japan could of went all in on gen 5 if they wanted to, not even Germany or U.K made anything similar other then their typhoons, shame Japan decided to switch to gen 6 studies as we would of had a fleet of domestic gen 5s by now, we have gen 6 to look forward to at least.
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Yeah, and it should be noted the reason the F-35 was chosen over it wasnt actually political pressure, but practicality.
Japan knew that even if they tried, they wouldnt be getting a domestic design into service untill around now. And the 5th F-X program was very much a matter of urgency over china fielding J-20s. So a more immediately available, existing design was probably the correct play.
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This really makes me wonder how different it could’ve been had Japan considered the export market. If there was a potential market for the 5th gen, they might not have entirely cancelled it.
In reality buying the F-35 could already fill the same gap faster for the JASDF and 6th gen development had already started in some nations so it was more reasonable to shift to that too so it would be ready in time as well. But with an export market, like the KF-21, there is demand for 5th generation aircraft that maybe could’ve been worth keeping the project around for.
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The generations is a bit of a sales advertisement anyway and not everyone agrees of what a ideal 6th gen is and its job. 3rd gen phantoms going hard being bomb trucks to this day in some nations. China is known to have two 6th gens J-50 and J-36 (maybe some say its just a if a su-34 was being designed today kind of plane). If 6th gen is drone fighter teaming then that’s a different beast that will need a twin seat to do right by some also a drone fighter (not that hard apparently)
USA from there Boeing F-47 is considered to be a very good air superiority fighter which values being well a fighter a drone command fighter like the possible J-36 might not need such abilities. Though from looks J-50 and F-47 maybe alike in goals though a twin seat J-50 would look cool not going to lie. Who know non of us have real information on 6th gen but what we have seen and some expert testimonials with some project history.
Japan and the GCAP (F-3) looks from the concepts to be a very big fighter but that’s all we know. Maybe with Chinas 6th gen stuff flying there going to change stuff or dig in but we dont know.
F-3
J-50
J-36
F-47
Loyal wingman / maybe just drone fighters are just going to eclipse 6th gen so who knows 6th gen fighter might not be as valuable as people think. Drones also have no people in them so you can do war without war stuff if you want like normal strike drones so there is that angle.
Will we see J-50 in warthunder? lol who knows.
You’re not up to date m8.
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had Japan made the change earlier 5th gen with export might have been valuable ya J-20 would be flying and the air force would have to eat a few but there is the whole you made money from it angle. Japan has one weakness though which might be export of strike packages for there aircraft as they have not really invested in ground attack by aircraft all that much to my knowledge unless there is black paper stuff they keep hidden away.
what majorly changed? I hear Italy and Japan where moving onto technology testing on flying labs.
One thing I find funny is the small chance there is some aircraft engineer watching everyone argue about 5th gen and 6th gen fighters laughing because they know the truth.
The UK’s scaled functional demonstrator is nearly complete and due roll out next year
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that will be nice to see still its a long way to the full prototype or preproduction. 6th gen is going to be strange but China did light a fire under the rear of a lot of countries to get something flying. Still the question of what 6th gen is very foggy.
FCAD is said to feature a weapons bay and test and launch weapons so I mean technically could come to wt as a stealth fighter for U.K, Japan and Italy
FCAD is the name of the tech demonstrator
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Would be funny if it becomes its own thing but it would be funny to see a mini me version.
So I was trying to figure out which CA-27 from Indonesia was the alleged Mk.31 to maybe find more detail, like if it was maybe converted to Mk.32 standard (so it would be identical in game), but I found out that it seems to be a complete mistake. Indonesia never had a Mk.31 at all, all of there airframes were built as Mk.32
Full list
Mk.32s are A94-943 to 991 and 351 to 372, while Mk.31s would be 901 to 942 only.
A94-352 - Mk.32 (crashed on delivery)
A94-361 / F-8601 - Mk.32
A94-366 / F-8602 - Mk.32
A94-368 / F-8603 - Mk.32
A94-945 / F-8604 - Mk.32
A94-949 / F-8605 - Mk.32
A94-952 / F-8606 - Mk.32
A94-957 / F-8607 - Mk.32
A94-963 / F-8608 - Mk.32
A94-968 / F-8609 - Mk.32
A94-969 / F-8610 - Mk.32
A94-971 / F-8611 - Mk.32
A94-972 / F-8612 - Mk.32
A94-975 / F-8613 - Mk.32
A94-980 / F-8614 - Mk.32
A94-988 / F-8615 - Mk.32
A94-990 / F-8616 - Mk.32
A94-955 / F-8617 - Mk.32
A94-370 / F-8618 - Mk.32
A94-369 / F-8619 - Mk.32
A94-978 / F-8620 - Mk.32
A94-979 / F-8621 - Mk.32
A94-353 / F-8622 - Mk.32
A94-987 / F-8623 - Mk.32
So with that Indonesia can only get one variant of CA-27, the Mk.32
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Now I wonder under which flag CA-27 will fly if they actually come to Japan TT.
On one hand, Indonesia is the second largest user, but on the other Malaysia already have established sub-TT line so it’s easier to implement. So, I think it’s the later.
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That’s a good question honestly. I was expecting to see both with a Mk.32 for Malaysia and Mk.31 for Indonesia, but sadly the Indonesian Mk.31 never actually existed and they also only had Mk.32
Indonesia could get it alongside a proper Indonesian aircraft line, the subtree was officially confirmed almost a year ago and the fourth line in the air tree was kept free for a long time, so it’s not unlikely it could be here soon especially now after the Leopard 2RI (and two additional vehicles that were planned too, but delayed for not being ready) was added last update. The Indonesian CA-27 is also more unique because they integrated 80mm Oerlikon rockets to them while the Malaysian one is unmodified.
But at the same time Indonesia also has other aircraft that fit around the (likely 9.0) BR of the CA-27, things like the Hawk 53, Lim-5, Lim-6Bis and so on. Meanwhile the closest Malaysia have are the MB-339AM that’s comparable to the 7.7 MB-326K and would probably be ~8.0, or the A-4PTM that with AIM-9J and AGM-65A capabilities would be comparable to the 9.7 A-4N Ayit, on top of just not having a lot of different aircraft to add in the first place. So from an individual nation standpoint, Malaysia does need it more.
I guess all we can do is wait and see. Maybe they even make one squadron and the other techtree for example, or simply give the Indonesian one (for the unique rockets) the Malaysian camo so both can be there.
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could also just do both, one as a standard TT the other as premium or something
For 9.0 I think the Hawk 53 is still a better option since its a bit more unique than the others, and would sit at around the same BR
we also have quite literally tons of alternatives as well, so its not like we need to have the F-86 for us
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What if we change the current F-16AJ to Indonesian early F-16A? 🙏🙏🙏
→
IIRC, same engine, same radar, just change the armament to remove AIM-7, AIM-9L, but give AIM-9P-4/P-5
F-16AJ is bound for the path of R2Y2 anyway, so might as well :v 👐👐
Wait The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) F8F Bearcat to rank III ~ IV, and indonesian aircraft piston engine
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Low-vis shark mouth, that’s interesting