If Saudi Arabia's purchase of anti-aircraft suppressive J-10D kicked off the arms race, then next, on the fourth-generation fighter project, it can be regarded as a real drama.

Quite simply, both the J-10D and the Su-35B are only third-generation fighters.

No matter how it is improved, the third-generation aircraft is the third-generation aircraft, and the inherent defects, especially the lack of stealth capabilities, make the third-generation aircraft never able to compete with the fourth-generation aircraft.

More importantly, the era of fourth-generation aircraft has arrived.

In the Middle East, Israel has already acquired several dozen F-35A.

What about other countries?

None of them have fourth-generation aircraft.

Initially, Saudi Arabia pinned its hopes on the United States.

Before the outbreak of the Iraqi civil war, Saudi Arabia had been working hard to acquire the F-35A, and even offered the United States a purchase price of $300 million.

You know, the factory price of the F-35A at that time had dropped to less than $100 million.

The price offered by Saudi Arabia can make US arms dealers tens of billions of dollars.

It's a pity that the United States just doesn't sell it.

The reason is also very simple, Israel has only acquired the F-35A and has not yet played around, so it will certainly not supply the F-35A to Arab countries in the short term.

In addition, in the eyes of the United States, there is no reason why the Saudis must purchase the F-35A either.

Why?

If it is only against Iran on the other side of the Persian Gulf, the Saudi EF2000 and F-15SA are enough, and there is no need for better fighters.

Of course, if Saudi Arabia is willing to try it first, the United States can provide the F/A-18E/F, or the latest modification of the F-15.

In fact, just after Saudi Arabia put forward its intention to purchase F-35A, the US authorities put forward a proposal for Saudi Arabia to purchase these two types of fighters.

Obviously, the Saudis will not be fooled.

You know, whether it is the F/A-18E/F, or the latest modification of the F-15, it is not much better than the existing Saudi fighters.

With the United States refusing to sell the F-35A, Saudi Arabia turned its attention to China.

Quite simply, in the world, apart from the United States, only Huaxia has a fourth-generation fighter that has been successfully developed and has begun to equip the troops in batches.

This is the J-20.

Unfortunately, the J-20 is also not for sale.

In this regard, Huaxia has long given a clear answer.

From the perspective of maintaining global stability, as long as the United States lifts the export ban on F-22A, Huaxia will not include the J-20 in the list of foreign trade arms.

In this way, it is actually too high the value of the J-20.

Why?

The implication is that the J-20 is a heavy fighter of the same level as the F-22A, and it is dominated by air supremacy, which is half a grade higher than the F-35A.

Of course, the Saudis did not give up either.

In the usual local tyrant style, Saudi Arabia's intention to purchase the J-20 is $350 million, which is 50 million higher than the F-35A.

In fact, with the production cost of Huaxia, the ex-factory price of the J-20 is about 100 million US dollars.

It's a pity that Huaxia still refuses to sell.

At that time, Huaxia offered a proposal to either buy the latest modification of the J-10 or invest in the development team of the FC-31, if the latter was chosen, Huaxia would ensure that Saudi Arabia would become the first user of the FC-31 in the Middle East, and even assemble and produce it in Saudi Arabia.

The problem is that the FC-31 is still only an engineering prototype.

At that time, there were only two FC-31s in total, of which the first prototype was only able to fly, and the second prototype had only just completed its first flight.

Not to mention Saudi Arabia, even Huaxia does not know when the FC-31 can be finalized.

A few years, or a dozen years?

By the time the FC-31 is finalized, Israel may have already played with the F-35A, and the United States may sell the simplified version of the F-35A to Saudi Arabia.

So, isn't it in vain to spend billions, or even tens of billions, on the FC-31 project?

In addition, in this kind of cooperative research and development project, Saudi Arabia has no other role than to provide funds, let alone obtain the ability to develop and produce advanced fighters through cooperation.

In fact, the Saudis do not intend to acquire such capabilities either.

Of course, there is another crucial issue.

That is, the medium-thrust military engine developed for the FC-31 has only been on the market for a few years, and its development cycle is likely to last for more than ten years.

Prior to this, the FC-31 was actually powered by a Russian engine, the RD-93.

As for the S-93 copied by Huaxia on the RD-13, because the reliability has not been solved and the performance is not good enough, it may not be mass-produced.

If Russian engines are adopted, then the export of FC-31 will definitely be limited.

At that time, Russia only needs to cut off the supply of engines to ground all Saudi FC-31s.

In fact, it is precisely for this reason that Pakistan is also hesitant on the FC-31 project, because India can also prevent Pakistan from acquiring FC-31 by exerting influence on Russia, so that the purchase of FC-31 is full of too many unknown risks.

Of course, China's own enthusiasm for FC-31 is not high enough.

According to the development plan of the Huaxia Air Force, only the J-20 will be confirmed to be purchased in the future.

It's not that the Huaxia Air Force can't afford the second type of fourth-generation aircraft, but there is no need for this at all.

The J-20 is inherently inexpensive, and after the S-15 matures, the J-20 will be able to acquire combat capabilities that are no less than those of the F-22A.

As long as 400 to 500 J-20s are purchased, the Huaxia Air Force will not need more fourth-generation aircraft.

The J-20 is paired not with low-end fighters like the F-35A, but with cheaper three-and-a-half generations such as the J-10D, J-11D and J-16.

Even the Huaxia Air Force has no intention of purchasing the FC-31, so how can it actively promote the development of the FC-31?

At that time, the only suspense was the Huaxia Navy, that is, the Huaxia Navy was likely to follow the example of the US Navy and use the FC-31 as a carrier-based fighter.

However, this hope has also been dashed.

Why?

The Type 004 aircraft carrier of the Huaxia Navy is a genuine nuclear-powered supercarrier, with a standard displacement of more than 80,000 tons, so the carrier aircraft capacity has been greatly improved, and the size of the carrier-based fighter has been greatly relaxed, so there is no reason to choose a medium fighter with small size and poor combat effectiveness.

In addition, a carrier-based version of the J-20 has already appeared.

In the selection of the Huaxia Navy, the J-20 carrier-based version overwhelmed the FC-31 in all respects by virtue of its greater tonnage.

In fact, judging from the 30-year service cycle, it is more cost-effective to choose the J-20 as a carrier-based fighter than the FC-31, that is, it can share the logistics support system with the Air Force.

The U.S. Navy chose the F-35C, also wanting to share the logistics support system with the Air Force's F-35A.

If you count the billions of dollars needed to complete the development work, plus the purchase of carrier-based fighters, which is not much, then the economic benefits of choosing the FC-31 are even lower.

It can be said that no matter how you look at it, there is no reason for Huaxia to continue to promote the FC-31 project.

Traditionally, the FC-31 will serve as a technology demonstrator, and the technology developed for it will be stockpiled for use in the development of the next generation of fighters.

As a matter of fact, both China and the United States have already started the development of fifth-generation fighters.

By this time, FC-31 was completely transformed into an international cooperation project.

To put it bluntly, the FC-31 project can only continue to exist after obtaining foreign orders, otherwise it will definitely be discontinued.

Thankfully, this isn't a bad thing, it's actually a good thing.