In China, any information about work on a new generation fighter J-31 turned out to be completely classified.. We are talking about a carrier-based fighter, with which it is planned to equip the PLA Navy aircraft carriers, starting with Type003. These are aircraft carriers, to be created with a flat deck (no springboard).
That fact, that no information about the implementation of the J-31 project has appeared in the Chinese press for a long time, gives reason to talk about new problems with this aircraft. After all, when the fifth generation fighter J-20 was created in China, then the press constantly appeared statements about "success in its development".
Recall, that a few months ago the Chinese media published materials, which talked about such a serious problem with the J-31 as the lack of suitable engines. In particular, pointed out, that the available aircraft engines do not allow J-31 fighters to achieve acceptable performance in take-off and run distances.
Another problem, which was originally advertised, and then they simply stopped talking about it in China - low indicators of the ratio of "combat radius – missile and bomb load ". With a combat radius without outboard fuel tanks of approximately 1100 km maximum payload is about 5-6 tonnes. With outboard fuel tanks, the combat radius increases to 1,8-1,9 thousands of kilometers (in theory), but at the same time 40% the missile and bomb load is also reduced while the stealth parameters of the carrier-based fighter are reduced.
In this case, it is worth stating, that the Chinese J-31 is not yet particularly superior in its main characteristics to the Russian MiG-29K carrier-based fighter, which has been developed over 30 years ago. But the cost of the J-31 program is several times higher than the cost of the MiG-29K program, belonging to the previous generation of carrier-based aircraft. The J-31 also had problems with maneuverability..
It is for this reason that in China at the moment they stopped openly covering data on the J-31 program..