Chinese
J-20 Meets US F-35 Stealth Fighter Jet For The First Time; Top US Air Force
Official Describes The Encounter
By
There have been some
very notable encounters and unpleasant engagements between the US and China due
to their enhanced presence in the Indo-Pacific. However, there hadn’t been many
aerial engagements between the two arch-rivals… until now.
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Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters have had at least one
contact with Chinese J-20 jets revealed a top US Air Force General while also
acknowledging that the Shaanxi KJ-500 airborne early warning and control
(AEW&C) aircraft plays an important role in long-range air-to-air kill
chains.
General Kenneth Wilsbach, Commander, Pacific Air Forces, USAF,
did not reveal when or if the F-35/J-20 encounter took place. He, however,
discussed briefly the new Chinese stealth fighter’s function in a rare
interaction.
This revelation comes a few weeks after a carrier-borne USAF
F-35 crashed in the South China Sea and caused a flurry of concerns in the US
security establishment about a possible Chinese theft of the F-35 technology.
The admission of the encounter between F-35 and J-20 is also
significant given the rising tensions between the two adversaries. The acrimony
between the two has aggravated in recent times as China has been intimidating
Taiwan and has not condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
American Appreciation Of J-20s
“We’re seeing relatively professional flying and it’s still too
early to tell exactly what they intend to do with [the J-20] – whether it’s
going to be more like an F-35 that’s capable of doing many, many missions or
more like an F-22 that is primarily an air superiority fighter that has an
air-to-ground capability.”
An air superiority fighter is an aircraft designed primarily to
take control of enemy airspace by gaining tactical superiority over the
opposing force. Air superiority aircraft are generally charged with engaging
agile, lightly armed aircraft in aerial battle and eliminating any threat to
airspace control, while some may also have a secondary role in air-to-surface
strikes.
Apart from acknowledging the capability of the Mighty Dragons,
USAF General Wilsbach also mentioned the KJ-500, which has been China’s primary
AEW&C platform in recent years.
The KJ-500 is based
on the Y-9 tactical transport aircraft and is powered by four turboprop
engines. In a fixed radome above the fuselage, the aircraft has a three-panel
active electronically scanned array radar. This is thought to provide
360-degree radar coverage.
“The KJ-500 plays a
significant role in some of their capability for long-range fires,” says
Wilsbach. “Some of their very long-range air-to-air missiles are aided by
that KJ-500. Being able to interrupt that kill chain is something that
interests me greatly.”
A previous analysis by
the EurAsian Times had explained that the J-20 fighters will most likely not be
employed in close air dogfights and could be used in a ‘sniping mode,’ knocking
out opposing aircraft, aerial tankers, air defense systems, ground-based radar
installations and key fortifications.
The KJ-5OO aircraft could, thus, be instrumental in aiding
precision kills using the PL-15 long-range air-to-air missiles as observed by
the US General.
The PL-15 long-range air-to-air missile from China is thought to
have a range of more than 107nm (200km). Chengdu J-10C, Shenyang J-11B, J-15
and J-16, Islamabad’s Pakistan Aeronautical Complex JF-17 Block 3, and the J-20
all carry this radar-guided weapon.
According to
Wilsbach, the KJ-500 could identify and assign targets to Chinese fighters, who
could then launch the active radar homing PL-15 from a significant distance.
The surprisingly pleasant remarks about Chinese aircraft are
significant as the popular sentiment among the higher echelons of the US
security establishment is that China could end the US military superiority by
2035.
During an Air Force Association meeting in September last year,
US Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown Jr. declared the PLA had “the
largest aviation forces in the Pacific” and had grown them “underneath our
nose.” Brown also claimed that China would have eclipsed the United States’ air
superiority by 2035, as previously reported by
the EurAsian Times.
Further, after Japan inked the contract for F-35 fighter jets,
the presence of these fifth-generation stealthy aircraft could only be expected
to multiply in the future and more engagements could become a routine.
It is pertinent to note that while the US General went on record
to talk briefly on the supposed encounter between the two fighter jets; the
Chinese PLAAF has maintained silence.
F-35
Vs J-20
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is
a stealth multirole combat aircraft designed to execute both air superiority
and strike missions. It is a single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth
multirole combat aircraft. It’s also capable of electronic warfare, as well as
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
The F-35A is a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) aircraft,
while the F-35B is a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft, and
the F-35C is a carrier-based (CV/CATOBAR) aircraft.
On the other hand,
the Chengdu J-20 is a multirole stealth fighter aircraft designed to carry out
ground assault missions even in difficult environments. The aircraft’s delta
wings allow it to reach higher heights at supersonic speeds.
The J-20 is the only operational fifth-generation stealth
fighter jet in the world apart from the American F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning II
and Russian Su-57.
As of 2021, China was known to have built 150 J-20 stealth
fighters. On the other hand, the US Air Force (USAF) had over 280 F-35As. It
intended to buy 1,763. This figure does not include the F-35’s B and C
variants. Furthermore, an increasing number of allied countries have been
purchasing F-35s.
In answer to a question on the J-20’s production capacity, Wang
Haitao, deputy designer of the aircraft, told the Chinese government-controlled Global Times that China’s aviation sector can
meet any level of demand from the PLA Air Force.
In line with that commitment, China is now set to significantly
ramp up the production of the J-20s that it has positioned as the pride of its
fleet. While both, F-35 and J-20 have are both powers to reckon with in their
own right, the rare acknowledgment of its flying prowess by a US General is
intriguing.
· Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari9555@gmail.com
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