Recently, Pakistan's Minister of Interior Sheikh Rashid publicly stated that Pakistan has purchased Chinese-made J-10 fighter jets, and said that 25 J-10s will be reviewed at the Pakistani military parade on March 23, 2022. Although the news of Pakistan's procurement of the J-10 has been around for many years, it has not been officially recognized by the two countries, and the statement of pakistan's home minister may have a high degree of credibility. And some media pointed out that Pakistan's purchase of the J-10 is aimed at countering the French Rafale fighter that India has just acquired, but in terms of the current equipment level of the Pakistan Air Force, the procurement of the J-10 may have a deeper significance.
(The Pakistani military has visited and inspected the J-10 more than once, the picture shows the Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army inspecting the J-10C)
As far as pakistan's current situation and the production situation of Chengfei are concerned, the J-10 mentioned by Minister Rashid is most likely a dedicated export version of the J-10CE, rather than the earlier J-10A. This is because Pakistan's primary goal in purchasing the J-10 is definitely to fight against Rafale, and the J-10A fighter still uses the domestic 1473 radar, which is a traditional pulse Doppler radar (PD radar), and the J-10A does not have IRST installed, and its detection ability in the case of radio silence is relatively limited, and it cannot effectively counter the RDS active phased array radar used by the Rafale fighter.
At the same time, due to the performance limitations of the PD radar itself, its guidance ability to the PL-12 medium-range air-to-air is weak, and it is difficult to exert the full combat effectiveness of the missile, and it is also unable to guide the latest PL-15 long-range air-to-air missile, which has greater performance limitations. And the J-10A uses an "adjustable multi-wave system rectangular supersonic intake tract", which not only sounds more winding, but also has defects in performance, especially the six stiffeners between the upper edge of the intake tract and the fuselage, which not only increases the weight, but also increases the radar reflection area of the aircraft.
(The J-10 fighter is a milestone achievement for China's aviation industry.)
The above-mentioned problems in the J-10A have been optimized on the J-10C. First of all, the J-10C uses a new domestic active phased array radar, the technical aspect and the Rafale stand on the same level, and the J-10C nose radar caliber is 600 mm, significantly larger than the Gust's 400 mm, so the J-10C radar can be installed with more T/R units, with a longer detection distance, higher detection accuracy and sensitivity.
At the same time, the J-10C uses a new DSI intake tract, which not only reduces the weight of the intake tract, but also effectively shields the aircraft engine and avoids the "hole effect", thereby improving the stealth performance of the aircraft. At present, only the active fighters of China and the United States use DSI intake tract technology, and the French Rafale still uses a supersonic intake tract similar to the J-10A, which shows that France has lagged significantly behind China and the United States in this technology.
(The J-10C fighter is taking off, and the PL-15 long-range air-to-air missile under its wings is clearly visible)
To unleash the full combat effectiveness of a fighter, it is not enough to rely on the fighter itself, but also requires superior weapons and important tactical support, in short, air-to-air missiles and early warning aircraft. In terms of air-to-air missiles, the J-10C mainly uses three kinds of air-to-air missiles, domestic PL-10, PL-12 and PL-15, and the PL-8 type has been gradually replaced by the PL-10.
The Rafale mainly uses France's own Mika series air-to-air missiles, and can also use the European "Meteor" air-to-air missile. The Mika missile is characterized by its versatility, which allows free switching between a combat missile and a medium-range air-to-air missile by changing different seekers through a projectile body.
However, Mika's weakness is also its universality! Because it is universal, it is necessary to take care of the agility of the fighting missile and the range of the medium-range missile at the same time, which leads to the Mika becoming a weapon of "high or low", which can be basically guaranteed as a fighting missile, but the maximum range of 50 kilometers makes the Mika have a significant gap from the "medium-range bomb".
If the Rafale and the J-10C are against each other, the two are basically equal in fighting ability, but in terms of medium-range attack, the J-10C has obvious advantages, if the J-10C launches a "hit and run" interception tactic outside the line of sight, the Rafale will fall into the embarrassing situation of "can't catch up and can't escape".
In terms of long-range air-to-air missile confrontation, although the European "Meteor" missile has an advantage over the PL-15E in terms of range (meteor range of 160 kilometers, PL-15E is 145 kilometers), but it is also embarrassing that because the rafale fighter's nose radar caliber is only 400 mm, although the RDS radar performance is good, the effective detection distance is not more than 150 kilometers, which is smaller than the range of the "Meteor" missile, and the detection of the J-10C with a certain stealth effect will be discounted, so The range advantage of the "Meteor" missile is limited by the RDS radar and cannot be exerted at all.
More importantly, the J-10C's avionics system uses a "jewel pillar" architecture similar to the F-22, which is an advanced technology only available in the fifth generation of fighters and only in China and the United States. At present, the Rafale fighter has not yet applied this technology, and even if it is used, it is for France's own use and it is impossible to export to India.
(Pakistan has built an air defense system with Chinese weapons and radar as the core, the picture shows the Chinese Hongqi-16 air defense missile equipped by Pakistan)
In addition to air-to-air missiles, the rear command system of both sides is also very critical, and if the J-10 is exported to Pakistan, it can be quickly integrated into the air defense combat system of the capital Pakistan. This is because Pakistan's long-range air defense radar system was established with the help of China, and Pakistan has also purchased a variety of air defense missiles from China, including Hongqi-9P, Hongqi-16, Hongqi-7 (FM-90), and the Pakistan Air Force is also equipped with Chinese-made ZDK-03 early warning aircraft, JF-17 (FC-1) fighter jets, etc. It can be said that the current Pakistan Air Force has been basically "Sinicized", if the J-10CE is exported to Pakistan, it can directly use the Chinese data link system of the Pakistani army and directly integrate it into the air defense system composed of long-range radar, air defense missiles, early warning aircraft, and auxiliary fighters, and even does not need to make any modifications.
But Rafale is more embarrassing, because Rafale and India's active Fercan AWACS can not share data links, can only rely on voice calls for command, this efficiency and Pakistan Air Force is comparable, high and low. Although the Indian Air Force still has an EMB-145 AWACS aircraft, the actual effect of this pocket-sized early warning aircraft is completely on par with the ZDK-03, and it is still the same sentence: Is the data link universal? I don't know!
Therefore, if the J-10CE is settled in Pakistan, it means that India's Rafale will single-handedly attack a complete set of air defense systems with the J-10CE as the core. In a sense, you can roughly judge the win or loss without even fighting - you know, in the "Anatolian Eagle" air force exercise held by Turkey in 2021, Qatar's Rafale even lost to Pakistan's JF-17, so India's Rafale wants to fight the J-10CE, which is really not generally difficult.
(ZDK-03 early warning aircraft is the core main force of Pakistan's air defense early warning system)
Rafale's real advantage is that it is a "multi-role" fighter, with an air weight of only 9.5 tons, a maximum takeoff weight of 24.5 tons, and a carrying ratio of up to 2.6, which is the top level among the four and a half generations of fighters. The Rafale has as many as 14 plug-in points, which is significantly higher than the level of the J-10C's 11 plug-in points, and the Rafale is a twin-engine fighter, so its external load is significantly higher than that of the single-engine J-10C, which is the rafale's biggest advantage. However, if there is no air superiority, Rafale's powerful multi-purpose capability is still a target in front of the J-10C. Against the J-10C, Rafale obviously can't get air supremacy at all, so the multi-purpose performance is meaningless.
(Although Pakistan has about 75 F-16 fighter jets, there are many restrictions on the use of these aircraft.)
In fact, in addition to fighting against rafales, Pakistan's purchase of J-10s has another purpose, that is, to balance the United States and eventually abandon its own F-16 fighters. Although many of the F-16s currently installed in Pakistan are advanced block52 versions, the United States stipulates that the F-16 sold to Pakistan can only be used in the "war on terror". After all, Pakistan is not the United States, and it does not have the financial resources to use the F-16 to blow up terrorist tents! Pakistan purchased the F-16 to defend the country, but the United States did not allow Pakistan's F-16 to fight with India, and this arm was inevitably stretched too long. If a war breaks out one day and the United States bans Pakistan's F-16 from the air, the loss will be too great! Therefore, on the issue of the survival of the country, Pakistan still chose a reliable friend , China.
From a purely technical point of view, it is not too much to say that the J-10C is the "king of the four generations of semi-light fighters", because the J-10 was originally a fighter designed for air superiority, through the enhancement of radar, avionics and aerodynamic details, coupled with advanced air-to-air missiles, early warning aircraft, ground radar systems, etc., the J-10C has become the king of the sky. For Pakistan, the purchase of the J-10CE will not only get an advanced fighter jet that can compete with the Rafale, but also get rid of the US constraints on Pakistan.