According to the future strategic deployment plan of the US Air Force, the total number of F35s will be increased to 2,000 by 2030, and a large part of these fighters will be allocated to US allies, especially China.
【F35 production line】
In the face of the threat from a large number of F35 fighters, although we have the J-20 as a means of countermeasures, due to the late mass production time of this fighter, even if it is produced at full capacity, it is difficult to catch up with the number of F35 fighters.
As a result, such a saying was derived, that is
Sixth-generation fighters are powerful
Why is the sixth-generation fighter the ultimate answer to the F35? One of the important reasons is the high confidence in the performance of the fighter in the new era.
[Concept map of the sixth-generation fighter]
First of all, the sixth-generation fighter will go to the next level in stealth performance, although the fifth-generation fighter has a certain stealth ability, but the sixth-generation fighter may use more novel technical concepts.
For example, the use of new materials and designs further reduces the radar cross-sectional area, making it virtually undetectable on enemy radars.
This not only means that the concealment of the airframe itself has been improved, but also provides the possibility of more flexible combat operations, and the survival rate of sixth-generation fighters has been greatly increased.
Second, the sixth-generation fighter will have a more advanced avionics system, the fifth-generation fighter has made significant progress in data link, sensor fusion, etc., and the sixth-generation fighter is expected to further develop artificial intelligence-assisted decision-making and machine learning Xi technology.
This also enables fighters to quickly process massive amounts of data, quickly identify threats and find the best response strategies, and continuously improve combat efficiency and fighter response speed.
In addition, the sixth-generation fighter will also have significant advances in weapon systems, including not only more advanced missiles and precision-guided weapons, but also likely to integrate kinetic weapons such as high-energy lasers.
Compared with fifth-generation fighters, sixth-generation fighters have more diverse strike methods, and can demonstrate excellent combat capabilities at multiple levels such as air combat, ground attack, and electronic warfare.
In addition, the sixth-generation fighter will also use more advanced propulsion technology, such as variable-cycle engines, which means that the sixth-generation fighter will be able to fly at speeds well above the speed of sound.
It may be that the conventional cruising speed of the sixth-generation fighter is the afterburner speed level of the fourth-generation fighter, and once the afterburner of the sixth-generation fighter is turned on, I am afraid that many anti-aircraft missiles can only eat its exhaust gas.
Of course, there are many possibilities for the sixth-generation fighter, and it does not have an absolute advantage over the fifth-generation fighter, and it can play any one-to-many role in air combat.
China's sixth-generation fighter crushes the F35
As mentioned before, the advanced nature of the sixth-generation fighter is full of imagination, and today, with the rapid development of China's UAV, China's sixth-generation fighter may form a networked combat system with UAVs and other platforms in the form of cluster operations.
This means that each sixth-generation fighter can be used as an information node to share information with the surrounding or even in real time, forming a three-in-one combat network covering the air, ground and sea.
In actual air combat (assuming one-to-many), through the comprehensive information superiority of this combat network, China's sixth-generation fighters can accurately grasp the position, number, weapon status and movement of the F-35 formation.
While maintaining stealth, our fighters can divide the encirclement network to isolate the F-35 one by one, and use precision strike means to break them one by one, thus avoiding a frontal group battle.
In this hypothetical air battle, China's six generations relied on the information dominance of the "first perspective", the breakthrough in strike distance, and the superiority of the group combat mode to achieve a huge one-to-many victory.
From this point of view, one is basically no problem.
In this way, the production of sixth-generation fighters is significantly more cost-effective than riveting the production of fifth-generation fighters at full capacity.
Of course, this is only a conception of the possibility of future confrontation.
[The sixth-generation fighter is full of imagination]
When will the Chinese sixth-generation fighter appear
However, it also reacted from the side that the use of sixth-generation fighters to counter the huge US air force formation has broad prospects and is feasible.
So the question also arises, when will China's sixth-generation fighters appear?
At present, China may have mastered many technologies in the field of sixth-generation fighters, for example, in the field of fighter artificial intelligence, the current J-20 two-seat version is considered to have adopted such technologies.
At the same time, China also has the world's top fighter stealth technology, and after several years of development, we are confident that we can meet the indicators of stealth performance of sixth-generation fighters.
There are two difficult problems in front of us, the first is where the variable-cycle engine of the sixth-generation fighter comes from.
You must know that in the field of fighter engines for a long time is China's shortcoming, although China has achieved good results in recent years, but if you want to catch up with and surpass the United States, there is still a way to go.
Now the United States has experimented with the variable cycle engine on the F35 fighter, which is considered to be a 5.5 generation engine.
So, in the engine area, we have to work harder.
The second difficulty is that the design of the sixth-generation fighter is expected to be innovative to meet the needs of new performance indicators.
Don't look at modern fighters as the same, but in fact, the appearance design is also a science, and a small detail is very particular.
Previously, the shape design of Chinese fighters more or less referred to the experience of Russian fighters, and now they are engaged in sixth-generation fighters, which have no experience to follow, and it is more difficult to walk.
But we might as well think about it this way, in the early days of the founding of New China, our predecessors walked the most difficult road, and what are the difficulties we encounter today?
[The predecessors have walked the most difficult road]
Compared with these problems, we are more willing to believe in the determination and confidence of Chinese scientific researchers to overcome difficulties.
I believe that as long as the Chinese people want to do it, there will be no insurmountable difficulties, and China's sixth-generation fighters will eventually come into reality.
Resources:
[1] Global Times: "Japan, Britain and Italy jointly develop the next generation of fighters, experts: performance or not up to the sixth generation"
[2] China Military Network: "Six Characteristics of the Sixth Generation Aircraft"