As the most advanced fighter of our Air Force, the J-20 fighter has played the role of a blue army fighter many times since it was put into service, and has served as the "most fearsome opponent" for various units of our Air Force.
Thanks to its advanced performance as a fifth-generation fighter, the J-20 fighter is often able to defeat the fourth-generation and four-and-a-half-generation fighters by a large margin in air combat Xi exercises.
However, no matter how powerful a fighter is, it does not always have the upper hand, and other units participating in the exercise Xi are constantly studying tactical tactics and tailoring response methods according to the characteristics of the J-20 fighter.
Judging from public reports, some of our units have successfully defeated the J-20 by using fighters that are a generation or half a generation behind. So how has the J-20 performed in Xi so far?
1
J-20 early performance Xi report
The J-20 fighter made its first flight in 2011, and allegedly in 2016, the J-20 fighter began to be produced in small batches. Then, in 2017, official reports indicated that the J-20 fighter had been installed in the Air Force.
However, at this time, the J-20 fighter was equipped with a flight training unit of a certain air force. The main task of this unit is to test the new combat aircraft installed in our air force and to compile a training program.
The Air Force got the J-20 fighter and immediately put it into a confrontation Xi exercise, testing the preset tactics of our Air Force for fifth-generation fighters and non-stealth fighters against stealth fighters in the actual Xi.
The first official report on the J-20 fighter air combat Xi appeared in May 2017, when several state media reported that the J-20 fighter had a 10:0 victory over the J-11, J-10 and Su-30 fighters in the "Red Sword" Xi exercise.
However, this news was rumored as early as late 2016, so it is possible that this confrontation Xi happened earlier.
The more well-known Xi performance of the J-20 fighter is the famous 17:0, which is the result of our Air Force's famous Wang Hai Brigade in the Xi.
The Xi was first publicly reported in 2020, but the Xi should have taken place earlier than that. Judging from the pictures accompanying the report, Wang Hai's brigade should have achieved a 17:0 record in the confrontation Xi with Su-30 fighters.
Considering that the fighter equipped with Su-30 fighters in the aviation brigade where Wang Hai's brigade was equipped with Su-30 fighters before it was reequipped with J-20 fighters, we guess that this may be a confrontation Xi exercise between Wang Hai's brigade and its brother units after it was reequipped with J-20 fighters.
In addition to this kind Xi of air combat confrontation, some periodicals say that the J-20 fighter broke through the multi-layered air defense system composed of the fourth-generation fighter and the Hongqi-9 air defense system in a confrontation exercise, and shot down the "enemy" early warning plane at the cost of losing one J-20 fighter.
2
Why was the J-20 able to play a big score?
However, in some other materials, the J-20 fighter has an even more amazing performance. For example, in a 2020 report, the J-20 fighter once beat the J-11B with a 72:0 result in the "Golden Helmet" air combat confrontation Xi.
In the subsequent confrontation Xi, the J-11B was even beaten by the J-20 fighter with a result of more than 100 to zero.
However, some friends are very curious about how the J-20 fighter has a total of six rounds of ammunition in reserve, and how it has achieved so many results? This involves some skills in air combat Xi.
We know that the time a fighter spends flying in the sky is precious, and every hour is a flight cost of tens of thousands of dollars.
Therefore, in the confrontation Xi, especially in the confrontation Xi at the tactical level, we need to consider how to make the fighter exercise as Xi much as possible in the same time, so as to improve the training efficiency.
In air combat Xi exercises, it is routinely practiced by countries that fighter jets use a specially designed mode for training Xi to simulate locking on "enemy" fighters to simulate launching air-to-air missiles, and then the referee decides whether to shoot down the opponent.
The downed fighter will not return to the airfield to land, but will return to a specific airspace and then "resurrect" and rejoin the confrontation Xi, thus eliminating the need for a takeoff and landing, thus saving a lot of training time.
The US military's F22 fighter and our J-20 fighter can play tens to hundreds of zeros, and it is because of such Xi skills that the opponent's fighters will continue to be resurrected from specific airspace.
But in the past, such a record has not appeared, because before the emergence of fifth-generation fighters, fighters have never had such a big performance gap, even second-generation and third-generation fighters have the power to fight against fourth-generation fighters.
However, the fifth-generation fighter with stealth and super situational awareness has an overwhelming advantage in the face of the fourth-generation fighter, so that it can continuously shoot down the "resurrected" "enemy" fighter and achieve incredible results in the Xi.
3
How to "shoot down" the J-20?
It is gratifying to note that other fighter units of our Air Force have not given up confrontation because of the strong performance advantages of the J-20 fighters, but have continued to study tactical skills, study the weaknesses of the J-20 fighters, and formulate targeted combat methods.
Judging by the official reports, such research experiments are useful. Our fourth-and-a-half-generation fighters have also shot down J-20 fighters several times.
In 2018, state media reported that in a special Xi exercise, the J-20 fighter played the role of the "orange army", and in the Xi, it was positioned as a third-party force that interfered with the red and blue sides of the Xi in the exercise.
In the face of the interference of the J-20 fighters, the Red Army's J-10C fighters, with the cooperation of early warning aircraft and other aircraft, successfully captured the whereabouts of the J-20 fighters and drove them away through hand-to-hand combat.
However, in this Xi exercise, the Red Army mainly relied on driving away, rather than actually shooting down the J-20 fighter during the Xi. After all, in terms of the fighting performance of the J-20 fighter, whether the J-10C can win when it gets close is two different things.
In the official report of last year's Air Force Festival, it was disclosed that the Du Fengrui Brigade, a well-known elite unit of the Air Force, set up an ambush with a number of J-16 fighters through sophisticated tactical design and cooperation, and with the cooperation of early warning aircraft, successfully shot down two J-20 fighters of the opponent during the Xi exercise.
Quite preciously, they have nothing to lose.
However, the pilots of Du Fengrui's brigade also said in an interview that it was very difficult to confront the J-20 fighters, and they also felt that it was an "impossible" task when they received the mission at the beginning.
Of course, the elite pilots of our Air Force, overcoming all kinds of difficulties, finally completed this "impossible" task.