A few days ago, a picture caused a heated discussion.
The specific content is: the hose refueling between the tanker-20 tanker and the J-20 fighter has been completed.
It is obvious from the picture that the hose of the tanker-20 tanker successfully docked with the refueling rod on the right side of the nose of the J-20 fighter.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the strike range of the J-20 will be expanded again, and its deterrent radius can already cover all targets within a radius of 4,000 kilometers in the periphery.
According to public information, the J-20 fighter has a range of 5,000 kilometers and a combat radius of 2,000 kilometers.
Generally speaking, after refueling in the air, relying only on the internal oil of the fighter, its combat radius can be multiplied.
This can be known from the combat radius of many fighters and the combat radius obtained after refueling in the air.
For example, the J-10C fighter has a combat radius of about 800 kilometers when it is not equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks, a combat radius of up to 1,240 kilometers when it is equipped with three auxiliary fuel tanks, and a combat radius of up to 2,600 kilometers after refueling in the air.
It can be seen that the combat radius of the J-10C fighter is only 800 kilometers when it relies only on its own internal fuel, and even when it fills up its own internal fuel tank when refueling in the air, it can only be doubled, that is, 1600 kilometers.
Therefore, the J-10C has a combat radius of 2,600 kilometers after at least two aerial refueling.
Therefore, the combat radius of a fighter can be increased exponentially after a refueling in the air.
The J-20 stealth fighter has a combat radius of up to 2,000 kilometers when it only relies on internal fuel, and a combat radius of 4,000 kilometers after refueling in the air.
What is this concept?
It can carry out covert strikes on air, land, and sea targets within a range of 4,000 kilometers around it, and has the advantage of high penetration compared with cruise missiles.
Air and ground strikes
You must know that the two most important military bases of the US military in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, "Guam and Diego Garcia", are 3,000 kilometers and 4,000 kilometers away from the mainland.
After refueling in the air, the J-20 fighter can cover Guam and Diego Garcia with a combat operation of 4,000 kilometers, which in the past, only Dongfeng-26 ballistic missiles and H-6K longsword-10 cruise missiles could pose a threat to it.
And now there is another way to strike, that is, the J-20 stealth fighter can also be refueled in the air.
And within 4,000 kilometers around the mainland, like parts of the Middle East, all of East Asia, and all of Southeast Asia are within the combat radius of the J-20 fighter after refueling in the air. This is the advantage of stealth fighters to cover most of the airspace in Asia.
This means that the air supremacy of the Air Force will cover the vast majority of Asia's airspace, and imagine what a generational advantage this is.
Of course, the 4,000-kilometer strike range basically covers all the surrounding US military bases.
The J-20 itself has high stealth capabilities and a large built-in bomb bay, which is suitable for playing the role of "kicker".
And this is only for air-to-ground operations, and it is particularly important to seize air supremacy over the oceans.
At present, the threat of the US Navy's 11 aircraft carrier strike groups is still relatively large, and after all, the mainland Navy has only three aircraft carriers, and this gap is still very large.
It's just that this gap can't be caught up in a short period of time.
After all, it is said that there is a century-old navy, and after all, the construction cycle of ships is relatively long, and it is impossible to build a powerful maritime combat force without investing decades of time.
However, the threat power of the US Navy's aircraft carrier strike group still relies on a powerful air strike force.
It carries four types of combat aircraft: F-18E/F, F-35C, EA-18G, and E-2D. Relying on these four types of combat aircraft, the US Navy's aircraft carrier strike group can launch strikes thousands of kilometers away from the enemy's land.
Of course, the combat radius of the F-18E/F carrier-based aircraft is only more than 800 kilometers, and the US Navy is naturally quite dissatisfied with it. In particular, with the rapid improvement of the mainland's anti-aircraft carrier strike capability, the combat radius of 800 kilometers of the F-18E/F carrier-based aircraft is simply unable to meet the operational needs.
Therefore, in order to increase the combat radius of carrier-based aircraft, an unmanned tanker of the MQ-25A type was developed. After refueling in the air, the combat radius of the F-18E/F carrier-based aircraft can be increased to 1,300 kilometers.
For the F-35C, the combat radius will increase from 1,241 kilometers today to about 1,800 kilometers.
It can be seen from this that after refueling in the air, the combat radius of the US Navy's aircraft carrier strike group can exceed 1,000 kilometers, or even close to 2,000 kilometers, especially in the face of the threat of stealth fighters such as F-35C.
At present, when the J-35 stealth carrier-based aircraft has not yet entered service, only the J-35C carrier-based aircraft can effectively suppress the F-20.
For a land-based fighter, if you want to compete with an aircraft carrier strike group, the size of the combat radius is still very decisive.
The combat radius is too close, and the time in the air is too short to reach the US aircraft carrier. It is only in a maneuver with its carrier-based aircraft, and it will always be in a passive situation.
Therefore, only fighters with a long enough combat radius and a sufficiently long air stay can compete with carrier strike groups. In this way, they will get rid of the situation of being passively beaten and launch an active attack on the aircraft carrier strike group.
The J-20 stealth fighter has its own combat radius of up to 2,000 kilometers, and when relying on land airports, it can still achieve the ability to attack targets within 1,800 kilometers of the surrounding area, after all, airports will not be built on the edge of land.
From this point of view, this is only equivalent to the combat radius of the F-35C stealth fighter after refueling in the air, which is still far from enough. After all, the F-35C will also be equipped with LRASM stealth missiles in the future, so as to increase the strike range.
Therefore, only when the combat radius of the J-20 stealth fighter is increased, it can intercept the US Navy's carrier-based aircraft at a relatively long distance, and its threat has never been neutralized.
And after the refueling of the tank-20 tanker, the combat radius of the J-20 fighter can easily be doubled. This naturally allows the F-35C and F-18E/F to be sniped thousands of kilometers away, which is not to neutralize their threat and wipe out the advantage of the US Navy's carrier strike group.
In addition, the J-20 can also increase the combat radius and airtime by mounting the auxiliary fuel tank + air refueling, after all, such a combination can also increase the combat radius again.
In short, when the J-20 fighter and the tank-20 air tanker complete the refueling, the Air Force's right to accuse will be once again enhanced, which is of great significance. (Image source network, invasion and deletion)