After decades of development, the fighter has entered the stage of five generations of stealth aircraft. At present, there are only a handful of countries that really have the ability to develop and manufacture stealth fighters, and there are only three - China, the United States and Russia. France, a traditional aviation power, is still using Rafale, Britain has purchased the American F-35, and as for South Korea, although Turkey has launched the so-called fifth-generation aircraft decently, everyone understands that it is not a fifth-generation stealth aircraft in the real sense.
So as of now, how many fifth-generation stealth fighters have China, the United States and Russia each equipped with?
First of all, the United States, as early as 1997, the United States first flew the first fifth-generation stealth fighter F-22, and entered service in 2005, as the world's first fifth-generation stealth fighter, it developed the standard of this type of fighter - stealth, supersonic cruise, superb mobility and super information perception.
By 2009, when the F-22 production line was shut down and dismantled, the United States had produced more than 180 of these fighters, and a total of 183 were currently in service. At that time, there were two main reasons why the United States wanted to close down and dismantle the production line of the F-22, one was that the price was too high, and the unit price exceeded 300 million US dollars. Second, the United States thinks that it is enough and does not need to produce more, but the United States did not expect that a few years later, China's J-20 will rise strongly.
In addition to the F-22, the United States is also equipped with the F-35 series of stealth fighters, although there is a gap between this single-engine stealth fighter and the F-22 in maneuverability, it is stronger in stealth and situational awareness, and is more versatile, the model of the US Air Force is F-35A, the model of the US Navy is F-35C, and the model of the US Marine Corps is F-35B.
The U.S. Air Force's F-35A has been put into service more than 300 planes, and at the same time has achieved the ability to drop B61 nuclear bombs; the U.S. Navy's F-35Cs have been put into service more than 110 planes, and they are now on the latest Ford-class aircraft carrier; the U.S. Marine Corps' F-35Bs are in service with dozens of planes, and this stealth aircraft that can take off and land vertically is mainly equipped on Wasp-class or American-class amphibious assault ships.
In other words, the United States is equipped with more than 600 stealth fighters, and according to the needs of the US Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, the United States will produce more than 3,000 F-35s.
In second place in the number of stealth fighters is China. At present, there is only one stealth fighter in service in China - the J-20. More than 300 have been equipped.
J-20 achieved its first flight in 2011 and entered service in 2017, as a twin-engine stealth fighter, it is not inferior to the American F-22 in air supremacy, especially in avionics equipment, radar systems and air-to-air missiles, such as the Thunderbolt-15 air-to-air missile, which surpasses the American AIM-120D in performance. However, there is a gap with the F-35 in terms of versatility and versatility.
With the continuous maturity of fighter technology, especially after the emergence of domestic engine turbofan-15, the production of J-20 is increasing significantly, Admiral Aquilino of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said that the number of J-20 produced more than 100 aircraft per year, and it will not be long before the Chinese Air Force will surpass the United States and Russia and become the world's first.
According to the analysis of the US intelligence department, the total number of J-20s in service in the future will exceed 500. In fact, 500 J-20s are just a small goal for the Chinese Air Force, after all, there are too many fifth-generation aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region, and the pressure on the J-20 is too great.
China also has a stealth fighter in development, that is, the J-35, which is mainly equipped with the Chinese naval aviation, equipped with the Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian ships, and of course, the aircraft carriers built later. Once commissioned, China's aircraft carrier battle group will make up for the last shortcoming and can compete with US aircraft carriers in the ocean. At present, the research and development of the J-35 is progressing rapidly, and it is believed that it will soon appear in front of the world.
Finally, Russia, Russia's fifth-generation stealth aircraft is the Su-57, which looks like a flattened Su-27 fighter can't be considered a real fifth-generation stealth aircraft in a sense - its stealth and situational awareness are far from the fighters of China and the United States.
Although the Su-57 flew 1 year earlier than the J-20, it has been in a difficult stage of birth, mainly due to financial problems and avionics equipment problems, which led to the fact that the Su-57, which was put into service in 2018, has only been in service with more than 10 aircraft until now, which is obviously completely insufficient for the air forces of major countries. You must know that South Korea, Japan, Israel and other countries have been equipped with dozens of F-35 fighters, and NATO countries west of Russia are also massively installing F-35 fleets, such as the Czech Republic purchased 24 F-35A in one go.
Russia also has a fifth-generation stealth fighter under development, and that is the Su-75. It's just that when it will be in service is unknown.