When the J-20 first appeared in 2011, it used to have a loud nickname on the Internet: "Black Ribbon", which means black fourth-generation fighter. However, with the passage of time, some people on the Internet called the J-20 a fourth-generation aircraft, and some called the J-20 a fifth-generation aircraft, which made the generations of the J-20 chaotic for a while. #MCN首发激励计划#
In recent years, when Chinese manufacturers participate in air shows, they usually refer to the J-10 as a domestic third-generation fighter, so many people think that as the next generation of J-20, it should be a fourth-generation fighter. However, this leads to the fact that China's fighter jets are currently only four generations at most, while the United States and Russia have fifth-generation fighters, and China's most advanced J-20 is directly on par with the F-15 and Su-27 of the United States and Russia.
However, if the J-20 is regarded as a fifth-generation aircraft, and the J-10 is still a third-generation aircraft in the official name, it will lead to a disconnect in China in the field of fourth-generation aircraft. Therefore, many people will wonder, is the J-20 a fourth-generation aircraft or a fifth-generation aircraft?
Some time ago, Yang Wei, the chief designer of the J-20, responded positively to this question in a speech. Yang Wei said that the J-20 was established as a fourth-generation fighter, and later he also suggested that the superior should rename the J-20 as a fifth-generation fighter, but because the development was in a highly confidential state at that time, various red-headed documents called it a fourth-generation fighter, and suddenly changing it to a fifth-generation fighter is easy to cause confusion, so J-20 has always been called a fourth-generation fighter. Yang Wei also said: Although the J-20 is called a fourth-generation fighter in China, it is not opposed to netizens calling it a fifth-generation fighter.
The reason for such confusion is actually due to the fact that each country has different standards for the classification of fighter jets. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union, as major aviation powers, both formulated different standards for the classification of fighter jets. The first jet fighters that appeared after World War II, such as the MiG-17, MiG-19, and F100, were all first-generation jet fighters, and the later MiG-21, F-4, Mirage-3, J-7, and J-8 were called second-generation fighters by the United States and the Soviet Union.
However, when it came to the third generation fighter, the United States and the Soviet Union were different, because the United States began to show its superiority in the field of aviation, and when the American F-14 and F-15 completed research and development, the Soviet Union's MiG-23 was not long in service. Therefore, the United States refers to the F-14 and F-15 as third-generation fighters, while the Soviet Union refers to aircraft with variable sweep-wing technology such as the MiG-23 as third-generation fighters, which leads to the MiG-23 being on an equal footing with the F-15.
In the 80s of the last century, the Soviet Union finally came up with the MiG-29 and Su-27, which were called fourth-generation fighters in order. But the F-15 and F-16 in the United States are called third-generation fighters, and later when the F-22 was developed, it was called the fourth-generation fighter, which led to the Su-27 being the same age as the F-22.
However, during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union basically exported fighter jets to their allies, and there was no competition between them, so the United States did not mind that its fighter planes were a backup of Soviet fighter planes for no reason, after all, word of mouth was made by actual combat. Although the MiG-23 is called a third-generation fighter, it is basically beaten to the point of no resistance in the face of the third-generation fighter of the United States, and no one will think that the MiG-23 is on the same level as the American F-15 and F-16.
However, after the end of the Cold War, both the United States and Russia began to export Su-27, MiG-29, F-15, F-16 fighters in large quantities, and often needed to bid in front of the same country. Later, when developing the F-35, the United States took the opportunity to revise its own fighter generation standards, but it was still different from Russia's.
The United States called the German ME-262 and the British "Meteor" that appeared during World War II the first-generation jet fighters, and then called the F-86 and MiG-15 that used the swept wing for the first time as the second-generation jet fighters, the MiG-19, MiG-21, and F-4 that can fly at supersonic speeds are collectively called the third-generation fighters, the Su-27, F-15, and J-10 with high maneuverability and complete avionics systems are called the fourth-generation fighters, and the F-22, J-20, and those with stealth capabilities. The Su-57 is classified as a fifth-generation fighter.
However, when China was classifying fighters, because there was no variable sweep-wing fighter, and the 80s of the last century was the honeymoon period between China and the United States, military exchanges between China and the West became frequent, and China began to absorb the advanced technology and experience of the West in the field of aviation, so in terms of fighter generation standards, it also chose the same standard as the United States at that time, calling J-7 and J-8 second-generation aircraft, and J-10 as third-generation aircraft.
However, when the United States later revised the standards for the classification of fighter jets, China did not follow up and continued to use the old standards. While the United States and Russia both refer to the F-15 and Su-27 as fourth-generation fighters, Chinese officials refer to the J-10 as third-generation fighters. Chief Designer Yang Wei revealed in his speech: China's idea is that the first three generations of fighters still follow the standards of the past, and the J-20 is called the fourth generation fighter, but the public can also call it a fifth-generation fighter. And when developing the next generation of new fighters, China will jump directly to the sixth generation fighter and officially catch up with the US and Russian fighters.
Although the current "seniority" of the J-10 and J-20 is a generation lower than that of the US and Russian fighters, it does not mean that the performance is inferior to the US and Russian fighters. When the West introduces Chinese fighters, it will refer to the J-10 as a fourth-generation fighter and the J-20 as a fifth-generation fighter equivalent to the F-22.
In addition, when introducing the development trend of future air combat and fighter aircraft, Chief Engineer Yang Wei focused on the American B-21 bomber, which is the main platform for the United States to carry out "penetrating strikes" in the future, which is specially used to deal with China's "anti-access/area denial". Although the bomb load and range of the B-21 are not as good as those of the B-2, it can be flexibly deployed in Asia-Pacific bases, and the range is still enough to cover most of China. And the B-21 adopts an open architecture design, which can continue to improve and expand its capabilities in the future, not so much a bomber, but a modern air combat platform, which can not only drop bombs and missiles on enemy targets, but also play the role of reconnaissance, electronic jamming, command, drone carrier and even air combat.
The future B-21 could even turn into an air arsenal aircraft, carrying a large number of long-range air-to-air missiles in a bomb magazine. The most classic tactic is that the F-35, a highly maneuverable stealth fighter, seeks the enemy in front and pins down the enemy aircraft, and after discovering the enemy aircraft, it transmits the intelligence to the B-21 in the rear, and then the B-21 launches air-to-air missiles to eliminate the target. In this way, the F-35 compensates for the lack of bomb load, and the B-21 does not need to worry about poor maneuverability and being close to enemy aircraft.
However, the first flight of the B-21 is about 3 years later than expected, and the United States plans to make the B-21 combat effective in 2025, but at present, the B-21 has just made its first flight not long ago, and it will be considered a high incense if it can be officially put into service in 2025. And Chief Engineer Yang Wei also said with another deep meaning: the B-21 is inferior to ours (bomber).
The gap between China and the United States in military matters is now narrowing, and China even has advantages in areas such as hypersonic missiles, large destroyers, and long-range air-to-air missiles. However, in the field of bombers, the gap between China and the United States has not narrowed, but on the surface it has become wider. When the B-21 in the United States has begun flight tests, China's main bomber is still the H-6, which was born from the Soviet Tu-16 in the 50s of the last century.
The biggest problem with the H-6 is poor survivability, it does not have the stealth ability of the B-21, and it cannot penetrate the defense at supersonic speed like the Tu-160, and it is very easy to be intercepted. As a result, when the H-6 is on combat duty, it can basically only carry long-range cruise missiles and launch attacks on targets outside the interception radius of enemy missiles and fighters.
However, the bomb load of the H-6 is very limited, and it can only carry a maximum of six long-range cruise missiles, and its firepower is more than one grade worse than that of strategic bombers. In addition, the design of the H-6 is too old, and it has been basically improved to the limit now, and it is difficult to continue to improve in the future. It is no exaggeration to say that there is a gap of at least 50 years between the H-6 and the B-21, which is the area with the largest arms gap between China and the United States.
Of course, in the process of the Chinese Air Force moving towards a strategic air force, strategic bombers must be indispensable, as early as 2016, the then commander of the Air Force Ma Xiaotian revealed: China is developing a new generation of bombers. However, eight years later, China's new generation of bombers still has not appeared, and many people have speculated that China's new generation of bombers may have encountered technical difficulties.
However, for China, which is already able to build stealth fighters and strategic transport aircraft, there is no technical problem in developing strategic bombers, and China can develop strategic bombers such as the B-52 in a very short time if it wants.
However, in the J-20, it can be seen that the Chinese astronauts have a very long-term vision, and the new generation of fighters developed is not to catch up with the footsteps of the US military, but to surpass similar equipment of the US military. When China first developed a strategic bomber, the hypothetical target was the B-2 stealth bomber of the United States.
However, after 2017, the American B-21 strategic bomber entered the stage of rapid research and development, and its various advanced design concepts have become a new benchmark for China, at this time, the goal of Chinese researchers can not only surpass the B-2, but surpass the B-21 that is still under development in the US military. Therefore, it can be boldly guessed here that the reason why China's stealth bomber has not appeared for a long time may be that the performance parameters and even the design concept have been modified halfway, and the H-20 currently under development has long been not a new generation of strategic bombers mentioned in 2016.
There are also precedents in history for the development of military aircraft, the most famous being the Su-27. The goal of the Soviet Union's development of the Su-27 was to suppress the American F-15 fighter, but after the first flight of the prototype of the Su-27, the T-10, Soviet intelligence officers obtained classified data on the F-15, and Soviet designers found that the T-10 could not compete with the F-15. At that time, the T-10 prototype had already completed flight tests, and the first pre-production models were about to go into production. In the end, the chief designer Simonov withstood the pressure and made significant changes to the design of the T-10 prototype, improving the T-10S, which is now known as the Su-27. Although the design was modified halfway, the service time of the Su-27 was postponed from 1979 to 1985, but the performance of the Su-27 has also been greatly improved, and it can suppress the F-15 in flight performance.
In the process of developing the H-20, China may have a similar situation, although it affects the service time, but it can also enjoy the advantage of being a latecomer. Although Yang Wei is not the chief designer of the H-20, he must also have a certain understanding of the development of the new bomber and even participate, with the blessing of a variety of new technologies, Yang Wei has the confidence to say that the American B-21 is inferior to our bomber.
Although the specific performance of the H-20 is unknown, it must have survivability no less than that of the B-21, and it is not far behind in terms of avionics performance, and in terms of range, it can cover all US military bases in the Pacific Ocean, and even has the ability to carry out air strikes on the US mainland. Starting from the "20" family (J-20, H-20, Y-20, Z-20), China has completely caught up with the United States in the field of military aviation. #歼20最新消息 ##轰20最新动态#