Recently, CCTV's "Sea and Air Hunters Flying to War" documentary was rarely made public, and the footage of the confrontation between our carrier-based fighters and US fighters was rarely made public.
According to the pilot's interview, at that time in the South China Sea, 2 J-11BSH of our army were provoked by 4 F/A-18 of the US military. At that time, our pilot was ready to wash his body, never retreated, and was not afraid, showing the bloody responsibility of the Chinese soldiers, and finally drove the foreign plane away.
How dangerous is this Sino-US confrontation? Fighters must have both upward-looking and downward-looking over-the-horizon combat capabilities and be able to attack targets dozens of kilometers away. The key to this is that the fighter has a "clairvoyant" - an airborne fire control radar.
The fire control radar is the eyes, ears and mouth of the weapon platform, which informs the computer of the data it detects using electromagnetic waves, which then controls the weapon system to strike at the target.
If the fire control radar wants to lock the fighter, it needs to continuously send radar waves to the target at a high frequency, and then analyze the real-time information of the target (such as speed, distance, bearing, etc.) with the reflected radar waves.
Taking F22 as an example, the beam of the APG77 radar is 2 degrees narrowest, and at a distance of 100 kilometers, the beam width is 3.5 kilometers, and it takes more than 10 seconds to run out of the beam range according to the speed of Mach 1 of the enemy aircraft, while the re-advent rate of the phased array radar is generally calculated in milliseconds, that is to say, it is difficult to escape if it is locked by the fire control radar. It can be said that the situation at that time was very dangerous.
When the other party's fire control radar is turned on, the radar beam touches the aircraft, and the radar beam detection antenna on the aircraft senses that it is detected and locked, so the radar alarm will give an alarm.
There are three ways to escape the missile lock, the first is to carry out a large-scale vertical maneuver, consume the missile potential energy, and destroy the opponent's radar lock. The second point is to quickly dive to the ground while being locked by the radar, enter the radar blind spot as soon as possible, and at the same time maneuver, use the electronic jamming pod to jam the missile and make it lose its target. The third point is to launch chaff and infrared decoy shells to trick the opponent's missile guidance radar.
After being locked by the fire control radar, our pilots were still undaunted and engaged in confrontation with the US fighters, you must know that the US military has four fighters, and our side does not have an advantage in numbers, and our fighters are also locked by the fire control radar, and the US military thinks that in this way they can force our fighters back. However, our pilots are ready to open fire, and they are not afraid of the provocation of US fighters at all, showing the bloody responsibility of Chinese soldiers.
The F/A-18 "Hornet" belongs to the fourth and a half generations of fighters, with excellent air, ground and sea attack capabilities, but the supersonic performance is average, and the maximum level flight speed is only Mach 1.6.
As the most important carrier-based aircraft of the US Navy, after the F-14 fighters were retired, they have always been the backbone of the US aircraft carrier carrier-based air wing, have monopolized the deck of the US Navy aircraft carrier, and become the main tactical strike force of the US Navy Aviation. However, the combat performance of the fighter itself is not outstanding, and its advanced lies in its multi-purpose combat performance, with 11 weapon hardpoints on the whole aircraft, and its maximum external load capacity of 8 tons. Most of the air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles developed by the United States can be used.
The J-11 is a heavy fighter of the Chinese Air Force, and the J-11BSH is a special two-seat combat trainer type for the J-11 Navy, which adopts domestic avionics fire control and "Taihang" Engine, because the mainland has a vast territorial waters, so the naval aircraft need to have long-distance patrol capabilities, in order to effectively defend the mainland's territorial waters and airspace, and the pilot is easy to get tired if a person patrols for a long time, and the two pilots of the two-seater fighter can take turns to drive the plane and rest, which greatly increases the attendance and combat effectiveness of the aircraft.
For example, in October 2023, the U.S. B-52H strategic bomber entered the sky over the South China Sea and was intercepted by the J-11BSH, which was only 10 feet (3 meters) away at the closest time, and the interception process was carried out at night with low visibility, which fully demonstrated the maneuverability of the J-11BSH and the superb piloting quality of the pilot.
In the face of the US F/A-18 "Hornet", in a disadvantageous situation, our pilots relied on their excellent flying experience and fearless fighting spirit to successfully reverse the situation and drive the US fighters away.
For a long time in the past, the United States relied on its possession of the world's strongest military force and military bases deployed around the world, so it would often use "freedom of navigation" as an excuse to illegally intrude into the airspace and territorial waters of other countries, and then take the initiative to withdraw after completing its own flight mission. If they are intercepted by fighter planes, the US military will also fly unscrupulously, and US fighters will often take the initiative to provoke them.
However, with the improvement of the combat strength of Chinese fighters in recent years, the US military has rarely provoked our fighters, and the reconnaissance planes have not chosen to carry them to the end when they are intercepted by our troops.
At present, the Chinese Air Force's fleet has carried out regular combat readiness patrols in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, with pilots backed by the support of the wartime joint combat system, and H-6K fighters, reconnaissance planes, and aerial refueling planes have carried out combat patrol missions, and organized operations in the main style of aerial reconnaissance, counter-air combat, and island and reef patrols, thus achieving the goal of regular patrols in the South China Sea.
As a result, China can normalize seamless surveillance of the East China Sea, the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and other airspace and normalize the duty capability of fighter aircraft, and as long as US fighters appear in the South China Sea, China can perceive them at the first time, monitor US fighters, accompany them and even force them back in the South China Sea.
In the face of China's intensifying surveillance in the South China Sea, US reconnaissance planes have also changed the aircraft identification codes registered with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and disguised themselves as passenger planes of other countries to carry out close reconnaissance around China, thus posing serious security risks to civil aviation flights. In addition, these reconnaissance flights often harass and interfere with the normal military training of relevant countries, and are the biggest factor of instability and insecurity in the South China Sea.
For this reason, in accordance with the frequency of reconnaissance by the US military, our military has formulated a policy of substituting combat for training, so that we can better deal with any sudden changes; therefore, the frequent reconnaissance of the US military, including aircraft and warships, has greatly enhanced the effectiveness of our army's training, and if actual combat really occurs, then our army will also calmly deal with it.