China's military modernization has been the focus of global attention. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia faced a serious economic crisis, but it still continued to fulfill the military purchase contract between China and the Soviet Union in Su-27 fighters, and provided China with a batch of Su-27 fighters, thus injecting new impetus into the modernization of the Chinese Air Force. However, with the continuous development and progress of China's aviation industry, as well as the gradual maturity of the self-developed J-20 stealth fighter, a high-profile question is ahead: can China eliminate all Russian-made fighters in just ten years?
China's aviation industry has come a long way in recent decades. From the 80s of the 20th century, China began to introduce Su-27 fighters. The first Su-27 fighters arrived in China in 1992, including eight single-seat and four two-seat models, laying the foundation for the modernization process of the Chinese Air Force. Since then, China has successively purchased a total of 76 Su-27 fighters, and signed an agreement with Russia on the transfer of Su-27 fighter production lines on the basis of importation, realizing the localized production of Su-27 fighters and improving the availability and maintenance of fighters.
As an advanced fourth-generation fighter, the Su-27 fighter brings a new combat strength to the Chinese Air Force. Soon after China introduced the Su-27 fighters, these fighters played an important role in important tasks such as border patrols and air defense. However, with the rapid development of China's aviation industry, China has gradually begun to develop its own fighter jets, the most representative of which are models such as the J-10 and J-11. Although there is still a gap in the technical level, the emergence of these domestic fighters marks that the Chinese Air Force is gradually moving away from dependence on foreign purchases and beginning to move towards independent research and development and production.
At the same time as the rise of China's aviation industry, the aging of Russian-made fighters and the approaching limit of service have also become a problem that cannot be ignored. As an early introduced model, most of the Su-27 fighters are approaching or even exceeding their service life, and they need to be updated and upgraded on a large scale before they can continue to enter service. Moreover, compared with it, the fighter independently developed by China has more advantages in performance and technology, and is more suitable for the needs of the Chinese Air Force.
In 2011, the J-20 stealth fighter made its debut, which attracted widespread attention in the global aviation field. The J-20's advanced stealth technology and multi-purpose combat capabilities are considered an important milestone for China's aviation industry. With the continuous mass production and equipment of the J-20, the combat effectiveness of the Chinese Air Force will be further improved, and the status of Russian-made fighters will also decline further.
Whether China will be able to phase out all Russian-made fighter jets in the next decade is a complex but critical question. Judging from the current situation, China has made remarkable progress, but it will take some time and effort to completely eliminate all Russian-made fighters. First of all, China needs to speed up the research and development and production process of domestic fighters such as the J-20 and improve the level of its own equipment. Second, China needs to develop a reasonable phase-out plan to phase out aging Russian-made fighter jets and take measures to ensure national defense security. Finally, China will need to work closely with Russia to ensure the smooth implementation of the phase-out plan.