Photos of the official delivery ceremony of the production version of the Suspected Chinese J-20 fighter
What if the T-50 fighter jet (PAK-FA) produced by Russia's Sukhoi Design Bureau were to fight against the J-20 produced by China's Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group? This will depend on the type of conflict. According to the U.S. "National Interest" bimonthly website on June 1, "Aerial Combat: Chinese J-20 Stealth Fighter vs. Russian PAK-FA Fighter (Who Will Win)?"? In fact, the T-50 fighter can certainly be an "air superiority fighter", and it is unclear whether the J-20 is a fighter. In the event of a war in Russia's Far East, which could become the place where it comes into conflict with China, voyages will be an important factor. Although there is no specific information on the range performance of the J-20 or T-50, given the size of the Chinese J-20 fighter, we can guess that its endurance may be longer, and its payload is likely to be much larger. Overall, if used as an attack aircraft, the J-20 may be a more useful weapon of the two.
Russia's T-50 flew earlier than China's J-20 but has made little progress
In fact, as the world's three advanced stealth fighters, the United States F-22 is the earliest service and the most mature model at present, and the latecomer Russia and China, each developing a fifth-generation fighter, is to deal with the stealth air threat from the United States. Although the United States speculates that Russia's T-50 and China's J-20 may become rivals in a potential conflict in the Far East, this possibility is extremely low, because for China and Russia, the biggest opponent facing each other is the United States, and any discord between the two countries is great news for the United States. Moreover, once China and Russia have differences, whether within the SCO or geopolitically, the United States will naturally reap the benefits of fishermen, so there is no reason or excuse for conflict between China and Russia, and only strategically warming up can make each other safer. Therefore, Russia's T-50 and China's J-20 will not be rivals, at least until China's official rise, but are more likely to be partners who cooperate against common enemies.
The US military has been constantly calling for F-22 upgrades in the face of the threat of Chinese and Russian warplanes
However, the United States does not want this to happen, because even either side of China and Russia can give the United States a headache, let alone unite the two countries, so the United States does its best to stir up relations between China and Russia. In addition to political provocation, it is also necessary to try to pull some military provocations, and the provocation of the T-50 and J-20 is a clear example. At the same time, the U.S. military said for a moment that the T-50 was a stealthy version of the Su-27, but it was not a fifth-generation fighter and did not have the ability to challenge the F-22 at all. After a while, it was said that the J-20 engine thrust is not good and there is no thrust vectoring, so there is no super maneuverability, and the forward canard wing and rear direction have almost no stealth ability, which can only be regarded as a quasi-fifth-generation aircraft, of course, can not compete with the F-22. In the final analysis, the purpose of such propaganda of the US military is to cheer up the military and make the US pilots think that the F-22 is the first in the world, so that they can bravely accept the challenge of Russia's T-50 and China's J-20. Of course, this is also to encourage the US allies, just imagine if the F-22 is compared to the Chinese and Russian fighters, those who follow the dog legs who are still willing to follow the United States!
Distribution of some advanced electronic equipment of the J-20
To be fair, the American F-22 does represent the development direction of the fifth generation of fighters, of course, it is also the benchmark of this generation of fighters, but after all, it is the product of more than 20 years ago, and it has been in service for more than 15 years, and some of the cutting-edge technologies used in the aircraft at that time are now commonplace. The Russian T-50 and China J-20, which have the advantage of being a latecomer, are both developed with the F-22 as the standard and opponent, and also apply many technologies that have not yet existed in the F-22 production era, such as the advanced comprehensive avionics architecture represented by the "jewel platform" used by similar to the F-35, the advanced integrated radio frequency and advanced electronic warfare system, the EODAS and EOTS optoelectronic systems, etc., which fully shows that the advanced nature of the J-20 is not out of thin air. Therefore, when fighting against the F-22, the J-20 may be devalued due to its slightly weaker stealth ability and maneuverability, but it has more chances of winning because of the use of more advanced avionics systems and PL-10E fighting shells; while when fighting the F-35, the J-20 has the lead due to its strong stealth ability and maneuverability, so it is likely to be the fatal nemesis of the F-35.
The J-20 shot down the F-22 imaginary
There is no doubt that the highly stealthy air war in the future world will be more likely to occur between the F-22 of the United States and the T-50 or F-22 of Russia and china's J-20, which will most likely determine the future world order. However, for the United States F-22 and Russia's T-50 air showdown, this is likely to have a lot of suspense, now that Russia's national strength is declining, the T-50 progress is seriously delayed, whether Russia can come up with enough funds to equip a certain number of fifth-generation aircraft in the future, it is always a big problem. As for the F-22's showdown with China's J-20, this could be the fate of both fighters, because they are most likely for each other (although the F-22 was not planned when the F-22 was born). Therefore, the preliminary judgment is that the US military has deployed F-35 in Japan, but this is only the situation before the Chinese J-20 entered service, and once China announces the formation of combat capabilities of the J-20 at the end of this year, in order to effectively deal with the US military, it will inevitably dispatch F-22 to Japan. Therefore, the showdown between the T-50 and the J-20 is a false proposition, and the F-22 and J-20 duel is the first round of the world stealth air battle.
(Written by Chen Guangwen on June 5, 2017)