Source: Privy Council No. 10
In April 2021, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post took the lead in revealing that China was developing a two-seat version of the J-20 stealth fighter. So at the Zhuhai Airshow in September, Yang Wei, chief engineer of the J-20, responded: "Is there a two-seater now?" Assuming that there is, the J-20 double-seater must not be a trainer aircraft, it must be developed for equipment upgrading. ”
Then, the old driver saw the announcement of the famous military aviation website "The Aviationist" on the 27th:
"Ladies and gentlemen, the world's first two-seat stealth fighter, made in China."
For reasons that are well known, old drivers certainly cannot confirm or deny the rumors. However, look at the various analyses of foreign media and see the hilarity.
The US "Theater of Operations" website said on the 27th that a two-seat J-20 painted with yellow primer appeared in the photos recently circulated on the Internet, and then there was a video of the aircraft gliding on the ground. "If the news is true, China will have advanced two-seat stealth fighters that the United States and other countries have not obtained."
Why does the J-20 have a two-seater model? The modern fighter jet uses a two-seat design, the most basic design is a trainer model for training pilots. However, Yang Wei, the chief division of the J-20, has clearly denied the speculation of the trainer plane. The old driver also wanted to add that from these photos circulating on the Internet, the height of the rear seat position of the aircraft is basically equivalent to the front seat, which is also inconsistent with the characteristics of the cockpit of the trainer aircraft.
In the cg screen of military fans, a two-seat version of the J-20 stealth fighter has already appeared
In addition, traditional two-seat fighters are mainly used to perform multiple missions such as ground attacks. Due to the complex and changeable environment that needs to deal with the ground attack, it is far more complicated than the situation of traditional air combat, including the F-15e fighter of the United States and the Su-30 fighter of Russia, etc. The front-seat pilots are concentrated on controlling the aircraft, and the rear-seat weapons operators are responsible for controlling the weapon system. But the "Theater" website said that the F-22, F-35 and other fifth-generation fighters are equipped with advanced auxiliary systems that allow a single pilot to complete the ground mission, so they have not developed two-seat models.
Inferred from this, it is unlikely that China will develop a two-seat J-20 fighter just for ground missions.
Excluding these two possibilities, foreign media generally believe that China's development of two-seat stealth fighters mainly includes special tasks such as electronic warfare in complex electromagnetic environments, as well as commanding unmanned wingman planes to perform cluster operations.
"Eurasia Times" believed on the 28th that with the help of advanced sensors, high-speed computer processing and advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, pilots obtain a much higher amount of information than before. Although artificial intelligence can assist pilots in collecting and processing this information to some extent, in general, pilots' attention is usually focused on the data displayed in front of them, but in complex battlefield environments, single-seat fighter pilots will inevitably lose sight of each other and may ignore other key information. Stealth fighters, in particular, often need to infiltrate into the advanced air defense networks of their opponents to carry out raid missions, and in the event of a sudden interruption in the data link connection with other platforms in combat, "the presence of a second pilot will certainly provide a huge tactical advantage."
The battlefield experience of the US military proves that when performing complex electronic countermeasures tasks, pilots are required to concentrate on judging battlefield threats and suppressing opponent radars, so professional electronic warfare aircraft must adopt two-seat models. With the continuous popularization of advanced electronic warfare technologies such as low-interception radar, the task of rear-seat operators is still increasing, so when stealth fighters infiltrate the air defense networks of advanced opponents, if there is a two-seat model responsible for electromagnetic suppression, it will greatly weaken the opponent's defense capabilities.
The FH-97 drone released by the Aerospace Science and Technology Group is similar in appearance to the "loyal wingman" of the United States
In addition, foreign media have also generally noticed that China, the United States, and Russia are all developing a coordinated combat mode of manned fighters and unmanned fighters. For example, the US military's "loyal wingman" plan is to use the F-35 to command multiple unmanned combat aircraft to cooperate, and through artificial intelligence technology, the UAV has flexible flight combat capabilities. However, there are only a few unmanned wingmanships that can be controlled by a single pilot, and if you want to control a larger number of drones to perform cluster operations, it is more appropriate for the backseat pilot to assume the role of professional drone controller.
In any case, the outside world generally believes that China's creation of the world's first in the field of stealth fighters is a big step ahead of the United States. Some people in the Pentagon are afraid that they will have to "sleepless at night" again.