J-20 relegated to second line fighter :skull:
This would be unthinkable only a few good months ago...
J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
This would be unthinkable only a few good months ago...
Will still be a while before this happens, J-20 stronk!
Here are more, but unfortunately I cannot log in with a German mobile.
Apparently this is from a study paper. Anyone know where this is from?
OMG, I heard Germans had trouble signing up for Rednote. Looks like it's cause the MSS wanted to keep Deino out
plawolf
Lieutenant General
The distinction between interceptors and air superiority fighters is largely a result of legacy technological limitations rather than any conscious doctrine decision.
In the past, due to technological limitations you had to choose to be able to go fast or be manoeuvrable enough to put up a decent dogfight. Think Mig31 vs Su27. This was the result of the failure to achieve the best of both worlds via swing wing designs like the F14 and Mig27 that the worlds fighter design houses decided they needed to pick one at the expense of the other.
That was compounded by the more primitive missile and radar tech of the time where there was a decent chance of opfor fighters being able to sneak up on you, most notably via using ground clutter interfering and notching to flank you while fooling your Doppler radars etc. Worse, even if you did detect the enemy at long range and engaged them, your long range missiles had questionable to poor kill rates against agile enemy fighters, so even then you run the real risk of ending up in a dogfight.
Today, just the advanced in missile and radar tech alone almost makes this distinction irrelevant. Just look at how well the Mig31 has been performing in Ukraine when that is your classic pure speed no turn legacy interceptor.
But the true game changer is supercruise. Which allowed highly manoeuvrable designs to still beat pure speed rockets like the Mig31 in the speed game by having sustained high speed cruise over shorter bursts of higher speed.
But that is all somewhat academic because even though top-of-the-range 5th gens like the F22 and J20 can dogfight with the best of them, you are using your stealths very wrong to find yourself in a dogfight at all.
Intercept is a time-limited engagement, usually not involving active countermeasures. Target is either passive altogether, or is incapable of responding equally, as its goal is the 3rd body.
Key traits: time on target, ability to engage the most difficult targets as early as possible.
Fighter, by definition, is aimed at that very aerial opposition. Both at destroying it and preventing it from achieving its designs.
Right, interception and air superiority are still separate concepts and missions. The only difference these days is that both missions are performed by the same fighters, due to various technological advances.