Maybe the US sent their F-35(s) to this area knowing it will prompt a response from J-20s. I suppose both sides got valuable insight about each other's capabilities in these encounters.
J-20 5th Generation Fighter VII
- Thread starter siegecrossbow
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They must have done it as a way to gauge Chinese response against stealth assets. F-35A under USAF command is not plentiful in the West Pacific. There are more F-15s in the same region and are better suited for regular patrol/reconnaissance missions. I don’t think that they intended to goad the Chinese into flying J-20 since they have no idea what the Chinese fighter is on hand for intercept. The key is more for testing Chinese air defense response time against low RCS intrusion.
When the B-21 is ready I expect them to perform similar stunts as well.
around 10 in Ryukyu
could be, shilao or yankeesama once mentioned that every TC will have a J-20 brigade before more been deployed 'focused direction'And if true again a surprise... IMO a two-folded one!
First if this image is legit and not again a faked one, the 56th Air Brigade assigned to the Central Theater Command based at Zhengzhou and currently flying J-10B & J-10AS seems to have gained its first J-20A.
... and second since I expected yet another Su-30MKK unit like the 54th or 85th AB to become the PLAAF's next unit to convert to the J-20A.
What do you think?
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One other point that Yankee and ShiLao raised in the podcast is that the USAF is very concerned with whether J-20 is air superiority or true multi role like the F-35 because the latter is an offensive weapon. An aircraft with advanced strike capabilities can pose a much greater threat against US naval forces than a dedicated fighter, and this is especially complicated with a fifth gen since you can’t determine the missile profile easily since the weapons are internal. A carrier strike group will only send two or three aircraft to intercept an air to air fighter, but will exhaust everything at its disposal to stop a strike fighter.
And you arrive at this conclusion how?
That's really more a matter of the munitions developed for the J-20 rather than the plane per se. The J-20 seems to have the sensor suite required for missions beyond air superiority.
A possible exception to this is the J-20's EOTS; its facet shaping seems to indicate a more "look forward" than "look down" orientation, favouring aerial combat over strike. I wonder if the window or entire sensor is swappable, with strike J-20s equipped with an EOTS more like the F-35's.
That said being detected by dedicated assets such as AWACS is not a knock against F-35’s capabilities. Creating so-called “anti-stealth networks” is very resource intensive, and not even China can do it to cover all of its bases and has to focus on a few selected directions only. And this is not taking into account the fact that what worked against fifth gen fighters may not work against something with all aspect VLO like the NGAD or B-21.
I am now coming to the realization that B-21 may prove to be the greatest threat to Chinese air defense in the near future.
I am now coming to the realization that B-21 may prove to be the greatest threat to Chinese air defense in the near future.
this makes me wonder, does F-22 count as an offensive weapon? I thought it's initial task include invide into Siberia and hunt for mobile nuclear launchers...
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