Collision Course: China claims F-22 and Rafale have “No Chance” against the J-20
https://warisboring.com/collision-course-china-claims-f-22-and-rafale-have-no-chance-against-the-j-20/
Chinese state-run media is challenging the United States and India, claiming that the J-20 “stealth fighter” is more than a match for American F-22 Raptor and India’s newly-acquired Rafale.
Two articles regarding the J-20’s capabilities -posted on the same day- were featured in the South China Morning Post and the Global Times, media outlets that ultimately fall under control of the Chinese Communist Party.
While articles praising military hardware are not uncommon for any nation, the two articles regarding the Chengdu J-20 were rather pointed in their own ways.
“America’s F-22 stealth fighter may be limited in Asia-Pacific conditions, China’s J-20 designer says,” read the title of the South China Morning Post article.
The SCMP article cited a claim -reportedly made by J-20 designer Yang Wei- that the F-22 was designed to fight in Europe and that it would potentially struggle against “homegrown” aircraft in the Asian-Pacific combat environment.
Wei recounted the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom, and implied the venerable aircraft was designed to fight the Russians, resulting in it having a harder time in the Vietnam War.
“The complex environment and political constraints in Vietnam caused the F-4 to almost fail to show its high-speed performance and over-the-horizon combat capabilities,” Wei wrote.
While Yang did not actually make a comparison between the J-20 and F-22, the SCMP were sure to include commentary by Song Zhongping, a military commentator in Hong Kong- who said the J-20’s biggest advantage was that it was developed later, meaning it would have strengths built off the F-22s weaknesses.
“China’s J-20 was inspired by the F-22’s deployment,” he
said in a statement. “The Chinese aircraft designers used the Raptor as a rival and the F-35 [stealth multi-role fighter] as a tactical opponent to help them to come up with a more practical and capable fighter jet.”
No mention was made as to how much of the J-20’s capabilities were the result of China’s penchant for blatant intellectual theft and reverse-engineering of successful foreign designs, particularly in regards to the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.
While the SCMP danced around the idea of a J-20 tangling with an F-22 using an obscure scenario, their message to India -who recently acquired French-made Dassault Rafale fighters- was certainly more blunt: “India’s Rafale fighter jets have no chance against China’s J-20.”
“Chinese experts said that the Rafale is only a ‘third-plus’ generation fighter jet, and does not stand much of a chance against a stealth, fourth generation one like the J-20,” the Global Times
article read.
However, the latter article ultimately appears to be a spitting contest between China and India, albeit in the form of publications and government statements.
In the article India’s former air chief marshal, B.S. Dhanoa, was quoted in the article as saying the Rafale “is a game changer, and the Chinese J-20 does not even come close.”
“It is common knowledge that a generational gap in fighter jets represents a huge difference that cannot be made up by tactics and numbers in combat,” the Global Times rebutted, citing obscure and unnamed “military observers.”
Despite technological leaps and bounds on the part of the Chinese, experience is one area where Chinese pilots are still very lacking.
The US Air Force and Navy still have active/reserve pilots with combat experience, and some even have air-to-air kills to their name (the most recent being a Su-22 fighter/bomber shot down by an F/A-18E Super Hornet in 2017). Even India, who does not see armed conflict as much as one would assume, has claimed to have shot down a Pakistani jet during a border scuffle in 2019.
----rest of the article at the link above---