With the rapid improvement of China's military strength, the American media and American military experts have now analyzed and compared China's various weapons and equipment with the same enthusiasm as studying Soviet military equipment. Considering that the main services of China and the United States in the Western Pacific are the navy and air force, the various main equipment of the Chinese Air Force and the Chinese Navy have been continuously studied and analyzed by US military experts in recent years.
Alex Hollins, an expert on U.S. foreign policy and defense technology analysis, believes that although the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force have begun to develop and vigorously promote their own sixth-generation fighter technology. But first of all, due to factors such as technology and price, even if the sixth-generation fighter jet is successfully born as scheduled, the equipment will not be promoted in large quantities. But the fifth-generation stealth fighter is different. With the current sales of the fifth-generation fighter , the fifth-generation fighter will be an important measure of the combat effectiveness of the air forces of various countries in the world for a long time to come.
Alex Hollins
Although the United States put into service and deployed its first stealth fighter in actual combat in 1983, the F-117 "Nighthawk" stealth fighter . However, with the successive entry into service of the Russian Su-57 stealth fighter and the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter , the United States' advantage in stealth fighters is being caught up. At present, the only fifth-generation stealth fighters worthy of attention in the world are China's J-20 stealth fighter, the United States' F-22, F-35 stealth fighter , and Russia's Su-57 stealth fighter. As for the Su-75 stealth fighter that has not yet entered the mass production stage, it is not within the scope of consideration.
Therefore, Alex Hollins made a ranking list of fifth-generation stealth fighters. The first place on the list is undoubtedly the United States. Currently, the United States is equipped with a total of 4 fifth-generation stealth fighters: F-22, F-35A, F-35B and F-35C.
Although the US military once hoped to equip thousands of F-35 stealth fighters, it needs to supply supplies to participating countries in the JSF project and some allied countries, and there are currently many F-35A/B/C models themselves. problem, so the production speed has not increased. The total number of four fifth-generation stealth fighter jets is now only more than 600, which is still a long way from the original goal set by the US military.
Ranked second is China. Alex Hollins believes that after years of production, China should have equipped more than 150 J-20 stealth fighters. Although China currently has more than 150 J-20 stealth fighters, There is a big gap in quantity compared to the United States, but there are many derivative models. In addition to the basic J-20 stealth fighter, there are also the J-20A equipped with the WS-10C engine and the J-20B equipped with the WS-15 engine .
Of course, the most famous derivative is the two-seat J-20S, which Alex Hollins believes is China’s major exploration of stealth fighter-bombers. For China, if the two-seat J-20S stealth fighter is finally successful, then China will have a fifth-generation stealth fighter that the United States does not have, which will greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of China's fifth-generation aircraft fleet.
As for the number of China's fifth-generation stealth fighters, in addition to relying on the J-20 series stealth fighters, it can also rely on the J-35 stealth fighters. Although the "Fujian" aircraft carrier is currently only launched and has not yet entered service. However, as the number of China's catapult aircraft carriers increases, the expansion of the J-35 stealth fighter fleet is inevitable.
If China has 2-3 catapult aircraft carriers, then it will be natural for the number of J-35 stealth fighters to exceed three digits. By then, coupled with the J-20 series stealth fighters that have already been produced, China's number of fifth-generation stealth fighters may still not catch up with the United States, but it will be able to fully meet China's own needs.
What is more interesting is that the third place is not the United Kingdom or other countries that many people subconsciously think, but Australia. Although Australia does not rank third at all in terms of total orders for F-35 stealth fighter jets.However, because the United States attaches great importance to the Indo-Pacific region and hopes to further drive Australia to deal with China, it has delivered F-35 stealth fighter jets to Australia significantly faster than other countries. Up to now, the Australian Air Force has equipped 44 F-35A stealth fighters.
In addition, there are two Asian countries worth paying attention to, namely South Korea and Japan, which have each equipped 32 F-35A and 23 F-35A respectively. Counting the Australian Air Force, in order to deal with China, the United States has already equipped these countries Three countries delivered 99 F-35A stealth fighter jets. Of course, this number will continue to increase later.
The ranking of Russia is also specifically marked on the picture. Russia ranks 11th with 16 Su-57 stealth fighters, outside the top ten. However, more than ten of these 16 Su-57s are prototypes, and the number of mass-produced Su-57 stealth fighters is still in single digits. If the Russian Air Force wants to significantly increase the number of fifth-generation stealth fighters, I personally think that unless the economy improves dramatically, it can only hope to purchase a large number of Su-75 stealth fighters.
Su-75 and Su-57
For China, the stealth fighters that need to be alert are actually not only F-22, F-35A, F-35B and F-35C, but also South Korea's KF-21 stealth fighter. Although its semi-buried belly magazine and appearance are highly similar to the F-22, many people complained that it was a "cheap version of the F-22 stealth fighter ". But compared with the general fourth-generation non-stealth fighter, its stealth performance is still good, and its first full-size prototype has been born. If the test flight goes well, it is expected to be in active service with the South Korean Air Force before 2028.
For us, although the sixth-generation stealth fighter also needs to be developed, the number of the fifth-generation stealth fighter still needs to be increased to an appropriate level. Although the naval aviation will be equipped with a large number of J-35 stealth fighters, the main combat environment of the J-35 stealth fighters is the ocean, sea and air, and the Chinese Air Force's J-20 stealth fighters are responsible for homeland air defense operations.
Therefore, if we consider the question of "how many fifth-generation aircraft are needed?", then the models we consider are actually mainly focused on the J-20 series stealth fighters. Of course, the current J-20 series stealth fighters are still being improved. I personally believe that the J-20B equipped with a vector thrust engine should be regarded as the short-term "target aircraft" of the Air Force. It can be "scaled" based on the J-20B, and its performance is sufficient to cope with the four fifth-generation stealth models currently equipped by the US military. fighter.
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