With the arrival of the first batch of 6 J-10CP in Pakistan in the near future, it means that the batch of fighters purchased by the Pakistani side has entered the intensive delivery stage, and senior Pakistani officials claimed at the end of last year that the possibility of arriving 25 J-10CP in late March still exists. The Indian Air Force, a direct adversary of the Pakistani Air Force, has received 29 Rafale F3 fighter jets from France. In the short term, the two countries each have two third-generation and half-medium fighters with similar numbers, comparable performance, and even similar development history and combat positioning. Regarding the J-10CP and the "Rafale" F3, who is the "king" in the Skies of South Asia continues to be the focus of public opinion.
The J-10CP, which has arrived in Pakistan
Overall, among the third-generation fighters in active service in the world, the French-designed "Rafale" and the J-10 launched by AVIC are the two closest to the positioning, performance, development history and even aerodynamic layout. From the perspective of development history, France had joined forces with the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries in the early 80s to cooperate in the development of a third-generation fighter, but later due to differences between countries, France finally chose to withdraw and developed the "Rafale" according to the ideas of the previous Mirage series fighters. Rafale began development in the late 1980s and first flew in the early 1990s, with the land-based model forming combat power around 2004. In contrast, the mainland had considered importing Mirage-2000 fighter jets from France in the early 1980s, but the deal ultimately failed because the price given by France was too high and it refused to transfer technology. After that, China also considered the introduction of F-16/79 and F-14 fighters from the United States, but the setback encountered in the purchase of the Mirage-2000 made the country firm in the idea of developing its own medium-sized third-generation fighter.
After France withdrew, Europe jointly developed the Typhoon fighter
In 1986, the domestic J-10 was officially established, and after spending 12 years developing, it finally flew for the first time in 1998. And in 2006, which was only two years behind the "Rafale", it was mass-produced and formed a combat force. What is more interesting is that similar to the iterative upgrade process of the J-10 from the J-10A to the J-10B, and then to the final three-and-a-half-generation J-10C, the legal "Rafale" is also gradually developed from the earliest F1 and F2 types to the final three-and-a-half F3 types. Even the three stages of development of these two fighters are near the three nodes of 2005, 2010 and 2015, and it can be said that except for the "Rafale" equipped with two medium thrust engines and the J-10 equipped with a large thrust engine, the development rhythm of the two is almost the same.
The Rafale features a medium thrust twin-engine design
In addition, the "Rafale" inherited the French Dassault Company's Mirage and Mirage-2000 fighters, the already pure triangular wing design, in order to improve the "Rafale" hypersonic performance, in the front fuselage set up canard wings. The J-10 launched by AVIC also applies the delta wing inherited from the J-7 series and is also equipped with canary wings. However, the canard wing design of the "Rafale" emphasizes hypersonic hovering more to enhance the ability to attack the ground and the sea and improve multi-purpose performance, so its canard wing coupling is relatively close. The original intention of the J-10 canard wing is more to improve air combat performance, so the canard wing coupling is relatively far away (only farther than the "Gust", in fact, it belongs to the category of mid-range canard wing coupling), but from the appearance point of view, both are the basic layout of canard wing plus triangle wing.
The J-10C is not much different from the CP type
Such a similar aerodynamic shape, development history and design concept, even the number of purchases between India and Pakistan, and the future combat missions, are so highly consistent that it is extremely rare in the world. So, what will be the result of the confrontation between the two over South Asia? For this problem, we can roughly analyze it from the perspective of airframe layout, avionics equipment, and airborne weapons, which have the greatest impact on air combat.
First look at the airframe layout. From the late 1980s when the J-10 was originally designed to the late 1990s, when it first flew, the Continental Air Force was always under great pressure from air defense and needed a high-altitude high-speed fighter with similar positioning but better performance to intercept opponent fighters and bombers. In this case, the original J-10A front fuselage is relatively narrow, and the maneuvering performance is improved by mid-range canard wing coupling, so that the J-10A has a high-altitude flight performance of mach up to Mach 2.2 and can complete the task of intercepting supersonic bombers.
The J-10 adopts a delta wing design, which highlights the high-altitude interception performance early
When the J-10B and J-10C were subsequently developed, the heavy responsibility of air force air defense interception had been undertaken by the more powerful J-11 and J-20, and the J-10 began to undertake more of the tasks of attacking the ground and the sea. And after entering the 21st century, advanced fighters use medium-range air-to-air missiles with longer ranges, and long-range air interception missions have become the norm. Therefore, when the design unit developed the J-10B and J-10C, the front fuselage was modified and replaced by a more adaptable DSI intake tract, and the maximum flight speed also fell to Mach 1.8, but the operational performance in the hypersonic and transonic stages was significantly improved, and the ability to attack the ground and sea was significantly enhanced.
Starting with the J-10B, multi-purpose capabilities have been strengthened
In contrast, Rafale, because of its export-oriented orientation, has been very determined to take the multi-purpose path from the beginning. However, due to the technical risk of developing a multi-role fighter in one step, the original "Rafale" F1 and F2 models only have limited ground and sea attack capabilities, and only on the final F3 type, the comprehensive multi-role capability reaches a very high level. This innate design in order to ensure its multi-purpose performance at the same time, but also brought a considerable adverse impact on its air combat performance, compared with the original design of the J-10, which emphasizes the ability to fight against the air, the "Rafale" in the air combat strength is ultimately some innate deficiencies. Therefore, it is widely believed that the "Rafale" F3 lost one point in this round of comparison.
France is developing a more advanced Rafale F4
Second, look at avionics equipment. It is generally believed that the performance of avionics equipment produced by the French aviation industry is relatively advanced. In the early years, when India cooperated with Russia to develop the Su-30MKI, India refused the poor performance of Russian-made avionics equipment, and instead purchased legal avionics equipment at a high price. Even after Russia finally localized the Su-30MKI and became a self-use version of the Su-30SM, it still used legal avionics equipment in the early days, and only switched to the use of domestic models after the decline in relations between the two countries in 2014.
The Su-30SM still carried French avionics in its early days
In contrast, the level of domestic avionics equipment in the early years was poor, and the J-7M and derivative models exported in the 1980s have always been equipped with avionics equipment from the United Kingdom. However, due to the huge demand for microelectronics technology in the domestic civilian market, the microelectronics technology in the military field has been strongly supported and fed back by the civilian market, and after entering the 21st century, military electronic technology has rapidly upgraded to the world's top level. At present, the advanced avionics equipment used by the J-20 has reached the level of the fourth generation of STEALTH fighters in the United States, and the outside world generally believes that it is beyond the US F-22 and can be compared with the F-35. The avionics equipment carried by the J-10C largely refers to the design of the J-20 (there is a view that the avionics carried by the J-10C are actually playing a role in verifying the J-20). Although the avionics performance of the J-10CP exported to the outside world may be slightly adjusted, the advanced architecture derived from the J-20 is still slightly better than the Rafale F3.
The avionics performance of the J-20 is excellent
More importantly, most of the three-and-a-half generation fighters have generally carried active phased array radar, and their effective working distance, anti-jamming performance and sensitivity are directly related to the number of transmitting and receiving modules inside the radar. In the initial design, the "Rafale" was affected by the power system and fuselage layout, and the nose diameter was relatively narrow. The RBE-2 phased array radar has long been known as the radar with the smallest number of transmit and receive modules in the world. Compared to the J-10CP, which originated from the J-10C, the Rafale F3 lost another city in radar performance.
The sharp nose of the Rafale led to embarrassing radar performance
Look again at the onboard weapons. According to the data displayed by AVIC at the previous air show, the J-10CP, as a branch of the J-10C export J-10CE, air combat weapons should be composed of Thunderbolt-15E medium-range air-to-air missiles and Thunderbolt-10E close-range combat shells. The legal "Rafale" F3 is equipped with the "Meteor" medium range bomb jointly developed by Europe and the French special "Mika" close-range fighting bullet. At present, the outside world generally believes that the performance of the Thunderbolt-10 and the legal "Mika" is roughly comparable, and there is not much gap. The Meteor and the Thunderbolt-15 are the world's most advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles alongside the American AIM-120D.
The Rafale F3 is equipped with a Meteor and an electronic pod
Among them, the "Meteor" has excellent total punch data due to the use of ramjet engines, but due to the working characteristics of ramjet engines, it takes at least 80 kilometers to show the advantages of total ramjet height. Due to the application of double-pulse solid engine technology, the domestic Thunderbolt-15 has a very long range, and the effective range of the export-type Thunderbolt-15E can also reach 145 kilometers, which is slightly higher than the range of about 140 kilometers of the "Meteor". At the same time, the dual-pulse design also allows the Thunderbolt-15 to have greater maneuverability at mid-range distances of 30 km to 60 km with the help of a second ignition. From this point of view, the comprehensive performance of the Thunderbolt-15 and the "Meteor" is very close, but each has its own advantages and disadvantages, how it performs in actual combat, but also depends on the quality of the pilot and the level of situational awareness, in this regard, the two are basically tied.
The Thunderbolt-15's dual-pulse solid engine technology is excellent
In general, the J-10CP has certain advantages in basic air combat performance and radar avionics, while the two sides are equal in medium-range and close-range air combat capabilities. Therefore, theoretically speaking, as long as the Pakistani side can truly grasp the performance of the J-10CP and effectively apply it, it is completely able to occupy a certain advantage in air combat.
Of course, the Rafale F3, as an excellent model painstakingly created by the French aviation industry, is not comprehensively weaker than the J-10CP. Its initial determination of the multi-purpose combat concept, coupled with the rich design base of the French aviation industry, makes the "Rafale" F3 has as many as 11 external points, and the distance between these plug-in points is reasonable, and the internal information interface is complete. Among them, there are 4 heavy hanging points that can carry heavy weapons of 1 ton or more, and as many as 8 hanging points (including 4 re-hanging points) that can carry the "Meteor" air-to-air missiles. In contrast, the J-10CP is relatively inferior at this point, especially the lack of heavy hanging points, which seriously limits the J-10CP's ability to carry out ground and sea attacks.
The "Rafale" plug-in layout is very reasonable
However, the Pakistani side is not without any preparation for this, and has been equipped with more than 150 various types of "Dragon Fighter" fighters, especially the early "Dragon" Block1 and Block2 types, to some extent, it is suitable for performing ground support and maritime combat tasks, and has formed a more reasonable combination with the J-10CP to make up for the shortcomings of the J-10CP as much as possible.
In addition, the "Rafale" equipped by the French Navy and Air Force has also participated in the wars in Libya and Iraq before, and has accumulated certain practical combat experience, which is incomparable to the J-10C, which rarely crosses the country at present. In fact, it is precisely because the legal "Rafale" F3 has good air combat performance, excellent multi-purpose capabilities and relatively reliable combat experience, so it has been favored by many countries. After all, for most countries, it is still necessary to consider the performance of the imported fighter from many aspects, although the "Rafale" F3 is at a disadvantage in the face of the J-10CP in the air, but this is a special situation after the shortcomings of the slightly weak air combat performance in the special environment of the two countries in South Asia have been magnified.
The Rafale F3 is slightly less effective in air combat
Of course, in addition to the combat performance of the fighter itself, the J-10CP has a more attractive but easy factor for the outside world to ignore, that is, the unit price of the J-10CP ordered by Pakistan should only be about 40 million to 45 million US dollars. India bought 36 Rafale F3s, costing a total of $8.8 billion, with an average unit price of more than $240 million, more than five times that of the J-10CP. This strong price gap, compared to the performance of the two fighters, can be described as a world of difference, I am afraid that this is the most essential difference between the J-10CP and the "Rafale" F3.
The Dragon will be used in conjunction with the J-10CP
The reason for the "Rafale" hot sale, J-10CP is now only a user in Pakistan, in addition to international geopolitics and other factors, as well as the French aviation industry in the global export base of a larger, the time and intensity of the two export promotion is also very different. "Rafale" has been marketed by the French aviation industry since 2006, and in addition to the J-10B in the J-10 series, which had plans to export to Pakistan, the J-10C was actually not displayed under the name of FC-20 until 2016, and in view of the urgent needs of the Chinese Air Force at that time, it actually did not invest much resources for export propaganda. Finally, after the domestic demand pressure eased, the J-10CE was given the name of export, which was already a matter of 2019. The time of the two external sales promotion is 16 years and 3 years, respectively, which is obviously an important factor affecting the sales effect.
Quantity and price are also important factors in comprehensive evaluation
The outside world generally believes that after solving the problem of the engine, the J-10CE has been fully localized, and with its excellent cost-effective advantage, it can make a big difference in the international market. After all, the Rafale F3 was also marketed for nearly 10 years before it received the first order from the Egyptian Air Force in 2015, and orders have gradually poured in since then. The J-10C, which has grown up, with its excellent performance and cost-effectiveness advantage, the future performance in the international market is completely worth looking forward to.