Today we pay attention to the news that the recent hot discussion on the Internet about the chinese fourth-and-a-half-generation fighter J-10CE settled in Pakistan and personally greeted by the Pakistani prime minister. Recently, the photo of the first Pakistan Air Force painted J-10C fighter was unveiled on the Internet, causing widespread concern. The Pakistan Air Force became the first overseas user of the J-10E fighter jet. So what is the performance of China's J-10C, and what is the significance of the Pakistan Air Force equipped with the J-10CE?
The J-10C fighter is a fourth-and-a-half-generation fighter domestically produced by the mainland and is one of the main fighters of the Chinese Air Force. Together with the J-20 and J-16, it is proudly known as the Chinese Air Force Air Three Musketeers by netizens. Regarding the performance characteristics of this fighter, I think it is still very prominent, and there are mainly the following three aspects of the characteristics that deserve our attention. The first is that the basic performance has been greatly improved. Under the premise of inheriting the air combat performance of the J-10A, the J-10C has improved its ground-to-sea strike capability. Relying on the domestic turbofan 10B engine, the combat load is increased and more ammunition can be carried. The J-10C fighter is equipped with a new type of active phased array radar, a new forward-looking infrared system, an airborne electronic countermeasure system and a perfect airborne self-defense system, etc., and has greatly improved its detection ability, battlefield perception ability, survivability and multi-purpose ability compared with the predecessor J-10B.
The second is that the multi-purpose performance is more obvious. According to public information, in terms of airborne weapons, in addition to mounting Thunderbolt-10E and Thunderbolt-15 air-to-air missiles, the J-10C can also carry advanced weapons such as KD-88 air-to-ground missiles and Eagle Strike-91 missiles. Third, the reality performance is very good. According to the public report of the People's Liberation Army Daily, the J-10C performed very well in last year's PLA real-combat training exercises. Don't look at the J-10C is just a single-engine light fighter, but its air combat performance is indeed superior, in the 2021 Chinese Air Force annual flight skills competition "Golden Helmet", the J-10C piloted by a certain unit of the Air Force has repeatedly won heavy fighters such as the J-16 and Su-35 in the simulation confrontation competition. I once summed up a poem to describe the excellent air combat performance of the J-10C, carrying the wind and lightning through the clouds and arrows, and fighting the sword when the air guards peace. I would like to share it with you here, hoping that you can better feel the excellent combat performance of China's domestically produced J-10C fighter.
For the Pakistan Air Force, the arrival of the J-10C can be described as epoch-making, specifically in the following three aspects. First of all, catch up with the development trend of the world's air force.
Pakistan Air Force has always been very famous, because in the previous India-Pakistan war, the pakistan air force's record is very brilliant, which is mainly due to the superb flying skills of pakistani air force pilots, coupled with the performance of its aircraft has been able to keep up with the development trend of the world air force. However, in recent years, the Pakistan Air Force has begun to decline, although the training level of Pakistani pilots is still very high, but its equipped aircraft are obviously not up to the development trend of the world air force.
Pakistan's best aircraft is still the mainstream fighter F16 of the Eighties and nineties of the United States, which is a fourth-generation aircraft, and the Dragon jointly developed and produced by China is at most a third-generation and a half-generation fighter or a quasi-fourth-generation aircraft, while the fighters of the major military powers in the world today are mainly fifth-generation or fourth-generation and-a-half fighters. In this case, the arrival of the J-10C ended Pakistan's history of no four and a half generations of fighters, so that the Pakistani Air Force kept up with the trend of the development of the world's air force. Second, fill the gap with the Indian Air Force's equipment level. The history of the Pakistan Air Force has been able to defeat the Indian Air Force many times on two advantages, one is the quality advantage of the pilot, and the other is the performance advantage of the fighter.
Before the arrival of the J-10C, Pakistan had at least no performance advantage in equipment. India's four-and-a-half-generation French Rafale fighter, coupled with the Indian Air Force's import of 300 Su-30MKIs from Russia at the beginning of this century, has given the Indian Air Force an advantage over the Pakistan Air Force. Now with the arrival of China's J-10C, Pakistan at least in terms of fighter performance has not lost to India, and compared to the French Rafale, the J-10C active phased array radar detection distance is farther, the accuracy is better, and it can even effectively suppress the opponent in actual combat. If the scale of equipment goes up, then the Pakistan Air Force can also be as proud of the Indian Air Force as before. Third, promote the overall combat effectiveness of the Pakistan Air Force. Due to the strong comprehensive combat performance of the J-10C, pakistan can form a high-low air combat system with the dragon fighter that has been equipped with a large number of Chinese-produced fourth-and-a-half-generation fighters, thus forming a 1+1〉2 combat effectiveness. This may be difficult for the Indian Air Force, which is equipped with a variety of fighters from many countries.